The Classic Arcade and Console Era (1972-1989) - Crack Down
A two-player stealthy overhead shooter where each player has an independent window to the action.
RELEASE DATE: 1989
DEVELOPER / PUBLISHER: Sega
BEST VERSIONS: Arcade
PLAYABILITY TODAY: Fairly playable
Crack Down is something of an enigma to me, because it’s a game that was developed and published by Sega and which was widely ported to the Sega Genesis and many PC platforms, but up until I began my research for this book, I’d never heard of it. What’s more, it’s a game no one else really seemed to pay much attention to either. The game’s main draw – simultaneous co-op play where the characters each have their own window into the action on a large map – is present in all of the versions I could find, but I can certainly understand why people didn’t warm to it after trying the Sega Genesis port, because the console version is visually unimpressive, sounds awful, and is relatively short. The various PC ports, in the meantime, are janky and slow. As is so often the case, the arcade original is superior in every way, and it’s a game that’s definitely worth a look if you’ve missed out on it. But be warned – this game is at its best with a friend.
The premise of Crack Down is that you play as a duo of commandos named Ben and Andy who’re trying to stop the evil Mr. X (or Mr. K in some versions) from unleashing his biological mutants and cyborgs on the world. There’s a strange twist at the end of the game that hints that Mr. X was even trying to clone Satan himself, so you can take it as a guarantee that this guy is pretty evil. Ben and Andy have to infiltrate Mr. X’s Atlantis base and strategically blow up portions of it one section at a time. They do this by sneaking around the long horizontal maps and planting bombs at designated sites. Since both Andy and Ben are capable of pressing themselves up against walls, they are able to move down corridors, sneaking up on bad guys from behind and dodging enemy fire when they’re cornered. Sometimes, situations become unwinnable as enemies pin one solider down, and that means it’s up to the other player to sneak in and clear things out.
The screen is split into three windows – a map and HUD along the top third of the screen and two square windows that portray the portions of the battlefield Ben and Andy can see. Both can fire a little past the edge of where they can see, so it’s possible to use the map or the other player’s view to snipe enemies from afar, and that creates some pretty neat opportunities to work together. Unfortunately, ammo is limited and Ben and Andy both die in one shot. Fortunately, the arcade version has unlimited continues, and that’s another good reason to play it – the ports have limited numbers of continues, and this is a game where death happens pretty frequently until you take the time to get good at it.
I feel like Crack Down was designed to be a slow-paced game where you take your time to sneak around enemies and drawn them into compromising positions, but since it’s an arcade game, it’s more natural to just run around and shoot everything in sight. It’s almost like the game sighs and says, “all right, just give me all your quarters and I won’t tell anyone,” because so long as you’re willing to pay for continues, the run and gun strategy will get you through most of the game. Once you reach the later levels, however, there are places where the game will set you back a bit and force you to play the way it wants you to. Unfortunately, these are also areas where you’re trying to deal with hazards that kill you instantly and which would benefit from just letting you revive and use your temporary invincibility to blitz through. Had I not had saved states to help me get past a couple of electricity-themed puzzles, I probably would have ragequit after losing all my lives to finnicky timing.
Crack Down also suffers from some imprecise controls that make it easy to accidentally pin yourself up against a wall when you don’t mean to or to shoot in the wrong direction. Enemies will often stop just short of where you’d like them to stand and take a shot at you from slightly above or below center. Crack Down also has the unfortunate habit of spawning enemies right around you as a nasty surprise, and if you don’t react correctly, you’ll find yourself quickly getting gunned down. If this were purely a single-player game, that would be a big problem, but since the game’s built for two players to work together, you can cover each other and make it through most situations unscathed.
The good news is that the enemies in Crack Down are very dumb and predictable, often walking into each others’ bullets and taking care of each other for you. Most will only shoot up, down, left or right and they never move diagonally. This allows you to create strategic situations where you drawn enemies towards their comrades’ suppression fire and wipe out some of the extra forces wandering around. The maps are also roughly symmetrical in many places, allowing you and your fellow player to work in tandem clearing out sections at the same pace so you can meet in the middle and make a dash for the exit once the bombs are set.
But some of the enemies are really obnoxious. The worst is the Hi-Thrower, a flamethrower trooper who has impressive range and who seems to be a bit more aware of his surroundings than other soldiers. The mutant Mandrills are also irksome because they leap around in diagonal lines in rapid little hops. Every now and then, you’ll also see a chainsaw-wielding maniac called a Wallcutter who can saw you through walls that would otherwise be safe barriers.
While Crack Down is pretty straightforward, there are a few spots where it isn’t always obvious what to do, and that’s never a good thing when there’s a timer ticking down. One of the worst cases happens about seven levels in where you reach a giant pit you can’t cross. If you just start shooting everything in sight, you’ll discover that two purple walls are actually billboards for “Prayboy” magazine that you can knock over to form a bridge. Fortunately, these situations don’t happen often, and the level design in general is nicely varied and even includes a few cool locales, like a junkyard full of Lamborghinis where enemies will pop out of the gull-wing doors or a military installation where pop-up missiles can be directed at enemies who chase you.
While Crack Down was ported to the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and many PC platforms including the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Amiga, Atari ST and DOS PC, most of the modern commercial versions (including the Steam and Wii Virtual Console releases) are just emulated versions of the Genesis ROM. The Genesis port is very faithful to the arcade game and moves fluidly, but the characters are tiny, the music replicates the arcade game’s excellent soundtrack through a MIDI synthesizer and the digital sound effects are laughably bad in places. It’s a shame that the arcade ROM is not commercially available in any form, because it’s the one to play.
Since your chances of finding a working Crack Down arcade machine are pretty slim, you’ll have to fire this one up in your favorite arcade emulator. Just remember to load in a roll of virtual quarters beforehand – you’re going to need them.
As Our Series Continues…
It’s time to move on to console and arcade gaming in the 1970s and 80s, and we’re going to cover it all with an exploration into hundreds more games you’ve probably never played but definitely ought to check out. Come for amazingly great early 1980s games like Warlords, Super Locomotive, Shark! Shark!, Acrobatic Dog-Fight, Mysterious Stones: Dr. John’s Adventure and Intrepid and stick around for mid-to-late 1980s greats like Peter Pack-Rat, Penguin-kun Wars, Momoko 120%, UFO Robot Dangar, Wonder Momo, Raimais, Last Alert, The Legend of Valkyrie and the arcade version of Twin Eagle: Revenge Joe’s Brother, complete with a rockin’ soundtrack with wonderfully inscrutable lyrics.
If you’ve never heard of any of those games, you’re in for a treat as we explore them one by one. And If those games are all old hat to you, don’t worry; they’re just the tip of the iceberg for what we’ll be discussing!
If you missed my series on the hundreds of 1980s PC games you probably never played, you can find the entire archive at https://greatestgames.substack.com.
Anything I don’t share here will be in my upcoming book, tentatively titled The Greatest Games You (Probably) Never Played Vol. 2. Subscribe to this newsletter so you won’t miss it!
Looks like an interesting game, but wow, that is a lot of stuff to fit in a 20" screen or what have you!