Vice: Project Doom (NES) Playthrough
273A playthough of American Sammy's 1991 action game for the NES, Vice: Project Doom.
Vice: Project Doom was a game that was clearly expected to make a splash. It was a highly publicized action game that received solid praise from most reviewers, and even landed the cover of the May '91 issue of Nintendo Power.
Unfortunately, the release date slipped a few times, and by the time the game finally landed on store shelves in November, most people had already forgotten about it. The NES had seen an incredible line-up of releases in the interim, and the 1991 holiday season was focused on the launch of the SNES. (The same exact thing also happened to Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.)
The gameplay of Vice: Project Doom, like that of The Mafat Conspiracy ( • The Mafat Conspiracy (NES) Playthrough ), The Adventures of Bayou Billy ( • The Adventures of Bayou Billy (NES) P... ), and The Lone Ranger ( • The Lone Ranger (NES) Playthrough - N... ), spans multiple genres.
The game begins with a driving sequence. Before you even see the title screen, you jump into the role of Hart as he chases a bad guy down the freeway in a sequence reminiscent of Spy Hunter ( • Spy Hunter (NES) Playthrough ). Firing at other cars, smashing through obstacles, and wiping out your target in a large explosion is a pretty exciting way to begin a story, and Vice's presentation does an excellent job of keeping the momentum going beyond the first five minutes.
Through a series of sliding background images, talking heads, and dramatic music, the game introduces us to the story's key players in a way that instantly reminds of Tecmo's pioneering cutscene work in games like Ninja Gaiden ( • Ninja Gaiden (NES) Playthrough ). Before long, we're dropped into the game's first platforming action sequence. Running along the scaffolding of a not-yet-finished highrise, Hart has to wipe out the droves of bad guys on his way to the next story cutscene, and just like the introduction, this stage was designed for impact. There aren't many NES devs out there that ever managed to create such a memorable and dramatic backdrop as the city skyline in stage 2-1. Multiple layers of parallax scrolling and the animated reflections in the water give the scene a lot of depth, and it looks extraordinary given the system's color limitations. The rest of the game looks excellent, too, but the first few areas are real standouts.
In the platforming scenes, the mechanics feel a bit like Ninja Gaiden - your laser whip behaves like a bendy sword, and you have short and long range sub-weapons available - but the movement of your character feels fluid, similar to Natsume's slick style from games like Shatterhand or Shadow of the Ninja.
There are also a couple of shooting gallery stages tucked away for variety's sake. These play like Operation Wolf ( • Operation Wolf (NES) Playthrough ) but without support for the Zapper. You line a crosshair up with a bad guy (or a bit of the environment that you want to smash) and fire - simple stuff, but these sequences are extremely short and do a nice job of amping up the excitement just that little bit more.
Vice: Project Doom might initially seem like a mere pastiche of ideas culled from the NES's best titles, but that would be an unfair, blasé way of judging it. Rather than feeling like a tired rehash of played out ideas, the quality of Aicom's work here manages to make it fresh and different. Special, even.
The story, though lacking the gravitas of the plots in NG1 and NG2, is still engaging. It deals with more "adult" subject matter than most NES games dealt with, and the multiple gameplay styles are effectively tied together by the story and the consistent art direction.
One thing is for certain: Vice: Project Doom's commercial failure was a product of its unfortunate release circumstances, not a reflection of its quality. It's a bit daring, plenty ambitious, thoroughly impressive in its execution. Damned fun, too!
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