Lethal Enforcers Longplay (Arcade) [QHD]
696Game Info
---------------------------------------------------
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Year of Release: 1992
Game Review & Impressions
---------------------------------------------------
One of the more "realistic" lightgun shooters to hit the market, Lethal Enforcers eschews traditional pixel artwork for digitised imagery and actors, with levels set in a variety of real-world themed police operations. Players must take down armed gangs in a bonk robbery, defeating terrorists trying to hijack an airplane, and busting drug dealers inside a chemical plant.
Unlike Mad Dog McCree and earlier titles from American Laser Games, Lethal Enforcers uses a traditional ROM-based arcade PCB, rather than streaming footage off a laserdisc. The quality of the imagery and level of animation is significantly paired back, but the machine was much better suited to an arcade environment, unlike the temperamental laserdisc hardware.
Lethal Enforcers is, at its core, a very simple target shooter - simply shoot bad guys as they pop up on screen before they can shoot you, avoid innocent civilians, and grab power-ups when they appear. The game starts out relatively easily, giving you a couple of seconds to shoot bad guys, but the difficulty ramps up quickly from there on out. The third stage in particular is incredibly tough, owning to having to shoot terrorists through the tiny windows of a plane as it's taxiing along the runway. I think this would be a lot more fun on a lower difficulty/in coop with a friend than it is on single player.
During recording this playthrough I noticed certain nuances and behaviours in the game logic that were more than simply random occurrences. For example, the game program might give players a few seconds to reload if their weapon is empty by having enemies duck back into cover before shooting, whereas they'll open fire instantly if the player still has rounds in the chamber. I also noticed the final gunship boss at the end of stage 5 would fire its chaingun if I reloaded before firing all 6 rounds in the chamber, so I think there's more going on under the hood in this game than meets the eye.
One final discrepancy I found intriguing was, again, the final gunship boss. For example, a video on another channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BAkgAMVcUo) showing footage captured from a real PCB shows the pilot opening the canopy BEFORE all gunship armaments have been destroyed, and the player being able to stunlock the pilot, preventing him from returning fire and defeating him with ease. By contrast, in the version I played, the pilot only opened the canopy once the chopper weapons had been wrecked, and it was virtually impossible to interrupt him. I don't know whether this is down to differences in the ROM revisions, or some underlying logic in the actual game, but these differences are very real and fascinating to see in action.
Video Notes
---------------------------------------------------
- Game set to "Arcade" mode
- Game set to default (medium) difficulty
Related Longplays & Videos
---------------------------------------------------
Lethal Enforcers (real PCB Footage): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BAkgAMVcUo
Chapters
---------------------------------------------------
00:00 Attract mode
00:27 Stage 1: Bank Robbery
04:59 Shooting Range
05:31 Stage 2: Chinatown Assault
12:00 Stage 3: The Hijack
18:38 Shooting Range
19:11 Stage 4: The Drug Dealer
27:30 Stage 5: The Chemical Plant
30:59 Final Boss
#lethalenforcers
#retrogaming
#arcadegames