STARSKY AND HUTCH
© 2003 Gotham Games

Buy it now!

Related Links

0

STARSKY AND HUTCH

I'm a fan of weird game concepts stuff like DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION, SAMBA DE AMIGO and STEEL BATTALLION gets me going just because the play experience is different than sitting there with a controller. I also love co-op gaming, HALO and CONTRA: SHATTERED SOLDIER co-op modes got a lot of playtime over the past year. So what did Gotham Games do? They combined two of my favorite things to make for one of the more enjoyable gaming experiences I've had in a while.

STARSKY AND HUTCH is based off of the ancient television series of the same name (which I've never actually watched, but I assume the feel of the television show is being kept intact pretty well). In the series, the two title characters are on the police force in San Francisco, the gameplay has you driving around the city rounding up cops while shooting all sorts of various targets. With a controller, a nifty lock on feature accomplishes this.

While that's all well and good, the main appeal of the game, at least to me, lies in the two-player mode. Using a steering wheel (we used the Logitch wheel that came out with GRAN TURISMO 3) and a light-gun, one player can drive the car while the other shoots targets scattered throughout the level, as well as the enemy vehicles. It makes for an interesting game of cooperation, especially if your partner has never used a light gun before.

Yes, infamous Girl Gamer, Sarah, helped me out in playing this one, although she insisted on using the light-gun for the game while I had to drive. In the game, you have to collect powerups, blow stuff up, and pull off stunts to gain "ratings points" (a timer of sorts) to keep the game going. Hitting pedestrians, getting shot, or crashing causes you to lose points. If your points reach zero, the game is over.

Essentially, it's a game where you both players have to work together, and if either aspect goes wrong, you're going to suffer the consequences. We had a lot of fun playing it, although the gun calibration seemed to be a bit off (not sure if this is the build, or just the how bad we calibrated it to start with, we assume there won't be any glitches in the final version regarding this issue though).

As far as the look of the game, it was nothing spectacular, although it had its own style. There is still plenty of time to polish it, and I did like the cut-scene style quite a bit. The sound should be another decent point of the game as well.

The biggest hurdle for Gotham to clear is to find people with both a light-gun and a steering wheel, because that's when I believe STARSKY AND HUTCH will be at it's best. Still, it's one of the more interesting concepts to come along in the past year, and I'm always one who likes to award developers with some ingenuity. Hopefully the game will live up to its potential and be a hit this fall when it releases on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.