Judge Dredd Longplay (SNES) [QHD]
137Game Info
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Developer: Probe
Publisher: Akklaim
Year of Release: 1995
Game Review & Impressions
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The video game adaptation of the 1995 movie based on 2000 AD comics famous law enforcer of the future is a curious old thing, to say the least. This one passed me by back in the day, probably because the film on which its based isn't particularly great, but having seen the game in action, I was quietly impressed by the graphics, so I wondered how successful Probe had been in adapting the source material to game form.
What's so strange is that all the promotional material, including box art, manual and marketing, is aligned with the Stallone movie, but the characterisation of Dredd in the game -- green gauntlets and boots -- is clearly based on the comic, and the first and third acts of the game are entirely original content, focusing on Dredd's typical day-to-day work as a Street Judge, dispensing justice to perpetrators, cleaning up Mega-City 1. The movie plot is the slightly bland filling in what amounts to a very odd sandwich, almost as if Probe was merely paying lip service to the Hollywood machine by bothering to include it. When you do defeat Rico, Dredd's genetic twin, the game pretty much dismisses the entirety of the movie by telling the player that Dredd can now get back to what he does best, cleaning up the streets, revealing a whole new sub-plot that culminates with a showdown against Judge Death and the other Dark Judges!
Before I get into my issues with the game, I want to take a moment to praise whoever did the pixel art for the main Dredd sprite. All of the animation demonstrates excellent attention to detail, not least the movement of his metallic pauldrons. Quite an achievement when you consider the machine's limited resolution.
I wish I could be so complimentary about the game design, but that's not the case. While I commend the the decision to include levels and content beyond the scope of the movie, the gameplay is extremely repetitive, and the sewers and penal colony levels get recycled in an effort to pad out the game. There's also a really irritating mechanic where enemies enter a brief state of invulnerability after taking damage, which makes the different firing modes of Dredd's gun feel weak and ineffectual.
I don't think Judge Dredd isn't the worst movie conversion by any means, but the various issues, coupled with what feels like a slightly undercooked game design, mean it's not particularly entertaining either. The overbearing difficulty penalises players to such a degree that the game rarely feels fun, which is really the main purpose of a video game.
Chapters
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0:00:00 Attract mode
0:02:27 Stage 1
0:05:13 Stage 2
0:08:05 Stage 3
0:13:52 Stage 4
0:19:21 Stage 5
0:23:16 Stage 6
0:28:20 Stage 7
0:32:56 Stage 8
0:36:00 Stage 9
0:39:37 Stage 10
0:43:05 Stage 11
0:47:26 Stage 12
0:49:52 Stage 13
0:55:18 Stage 14
0:59:27 Stage 15
1:02:31 Stage 16
1:07:54 Stage 17
1:11:08 Stage 18
1:15:03 Stage 19
1:18:49 Stage 20
1:22:38 Stage 21
1:27:40 Stage 22
1:33:43 Stage 23
1:36:55 Stage 24
1:39:40 Stage 25
1:44:10 Stage 26
1:46:28 Ending