Manga is the source of some truly great tales, brought to life through the beloved medium made with shredded trees. These, in turn, are brought to life in the animated form via lazy books – a.k.a. film and TV, and often pretty good renditions. Video games, not so much. City Hunter is a great manga, decent anime, and has a fairly good film you can watch, too. The Netflix one, not Jackie Chan’s attempt. But what if you want to be Ryo Saeba? Aside from cheap Miami Vice knock-off suits, you can be the womanising detective in City Hunter on the PS5.
Phew! That was a lengthy intro, but I’m tired, and that’s all you’re getting. Let’s move it along. If you don’t know who City Hunter is, he’s a Japanese P.I. who is an expert marksman, martial artist – you name it. His flaw? Women. He’s an absolute pervert and motivated by T&A. He’ll get the job done, but will often be sidetracked by 80s pin-up girls. Doesn’t matter who they are – as long as they have a heartbeat, he’s into them. Bear in mind that this IP was made in the 80s and is Japanese. If you’re offended by history, invent a time machine.
As for the game, it’s a little bit of a mash-up. Originally released in 1990 by Sunsoft, boasting a handful of colours, City Hunter looks and feels like an NES game, or an old-school arcade title like Kung-Fu Master. I’d take that reference a bit further and say it’s a lot like Navy Seals on the Game Boy, or a reference nobody but the developers will get: Persian Gulf Inferno on the Amiga. If those comparisons are confusing, the gameplay might be as well. Well, not the gameplay, but the direction.
Ryo doesn’t have much of a lead, other than he’s up against an evil corporation with unlimited henchmen. There are a handful of levels with different looking scenery, but it’s mostly the same process or running up and down stairs trying out doors to look for NPCs to bombard you with cascading textboxes, then you heading back out (most likely into an enemy that’s respawned), and retrace your steps as to where you have to go next as there’s no map, unlike the rather excellent Cathedral: Crow’s Curse. Call-back. It’s very much trial and error and a fair amount of patience.
The normal mode is reasonable enough, as the titular City Hunter can shoot enemies in the face or testicles. It’s easy to shoot: look in their direction and tap away. However, when scrolling back and forth and enemies rush from both sides, Ryo will often stumble, and merely turning left or right can be a bit problematic as you end up taking damage. Again, the normal mode is reasonable, and there’s a fair amount of health on offer; however, enemies respawn each time you re-enter a room, and as identified, they spawn immediately outside a door, making it impossible to avoid. Marinate all these points into one, and that health gauge rapidly drops when you’re lost.
As a City Hunter fan, I didn’t hesitate to cover this as I’d never played the original, and as an older gamer, not likely to get bent out of shape with a call-back to retro gaming. Unfortunately, I was never a fan of these types of 8-bit experiences in the NES, and I would either get frustrated or bored. With this iteration, it was both, and though I didn’t hate it, didn’t particularly enjoy it either. This is a shame as the opening intro and sharp title screen looked the business – you can even play tracks from the game, which is pretty decent. That’s it in terms of extras, unless you like to look at 3D box art.
Though City Hunter is a relatively short game, the added difficulty stages and extra achievements for hunting babes in little attire offer some replay value, and it is pretty unforgiving. If that’s a motivator for you. For everyone else? Maybe more for the die-hard fans, or those who like those old-school NES games. From my perspective as a fan of City Hunter, I think I’d rather watch the Jackie Chan version again and don my cheap Miami Vice knock-off suit and gawp at the hottie who works across the street.
