ESWAT: City Under Siege review - Sega Megadrive

A metallic cop wanders around dispensing violent, fatal justice to the lawbreakers. Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't sound like the most original scenario of all time! Despite this, ESWAT still manages to be a rather fun game. With its large number of moves and varied foes, ESWAT resurrects an old idea and attempts to bring it to the 16-bit format; and in that respect, it's successful.

However one can only flog a dead horse for so long. As with shoot 'em ups, the lack of originality beings to show, and can't be ignored; the armour-clad sections are great, and the backgrounds are quite effective (although there have been many better ones on the Megadrive). So I can only recommend this to diehard (ho ho) platform/shoot 'em up fans - for others there might be different games that would be more enjoyable.

After the disappointing Master System version of ESWAT, it's nice to see that the Megadrive game is a whole lot more playable, with classy audio-visuals to match. It's also quite difficult with even the easy level being a great challenge to complete. The super extra weaponry is simply icing on a pretty substantial cake. Although it's nothing much like the coin-op original, I actually think that the Megadrive game is a lot better than the arcade, with better weapons and more addictive gameplay. Highly recommended to all blasting addicts.

This was one of the first games I ever loaded into my Megadrive and it still sticks in my memory as one of the best action platformers for the machine. Although it isn't a conversion of the arcade original (neither was the Master System version, strangely), Megadrive ESWAT still provides a healthy dose of challenge. In fact, I don't recall ever completing it - some of the later levels are incredibly hard.

It's a bit of a slow starter - you don't get the ESWAT armour until you're a few levels in - but once it does get going there's plenty of action. The range of weapons available when in ESWAT mode is amazing. Graphically the sprites are nicely drawn (if a little small) and some of the end of level bosses are quite impressive (considering the age of the title). The music is also of a high standard. One of the best reasons for buying the game is the amazing Japanese boxart - that may seem a little shallow but it really does look quite special!

A modern update of this concept would be very welcome…but then when you consider some of the blanks Sega have been firing lately, maybe it's best that they leave their glorious past alone…