64th Street: A Detective Story (Arcade) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
439A playthrough of Jaleco's 1991 arcade beat 'em up game, 64th Street: A Detective Story.
Played as Rick on the machine's default difficulty setting.
64th Street: A Detective Story is a perfect example of what makes a Jaleco game a Jaleco game. It deconstructs a commercial hit and rebuilds it with a couple twists and a new face-lift, and voila. A profitable and well liked game appears!
In the case of 64th Street, that commercial hit would've been Capcom's 1989 brawler Final Fight (https://youtu.be/p8gYGfL_p2o ). It's clear that the developers at CP Brain paid very close attention and took good notes - I daresay that they succeeded brilliantly. They produced a familiar feeling game with a few unique new additions that distinguish its gameplay from that of its inspiration.
64th Street: A Detective Story takes place in 1939 America and features Rick (basically Haggar but wearing orange pants and a purple shirt with a florescent yellow tie) and Allen (Cody dressed as a grown-up chimney sweep-turned-thug in his snazzy magenta vest, muscle shirt, and denim wristbands), a pair of private dicks that have been hired to rescue a kidnapped woman. The plot doesn't really make much sense, but it works well enough to get the action started.
The action feels smooth, responsive, and the difficulty level has been nicely balanced. Rick and Allen both get the standard array of punches, jump kicks, grapples, special attacks, throws, and three-hit combos. They also get a power move that can be used at any time without draining your life gauge (hit forward+punch), and they can throw their enemies into the background (hit up during throw) to destroy the scenery and uncover bonus items.
The ability to throw the enemies into the background is the major draw here. You'll find all sorts of points items, weapons, 1-ups, and food, not to mention cats. I have no idea why a cat would fly out of a shop window or a destroyed electrical panel on a ship, but maybe some things are better left a mystery. You can also throw enemies into a river from the dock or from a moving rail car, and both prove to be effective and efficient ways to take out the trash.
The game's period theme is a neat way to define the look of the levels, and I loved how random and unsuited the enemies tend to be to the setting. In addition to the throngs of run-of-the-mill thugs clad in 80s fashions, you'll fight robots, martial artists, and pro wrestlers. It's all perfectly nuts.
The graphics are good, too. They lack the detail and animation of Final Fight, but they are *very* colorful and look a fair bit better than you'd see in console game of its time. The sound isn't so hot, though. The music is annoying, and the scream that your character lets out when he throws an enemy or does a power move is as grating as it is ridiculous - did they sample it straight from one of Toho's old kaiju films? It sounds a lot like the screeching bird sound in Fei Long's stage in Super Street Fighter II.
64th Street never received a home port back in the 90s, but fans might be interested to know that this game laid the foundation for Jaleco's Rushing Best series, the first of which was released in the United States as Rival Turf! (https://youtu.be/OhnFlpdsx_U ) in 1992. This arcade ancestor has, however, been released on modern platforms by Hamster, making it easier to play than ever.
If you're a fan of beat 'em ups, it's easily worth its asking price to experience such an obscure-yet-solid game from the genre's golden era.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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