Chicago Syndicate Game Sample - Game Gear
60Some of you folks might remember Sega's more-than-competent fighting game, "Eternal Champions", released back in 1993. It was a fighting game with a greater emphasis on storytelling, character diversity, technicality, and had more depth than your average home console fighter of the 90s. As a hybrid of Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat, it was rather popular and positioned to do great things with a line of multimedia and promotional merchandise (comics, game books, even a "Slurpee" flavor). Some of you might even remember its excellent Sega CD follow-up, "Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side", but did you know that there was not one, but two spin-off games? If you didn't, no one could blame you; by most respects, they were truly horrendous games that never should've seen the light of day in their current states, which is sad when you consider the source material and the solid concepts behind the games. The first of these spin-offs is "Chicago Syndicate", a game starring the former cat burglar, Larcen Tyler, in an alternate reality of 1920s Chicago from his ending in Eternal Champions where he:
(*SPOILER")
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Does not die a horrible death along with a bunch of other people from a bomb and instead gets a chance to get his revenge against the Chicago Mafia that set him up.
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(/*SPOILER*)
The second spin-off, known as "X-Perts", came a year later for the Sega Genesis which starred Shadow Yamato in an alternate reality of her ending. Regardless, Chicago Syndicate WAS ambitious: With different weapons, dozens of moves that can be executed with just three buttons, one in-game year to stop the gangs, a non-linear order to tackle levels, and random happenings throughout the city which affect stats that "can" influence how hard areas are to take over, the game has the right idea. The problem is that it's a total mess in execution with style over substance and quantity over quality.
Yes, Larcen Tyler does have tons of moves at his disposal (many from the fighting game), but 95% of them are useless. Most attacks are executed slowly, delayed, and have horrible recovery, easily allowing enemies to counter attack. To make matters worse, Larcen CAN'T EVEN TURN AROUND when he's in an actual level. Instead he is forced to use mostly ineffective back-attacks (sans one basic one), a backflip where he has only a couple odd invulnerable frames, or a high jump to rig his way around enemies. As if that wasn't enough, the in-game clock moves very quickly and each random thug has more or less the same vitality as Larcen, which is bad when the only way to reach a boss is to kill enough of them to empty the "Thugs" meter. If Larcen hits a thug with the same attack repeatedly, they will become dizzy, where you can hit them with a different attack, reposition, or get a little breathing room.
Regardless, the game is not hard since all the thugs fight the same and you can exploit a few mechanics to win easily since bosses are pathetic (including the "final boss", who succumbs to the same standing attack) and you'll need it so you don't waste months sleeping on the couch to recover health. You get these random calls from the police chief and informant about things happening simultaneously in different areas that are meant to help you plan your route to regain the city, but you can't see this info during a level and time is always moving, so you're better off not wasting it to get some juicy gossip (not to mention the only important stat is the "Thugs" stat, though one adjusts enemy stamina and variety). Just waiting to kill enough thugs is extremely monotonous.
As far as the graphics and sound, the visuals are mediocre: most of the memory went into Larcen's many overdone attack animations which just help him get killed faster (stick to the basics) and enemies are small and lack any notable details. Stages are designed okay and are your simple left-to-right affair, but they're nothing at all to write home about. The music is sometimes agonizing high-pitched beeps and bloops that attempt to capture the essence of Chicago and the Mafioso life, but fails to succeed, though a couple of tunes are bearable (though repetitive). As a whole, there are far better action games on Game Gear, though it's a little upsetting that this game is so bad given its source. This is a video showing some things in action. Enjoy.
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