Techno Cop (Genesis) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
232A playthrough of RazorSoft's 1990 run-and-gun shooter for the Sega Genesis, Techno Cop.
As one of the earliest third-party games for the Genesis, Techno Cop sure knew how to make an impression. It's a port of a computer game from 1988, and it's also the first game on the system to feature a "mature content" warning, though it's only in the form of a small line of print on the back that reads, "Not recommended for children under 12." Why does that number not strike me as entirely appropriate, at least by 1990 standards?
The game places you in the role of a cop with a dubiously reliable moral compass. He also seems to be dressed like Michael Jackson in the Thriller video. The game play is split into two different modes: first, you are given the location of a crime in progress, and you have to get there in the time given, shooting at people and blowing up dump trucks along the way. Sometimes with nuclear bombs, complete with fiery mushroom cloud and all. If you made it to the scene without being killed, you then go search the maze-like building for the perpetrator, and per your orders, either arrest or kill him/her. Once you succeed, you return to the car and repeat the cycle ten more times.
So it sounds somewhat typical of any 90s game with guns, right? Well, the big draw here is exactly what prompted the game makers to put that warning on the box. If you enjoy gratuitous violence for the sake of gratuitous violence, congratulations. You just found you new favorite Sega game.
The buildings are loaded with bikers, drug addicts, prostitutes chillin' on badly soiled couches. You know, the typical. Most of them will shoot, throw sharp, or run at you with axes at first sight, but of course you have the means to retaliate. You have a net-shooting gun if you want to apprehend the murderous criminal, or you pull out your pistol, unload a couple of rounds and watch them blow apart into vivid chunks of gore that quiver and twitch a bit before finally settling into a pulpy mass.
But it gets even better. There are "innocents" roaming the halls and sidewalks, and if they happen to get in the way of your fire... well, you get a score penalty and that's it. Since the score is meaningless, you can slaughter them all if you like. And since Techno Cop seems to be hellbent on being as "mature" as possible, the only innocents nearby are an old lady and a small boy. They dont meet their ends any less violently than the criminals do, and there's some hilariously horrifying about shooting a kid in the face after he ran up and kicked you in the leg. I'm surprised Sega didnt censor this to some extent when it was released. You certainly wouldn't see a major publisher putting their name on stuff like this in this day and age. I love it for how utterly excessive it is - it's an absurd novelty.
It's so much of a novelty that it doesnt even matter that the game is absolutely awful. The shock value actual compensates for the lack of decent controls and gameplay! Well, it does for a little while at least. It's not often that I recommend a game like that, but I think that this case definitely deserves an exception.
Why didn't they just rebrand it as a Death Wish or Dirty Harry game? Or even Mad Max? It has similar gameplay style to Outlander on the SNES already.
Someone requested this quite a long time back. I don't remember who, but if it was you, here you go!
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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