Retro Review - Judge Dredd (Snes/Mega Drive)

Many times when a movie became very popular and famous, it was normal that adaptations were made to video games, however most of those video games were lousy, very bad games both in mechanics, graphics, gameplay, as they only made them to take advantage of the popularity of the film and to get some $ more, but from time to time they also made video games that despite not being spectacular, in the end they were really entertaining games and the game I'll talk about today, besides being about a pretty good movie, is a pretty entertaining video game.

Today's Retro Review is about: Judge Dredd.

The story takes several elements from the movie (Logically the movie where Stallone acts, but the version that came out some years later is quite good, by the way). The game is set in the year 2205 in which society has a group of "judges" who are a special police force, they are responsible for both being the ones in charge of enforcing justice, but are also considered as executioners by society. One of the best known judges due to his ability to subdue criminals is Dredd, who is also feared by them. The story of this game begins when a criminal wants to get rid of Dredd and frames him for a crime of murder. Dredd is condemned to be imprisoned in jail and when he was traveling to his prison, the vehicle where he was is ambushed and attacked, in this way Dredd escapes and of course, goes back to the city to clarify things about the murder and kill the person who framed him in the most violent way possible.

Graphically Judge Dredd has surprised me, because despite not being a graphically spectacular and wonderful game, it really looks pretty good, with many elements on screen, but that are repeated a lot. That is, the scenarios are well within the standards of a video game based on a movie, but they are scenarios that are repeated a lot throughout the game, so it can become quite boring, but as a positive point, I can say that they are very well represented, this game, with its limitations, was able to capture in a very decent way, all the darkness and deterioration in this future where crime is very present in society.

The design of Dredd is very well, with a sprite, not so big, but with many details, which make it totally recognizable. The design of enemies are varied, so it is an aspect that has to be appreciated in a game of the Run and Gun genre, as we are in constant attack of many enemies on screen. This game has two versions, one for SNES and one for Mega Drive, of which I consider that the Mega Drive version has a better look, as it presents much darker colors, something that fits very well with what the game represents, quite the opposite with the SNES version, which presents more flashy colors. Nintendo and its eagerness to be Family Friendly since time immemorial.

The sound, well, is the worst section of the whole game, that is, there are very few melodies that fit very well with the whole theme and atmosphere of the game, all that dark and decadent atmosphere, many of them could be considered as "Industrial", but most of them, despite being varied, I feel that they do not fit very well with the game itself, and in terms of quality, they are not very good either.

Judge Dredd OST Playlist

Judge Dredd is a fairly conventional Run and Gun, but with certain elements of platforming, however its gameplay is not as frenetic as other games of the same genre, in fact, its gameplay is much more "calm", so to speak, but in terms of objectives and mechanics, it is as equal as any other Run and Gun. But with the difference that our enemies can be destroyed by shooting them as it would be the classic or also, being our character an agent of justice, we can arrest them, this being a mechanic if we want to make a "pacifist route" and thus we will get better score and money to buy weapons.

The scenarios are a bit labyrinthine, since in addition to having to eliminate/arrest our enemies, we must find the exit of the scenario in question. Sometimes it is complicated by the design of the scenario, but it is not something extremely difficult. Throughout the game and in each scenario in which we are, we will be assigned missions that we must complete to get a better score when we have completed it. We will be assigned two missions, one main and one secondary, being, logically, the main one that we must complete in order to advance to the next stage, while the secondary one only serves to add more score at the end. We will find the typical final bosses of each stage, which can approve us with a level of difficulty very well adjusted.

Judge Dredd surprised me by being a game based on a movie and that in general terms, is quite good, it is entertaining and visually is quite good and although at times can be a bit repetitive is certainly a great game worth playing.