Note: This review was written at the time of release for this game; therefore my writing style and references may be a bit off.

A mad man has taken the president's daughter hostage, and has entrenched himself in an office building full of his best henchmen; what's the government to do? Call upon the dynamite detective of course! That's the situation in Am1's Dynamite Detective ( Die Hard Arcade in the states), where you play the role of a detective in a special task force set out to rescue the president's daughter. Your team arrives at the building via a helicopter, where upon landing your fellow task force members are ambushed and shot down. Only you and your partner survive, and remain more determined than ever to avenge your colleagues deaths and rescue the president's daughter, apprehending the mad man in the process. Dynamite Detective was original released on Sega's STV arcade board, basically the same hardware as the Saturn. Until Dynamite Detective, the STV board lacked a bona fide hit, previous games all by Am1 ( Golden Axe : The Duel, Virtua Fighter Remix, Funky Head Boxers, and Decathlete) where either too quirky or unspectacular, but Am1 finally hit the mark with Dynamite Deka. As expected, the Saturn conversion is arcade perfect, but is that enough for extremely selective Saturn owners?

Dynamite Deka is a beat them up in the same vain as the Sega classic Streets of Rage. Your are given the choice to play as either a buffed up male detective ( given the name John McClane in the domestic version) and a feisty and agile Japanese girl, or you can play two player and have both on the screen at the same time. Your character's fight through the office building is in full 3-D graphics. The entire game is made up of texture maps, which has it's drawbacks. The polygons on the characters tend to be extremely jaggy, giving everyone in the game a very square look. On the plus side, your character's movements are smooth and look realistic; they throw a punch like you would expect a real punch to be thrown, the load their gun just like you seen in the movies. Speaking of movies, Dynamite Deka is filled with cut scenes which use the in game graphic engine. This makes the characters look detailed ( especially on the close ups of the mad man) and the fact that it uses the graphics from the game help to keep a streamlined look. The drawback is the incredibly annoying loading times. It's awkward when you have to load the cut scene, then load a few times in the middle of the cut scene, and finally load back out of the cut scene. This is something that throws you of the rhythm of the game and should have been fixed before being released.

While the look of the game could have been improved, the gameplay is where it's at in Dynamite Deka. Unlike your usual beat them up, where you only have a few kicks and punches with a throw or two, Dynamite Deka lets you display a full arsenal of moves. Your character is controlled with one button for punch, kick and jump, but pressing combination of bottoms allow for combos previously restricted to fighting games! Those familiar with Virtua Fighter will have the gist of things. There are different levels of kicks and punches ( low, medium, high) wish can be string together for lethal combos. You are also armed with a variety of throws: a pile driver, arm throw, monkey throw, and even a frankensteiner. An other first for beat them ups is the ability to attack while the enemy is on the ground, so there's never any holding back. For the NRA members of the family, you may wish to attack with the many handguns, rifles, anti tank rifles, and rocket launchers in the game, not to mention the various random weapons, such as a fireman's ax, to a broken bottle, and my favorite the mop. More civilized players may wish to cuff the henchmen by coming from behind and pressing b, this effectively takes them out of the game. How could you possibly need all of these weapons? Well you are fighting some of the toughest henchmen around. From the average punk, to the tougher martial artist, the highly annoying sumo wrestlers, the robots, and the huge and strange level bosses; you'll have your hands full. Of course all of this is being controlled by flawless control. If you get tossed, it wont be because the controller messed up it will be because you messed up. A break from the action will be provided by the cut scenes which further the plot( and have bad loading) and by action sequences which require you to press punch, kick or jump in time. Successfully hitting the button treats you to an instant replay of you knocking out your opponent or dogging bullets. Hitting the wrong button makes you fight your opponent or makes you take a hit. This method of getting from room to room in the game is what troubles me. In previous beat em ups, you usually had the screen scroll through the level and that's how you met the next opponent. In Dynamite Deka you fight room by room, and must completely kill everyone in the game to advance to the next cut scene and room. This for me ruined the rhythm of the game, and it didn't let the game flow properly. In the end this flaw is the essence of the game, Dynamite Deka is an experiment into 3-D beat them ups, and experiments are bound to have flaws.

Beat them ups such as Dynamite Deka hardly hinge on the quality of the music in the game, but you'll be glad to know it's there. The music is dramatic and pumps you up effectively, but it's not something I would put in my CD player. In fact this sort of game lends itself to letting the owner provide his own music, and I would recommend you play this game with your choice of tunes. Those who don't turn up their stereos while playing the game will be treated to great sound effects. The punches are solid, the explosions loud, and everything is pretty much in order. I wish I could say the same for the voice acting, which is awful..

Many fellow reviewers have criticized Dynamite Deka's length, to these people I say, "Have you beaten the game with the original allowance of credits?" I am sure they haven't, because beating the game on the original credits is one tough proposition. Sega knowing that most people don't have the patience to master the subtleties of the game and conquer it as it was originally intended, have included a way to earn extra credits. The old Sega arcade game Deep Scan is included an extremely dated submarine shooter ( you drop bombs at subs on the bottom, while dodging the projectiles they fire at your carrier on the surface) this has no place in Dynamite Deka. Besides the fact it is extremely easy to rack up points and credits, in this incredibly dull game. Sega would of been better of throwing in Streets of Rage, or anything with some semblance of quality.