Dick Tracy

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Dick Tracy is a side scrolling action game, where you control Dick Tracy through five different stages, killing gangsters with a variety of weapons. Your mission is to investigate the disappearance of Lips Manlis an underworld boss and owner of The Ritz nightclub. Each stage leads to one of the mob bosses until you ultimately capture the big man himself. You hold no weapons at the beginning and your primary attack is your punch. In the meantime, ammo can be collected for either a pistol or a machine gun. The gameplay has some glitches. For example, jumping across platforms to avoid dead pits is sometimes impossible. Also, when entering a new screen you'll frequently be shot before you even have the chance to react and this gets even worse because the game runs in flip screen mode! Other than its few problems, Dick Tracy is a fine title that offers intensive action. The CPC+ version runs on cartridge only, taking advantage of the Plus' advanced hardware.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The CPC version has detailed and colorful graphics and quite smooth sprite animation but the sprites look a bit blocky. As expected, the CPC+ (cartridge) version is better and has more colors (16 colors at the backgrounds + 15 colors for the sprites!) and better sprites due to its more advanced hardware. But technically, both versions are equally great I believe! The sound is fine on the CPC featuring a cool introductory tune and a few nicely done sound effects during gameplay (no in-game music here) including gunshot and explosion sounds.