Judge Dredd (SNES Review)

Judge Dredd (1995) is an awful, awful film.  You know what that means, it’s another Acclaim movie franchise tie-in, hoorah!  For those of you who read my Demolition Man review I’ve got a pleasant surprise for you – this one isn’t awful. And I mean that in the nicest way possible.  The game is better than the film (which isn’t hard) but it never rises above the standard of mediocre platformer.

The graphics look good, although again they fall into the SNES trap of looking far too colourful for what should be a moody title.  It feels like the MD version of Robocop vs Terminator although the sprites are smaller.

The presentation around the game makes a decent attempt at putting you into the judge’s ginormous boots, with a computer giving you objectives.  There’s also a handy password system which seems to be all too lacking in difficult games.  Acclaim like giving their customers a challenge and this is no different.

The gameplay suffers from to Nintendo’s weird flirtation with graphic violence.  As Mortal Kombat, RvT and others were censored to their detriment, Judge Dredd has a weird halfway house whereby melee attacks are violent (headbutt included) yet enemies explode into flames.  You can arrest your foe but this is no fun!  Most of the bad guys look like they’ve been copied from the MD version of Terminator – expect to be pelted by Kyle Reese and lots more of him.  A lot of the levels are in broad daylight which also looks wrong.

The action feels alright but the level design is nonsensical.  The judge can drop down to different levels but the points where you can do this look almost identical to the rest of the platform meaning that you can get stuck fairly often.  Again, to be expected with an Acclaim title.  

The sound is acceptable, expect for a weird boooop noise when the judge jumps.  But he’s not meant to jump is he?  He’s meant to stomp around “upholding the law” blitzing criminals as he goes.  But the blitzing is limited and so is this game.