
STORY / GAMEPLAY
In the computer version of Lethal Weapon, you play the role of Martin Riggs and need to complete three missions in order to go on to the forth and final mission. In mission one, a gang of international criminals are attempting to smuggle the vast profits from their racketeering activities out of the country, and Riggs must infiltrate their dockside and prevent the money leaving the city. In mission two, suicidal group of fanatical terrorists are planning to hold the city to ransom by planting a huge bomb in the underground system in the city's sewers, so it is Riggs job to stop their plans. The third mission goes to deep in the depths of an old factory, where a police informant is being held by terrorists, and Riggs must gain access and rescue the hostage. Note that, in the Nintendo versions (NES, SNES, Game Boy), the player chooses one of the two Los Angeles police partners, Martin Riggs or Roger Murtaugh and follow a bit different story, while gameplay remains the same.
Your ammo clips get used up to an alarming rate, so keep an eye out for spares - tehy can be hidden almost anywhere on the screen. Of course if you run out of bullets and can't find any more there is always the old kick and punch trick, but a variety of some extra weapons would be more than welcomed, but missing. Most of the levels have moving parts like in the first mission were lifts, or little hungry sharkies swimming on and off the screen waiting to eat you up, or swinging cranes and rolling barrels ready to knock you over and squash you flat. Each level (mission) has its own threats to avoid and obstacles to interact with.
Overall Lethal Weapon is a great little action platform game, though it can get a little boring at some stages.
GRAPHICS / SOUND
The graphics detail and color usage are certainly pretty good offering pretty good design on the backdrops and sprites, but it can't compete whatsoever with Amiga's version in terms of screen scrolling and overall smoothness of the action! The sprites are well animated while the backgrounds are partly animated too, but as said, scrolling is weak here, due to the high detail of the backdrops and the fine animation of the sprites. The game here offers 16 colors on screen (compared to the 32 colors in the Amiga counterpart) and the overall color palette is quite dark (same as with the Amiga though). Both versions do not offer any parallax scrolling, so I would expect at least from the ST to have certainly smoother scrolling here.
Sound effects are again the standard boom type explosive noises (not sampled here), along with the spot effect of your pistol, accompanied by some wonderful tunes, unique for each level.