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Sega's Die Hard Arcade is a port of the smash arcade hit inspired by the blockbuster movie from Twentieth Century Fox. In Die Hard Arcade you take the role of the oft in danger N.Y. detective John McClane or his sexy partner, Kris Thompsen. Evil terrorists have taken over the Nakatomi Building, where John's wife works, and have taken the president of the Nakatomi corporation's only daughter, Missie Harrington. Your job is to free the president's daughter from the insane terrorists led by the evil White Fang. While this may seem like an impossible task, you need not worry, as both John and Kris have over 1,000 different moves in their arsenal and can use over fifteen different weapons in their fight.

Graphically, Die Hard Arcade is a direct port of the Titan based arcade game, but that should be expected considering the arcade hardware is essentially the same as the Saturn. So if you have seen the arcade game, you already know what it will look like on your Sega Saturn. The polygon characters are a bit blocky, but their movements are very smooth and fluid as the game moves at 60 fps.

The backgrounds are also made up of beautifully texture-mapped polygons and are fully 3-D and interactive. You'll find yourself dueling it out in various environments ranging from office suites to roof tops and bathrooms. In each of these environments you'll find various objects that can be used to your favor such as guns, furniture, gasoline and robot parts. The different environments also contain objects that you must stay away from such as the spinning fans in the first level or spraying water in one of the latter levels.

Just as the graphics are arcade perfect, so is the sound. This doesn't really mean much as the music is nothing that will capture you and bring you into the game. But, with that said, the music does fit the mood of the game and in no way does anything to take away from the game itself. The sound effects are pretty average, too, as you get your basic punch and kick noises, mixed in with some grunts, gun shots, explosions and voice from some of the enemies. Again, nothing that really stands out, but nothing that takes anything away from the game.

Mixing the graphics of Virtua Fighter and the game play of Final Fight, Die Hard Arcade is what we should expect from the next generation of linear beat-um-ups. The game starts off with a nice movie-like cut-scene of you arriving at the Nakatomi Corporation's building via a SWAT helicopter. This is where the action begins for you, or you and a partner. The basic game play is very reminiscent of titles such as Streets of Rage and Final Fight, in that it is linear, allows you to use various weapons and objects, and has a multitude of combos to learn and unleash on the enemy. The enemies you encounter just don't stand there and take their beating, either, as each of the enemy characters have a number of attacks that they can use and many of them bring their own weapons or pick up the weapons and objects that you don't get first.

The moves and combos in Die Hard Arcade may seem familiar if you've ever played Sega's Virtua Fighter series. Basic attacks consist of various "punch, punch, punch, kick" type attacks, turning attacks, spinning attacks, jumping attacks, dashing attacks and throws. Some of these attacks are listed in the manual, but many more are undocumented and even more exciting to use. While you do have a large number of moves in your arsenal, do let this fool you into thinking that Die Hard Arcade is a deep fighting game. You can easily beat the game if you learn a few basic moves and since there is no two-player versus mode, there may not be any incentive to learn any more than that.

This brings up one of the Die Hard Arcade's only weaknesses, its length and replay value. When you add the fact that you only need to master a few basic moves to the fact that the game contains only five levels, you have yourself one short and easy game. This game can be beaten within a few hours and for experienced gamers, the first time you play it you should be able to make it through the game with ease. And for those with less game playing experience, Sega has thrown in a way to get extra continues thus making it pretty easy for anyone to beat Die Hard Arcade their first play through.

For those gamers that don't enjoy playing a game after you have beaten it once, Die Hard Arcade won't satisfy you because of the length issue. But, the action is fun and for those that want take the time to actually learn all the various moves and just play the game for the pure excitement of taking on an entire terrorist gang all by yourself, the replay value is endless.

In addition, Sega has thrown in a classic game titled, "Deep Scan". Deep Scan is a very fun and addicting game that involves you dropping depth charges from a boat in an effort to destroy the enemy subs below. The basic goal of this is to earn points and continues for Die Hard Arcade by destroying as many subs as you can. Deep Scan is really a double edged sword, on one hand the game is very fun and addicting, but on the other hand, it is so fun and addicting that you'll earn enough continues to play and beat Die Hard Arcade without the threat of ever running out of continues.

Overall, if you're a fan of side scrolling beat-um-ups such as Final Fight or Streets of Rage, Die Hard Arcade will be a welcome addition to your Saturn game line-up. If you are worried about the game's length, you should probably rent the game, beat it a few times and then decide if this is something that you'll never play again or something that you will play over and over. Either way, you must play Die Hard Arcade, as it is what Saturn gaming is all about. Fun.

RATINGS

Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 7/10
Control: 9/10
Game Play: 9/10
Replay Value: 6/10

OVERALL: 8.5/10