Lethal Enforcers, 1992 Konami (20 From 1992 #4)
4One of the major milestones in rail-shooter history is this 1st person cop shooting game, with digitized graphics (that MORTAL KOMBAT would famously utilize this same year). As a cop your goal is to eradicate all manner of baddies/gangs-- bank robbers, hijackers, drug dealers, etc.-- and also try to prevent brain-dead civilians wandering into the crossfire from getting ventilated. The action usually is fixed-screen but will occasionally pan left/right/up, but may also take place alongside an enemy vehicle or vehicles in motion. Your cop has a limited number of hits they can take from enemy projectiles, indicated by badges in the top-left of the screen, and when they are out, you must spend a continue. To hasten this eventuality you can pump in tons of credits and hit the 1P/2P start button for each to bump your reserve energy counter way up (HIGHLY recommended). Weapon upgrades over your police revolver can be gleaned from shooting objects on the screen, killing enemies, or maybe they're just in broad daylight-- you'll need to shoot their icon to be able to fire a limited amount of their bullets. NOTE: You are back to your service revolver if you take ONE hit while toting your upgrade! Upgrades are Semi-Automatic pistol (strong bullets that may penetrate doors/walls enemies are standing behind), Magnum (see above), Shotgun (wider blast radius), Rifle (rapid fire), Machine Gun (see above), and Grenade Gun for the widest blast range of all. Each of the 5 stages have a boss fight at the end, often involving bazookas or missiles needing to be shot out of the air (there will be other moments in the game where enemies may be throwing knives or grenades that similarly need to be taken out before they can hurt you). Dialogue in this game, for me, is a big draw-- enemies will often shout juicy banter like "Die, copper!" or "You missed me, copper!", or civilians may wail "He's crazy!" or "Don't shoot!", which always gets a chuckle out of me. Civilian casualties will often lead to a rank demotion (though I don't know of it really makes any difference in your game otherwise). Reaching certain scores can restore some life, but feeding many credits into the game is the best way. SNES, Genesis and Sega CD ports. Sequel: Lethal Enforcers II: Gun Fighters (and a 3rd game in 2004/2005).