Dead Connection (Arcade) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
238A playthrough of Taito's 1992 shoot 'em up arcade game, Dead Connection.
Played through on the default difficulty level.
Rather than the lazily thrown together game that Ocean bestowed on us in the early 1990s, Dead Connection was the The Untouchables game that we should have had all along. It might not have a license, but doesn't the plotline sound eerily familiar? And doesn't my character bear a striking resemblance to Kevin Costner?
The game also features Vito Corleone as the ultimate bad guy, and though it does seem a bit strange to have your Prohibiton-era anti-heroes fighting The Godfather in 1950s America (?!), I have to admit that I found it really cool. The storyline doesn't really matter much in these types of games, anyway, but Dead Connection certainly makes an effort on that front. There are cutscenes between every stage that move the action along, and between the excellent art, the dramatic events, the corny voice acting, and the ludicrous English translation, these scenes make for some unexpectedly engaging intermissions. And that ending is quite a doozy!
But no matter how well done the window-dressing is, the gameplay is where it really counts, and Dead Connection brings it in spades.
The game is a sprite-based isometric shooter that, at least on the surface, resembles titles like Smash TV and Postal. It's not a dual-stick shooter, but you have a number of moves at your disposal that will soon have you mopping up the bad guys with ease. You can fire in all eight major directions (the game will autoaim between those directions if needed to hit an enemy - a very nice touch!), and there are several different guns that you'll find during gameplay that amp up the firepower and provide you a means for different strategies. If enemies get too close, you can beat them down with your gun, and if you get caught in a hail of bullets, you can drop to the floor or dive out of the way to avoid getting clipped. My favorite moves, though, involve specific objects in each environment. If some bad guys are chasing you up a staircase, you might choose to kick the statue on the landing over - if your lucky, it might crush somebody as it rolls down the stairs. Or maybe a mob is getting too close for comfort in the factory. Why not shoot the switch on the wall to drop a crate of explosives on the horde? There are a ton of cool little touches like this throughout.
The action is smooth and fast, but what really pulls the game together and makes it such a joy to play is the stage design. Each stage consists of just a single screen, but they are *packed* with detail. The environments are completely destructable, and the amount of detail on display here is absolutely staggering for a game from 1992. Bannisters splinter, candles fall over and set tables alight, curtails get shredded and fall apart - pretty much anything that you see can be thoroughly destroyed.
The stages all feature a good use of space as well, largely thanks to how none of your battles take place on flat planes. Whether you are fighting on a balcony, a pile of tires, or a raised catwalk, you have to be careful to account for the height difference between you and your targets. If someone is on a walkway above you and you're pinned against the wall, you can't just fire back at them. You'll need enough clearance from the wall to be able to pop that sucker, just like you would in real life.
The graphics are, in a word, gorgeous. I can't recall too many examples of games from this era that feature this level of detail - the only ones that I can think of that come anywhere near close are Shadowrun on the SNES and Veil of Darkness on the PC, but this one trumps both of those quite easily. The sound also features this same attention - there are plenty of distinct noises that result from destroying a room, screams echo regularly, and the music is appropriately energetic and/or sinister to suit the mood.
For me, the most memorable parts of the game have to be when you enter a new location - whether they're holding up badges as they open fire in a crowd or driving through the wall of a restaurant, these guys know how to make an entrance.
It's clear that the staff working on this one poured a whole lot of effort and love into this project. It's easy to appreciate the amount of skill on display here, and though it's not one of their better-known arcade titles, I think it is certainly one of Taito's best.
With Dead Connection around, you might as well just set The Untouchables game on fire. Once you play Taito's imagining of it, you'll never go back.
_
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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