Verdict: Guilty! is a retro arcade-style Fighting Game by Retro Army Limited, set in the crime-ridden streets of Seoul. The player takes on the role of one of eight characters (four police and four criminal), pursuing a variety of goals ranging from cleaning up the police force to drowning the city in a wave of terror - goals that, naturally, are pursued through kicking each other's asses in one-on-one fights. Each plot is somewhat independent of the others, but they are all connected to the slimy Mayor Sang, and defeating him is a major goal for most characters.
The game plays like a simplified version of Street Fighter II with some quirks of its own. Most moves only take a couple of button presses; fireball motions are nowhere to be found. Most characters have guns, which give them projectile attacks but must be reloaded after a certain number of shots. However, the advertised core mechanic of the game is its focus on throws. Every character has a throw that does something special; the cops handcuff their targets and prevent them from attacking for a time, while the criminals use either a dizzying back-of-the-head attack or strap a live sticky-bomb to their enemy when they throw them. In Arcade Mode, getting the high score requires "detaining" with handcuffs or "wasting" your opponent when he's dizzy or has a bomb stuck to him.
This game provides examples of the following tropes:
- Anti-Villain: None of the playable criminals in Story Mode are really evil. Either they're innocent, they've got a good reason for their actions, or at worst, they're being duped by someone who is the real deal.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Mayor Sang is an Ultimate Authority Mayor on the fast track to becoming President, and has an amazing amount of power in his fists and trick briefcase.
- Chain Pain: Gun still has manacles attached to his arms, which he can use to hurt his opponents.
- Clear My Name: Gun breaks out of prison to do this. At the end, after proving his innocence, he goes back to prison - albeit with more perks.
- Corrupt Politician: Sang, Mayor of Seoul, Presidential candidate, and crime boss. He's behind most of the crime in the city.
- Cowboy Cop: Gyeong is a detective who, when taken off a murder case, steals a gun and handcuffs and goes rogue to find out who's responsible.
- Cult: Sung-ki's terrorist cult. Actually, it's a lie being used by Mr. Sang and Sung-ki for their own ends. Yohan is just a dupe.
- Dance Battler: Jae is a breakdancing Yakuza who uses said breakdancing moves in battle.
- Dirty Cop: Sadu, the police trainer and major supplier of weapons to the criminal element, and Mia, though she has a reason: Jae is holding her brother hostage so that she'll do Sang's dirty work.
- Hollywood Acid: Johan's primary weapon is vials of acid that he can splash into his opponent's face.
- Mad Bomber: Yohan's fighting style mixes sticky bombs, mines, and thrown vials of acid.
- Palette Swap: Each of the eight main characters has another character who plays identically but with a different-looking sprite.
- Salaryman: Becoming this is Konu's sole ambition in Arcade Mode.
- Terrorists Without a Cause: Yohan wants to wake the people up with mass bombings and chaos, though really, he mostly is in the cult because he wants somewhere to belong. He's been duped by Sung-ki, his master.
