Prohibition
DON’T BRING A JOYSTICK TO A MOUSE FIGHT
How Darran’s love of The Untouchables led to this slick Amstrad blaster
» Amstrad CPC » Infogrames » 1987
I was a huge fan of Brian de Palma’s The Untouchables as a kid. Filled with killer lines and some sensational set-pieces – the steps sequence remains a wonderful piece of cinematography – it made a huge impact on me as a young teenager and I watched it repeatedly once it was available to buy on VHS. Sadly, the actual game didn’t really catch my imagination in the same way, meaning I went to Prohibition for all my Eliot Ness-related thrills.
Infogrames’ game certainly can’t match Ocean’s offering when it comes to sheer variety, but if all you want is hardcore, fast-paced shooting, it’s pretty much unbeatable. All you’re really doing is scanning a street and looking for bad guys. When you see one you plug them with bullets from your Tommy Gun and then look for the next bad guy to take out. And that’s pretty much it. What elevates Prohibition, though, is that you get so little time to hunt down your quarry that you begin to panic as every precious second goes by and you still haven’t locked onto your target.
The extremely stingy time frame will be too tight for some and ruin any enjoyment that comes from playing Prohibition, but if you can live with it you’ll discover that the game offers plenty of tense shooting as you scour the alleyways and gantries looking for rogue gangsters to take out. The distinct stylistic look has its detractors as well, although I think it’s a boon, allowing for some really detailed looking adversaries. Granted, they can sometimes get lost on the backgrounds, but that was also an issue on the other 8-bit versions of the game. For me, having to frantically seek those sneaky hidden gangsters out just adds to the fun.
While I’m on the subject of the other versions, it’s worth noting that I was always jealous of Atari ST owners, as they not only had access to a far better looking version of the game, but also had mouse access, which I’d imagine would have made the game far more easier to play. One day I’ll actually fire up an emulator and find out.