Under Fire Longplay (Arcade) [QHD]

Game Info
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Developer: Taito
Publisher: Taito
Year of Release: 1993

Game Review & Impressions
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Launching close to two years after Lethal Enforcers, Taito came out with its own answer to Konami's on-rails shooter. In fact, it would have been apt to have simply called this "Lethal Enforcers Too", because that's exactly what it is. Under Fire uses the same digitised graphics, actors and background environments, and while they look laughably poor by today's standards, it was all still pretty cutting-edge back in the early 90s.

As a trigger-happy officer of the law, it's your job to the shoot the perps, protect the innocent, and leave no garbage can or oil drum un-shot, in this grainy and macro-blocked pantomime theatre of ham acting. Bad guys will often throw Molotovs and grenades at you from behind cover, so you'll definitely be quick on the draw to make it through.

Fortunately, the force wasn't skimping when it came to outfitting the team with weaponry - I don't know what weapon the force gave our intrepid hero, but the fact it fires a three-round burst and comes with a magazine containing 24 bullets means collateral damage is a fact of life. You'd probably need a support squad just to keep the gun fed and vacuum away the mountain of spent brass that would be piling up around the shooter's knees. A shotgun is available on secondary fire for when things start to get a bit hectic, and a full-auto SMG really allows you to bring the pain when collected.

This all makes Under Fire pretty entertaining and quite enjoyable, at least until you get to the "Accident - Surprise Attack" section, in which you get rushed by a never-ending stream of goons from every possible angle. This is the game telling you you've had your fun, and you're going to have to pony up some more credits if you want to keep playing. If you were already low on health by this point, I cannot see how you'd get through this without needing to buy a continue.

This annoyance aside, Under Fire is actually a decent shooting gallery game, especially when played in co-op with a friend. I think Taito could have done more to try and differentiate the game from Lethal Enforcers, but at least it's a decent copycat.

Chapters
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00:00 Attract mode
02:26 Stage 1
07:12 Stage 2
12:06 Stage 3
16:48 Stage 4
21:39 Stage 5
23:50 Stage 6
26:43 Ending