Crack Down is an Arcade Game developed by Sega and released in 1989. A port to the Japanese Sega Mega Drive followed in 1990, releasing on the North American Sega Genesis in 1991.
In the not-so-distant future, science has progressed to the point where man can create artificial life-forms. An evil scientist by the name of Mr. K uses this technology to create an army of Replicas, living war machines, and with their power takes over the industrial city of Atlantis. After making it his new base of operations and preparing to move on to world domination, word gets out that he's working on an extremely powerful Replica. The troops of the United Nations are not enough to stand up to Mr. K's military as it is, but he has to be stopped before his super-Replica makes all resistance hopeless. However, there are a pair of Special Forces Officers, known as Ben and Andy, who can fix the situation with a more internal approach. Their mission: infiltrate Atlantis and bring it to the ground using a new type of time bomb known as Sigma by planting them in carefully planned locations around the city, dispatch Mr. K, and destroy his super-weapon before it can be completed.
The game is a Run-and-Gun shooter viewed from a top-down perspective. You start each stage on the westernmost point and must cross to the other side, all the while placing time bombs in all of the designated target points, each marked with a big red X. the top half of the screen displays a large map of the stage, with the Xs marked. You can collect two different kinds of ammunition, the weaker machine gun and the more powerful cannon, and switch between them to take on the enemy soldiers that get in your way. To clear each stage, you must plant bombs at each of the target points and escape to the end of the end before the bombs go off.
No relation to the Crackdown series of third-person shooters beginning in 2007.
Crack Down contains examples of:
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The giant, demon-headed Replica under construction in the ending may well have been fifty feet tall if Mr. K had finished it. Ben and Andy instead ruin it with their final few Sigma bombs.
- Co-Op Multiplayer: The game can be played with two players simultaneously, one as Ben and one as Andy. Both players can move independently through each stage thanks to the split-screen setup, and either of them can place the bombs in their designated spots.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: While you only have so many lives before you have to restart from the beginning of the game, losing a single life at any point will result in your character respawning in the same spot they died in with no items lost.
- Friendly Fire: The Replicas are not immune to each other's attacks, nor are they smart enough to get out of each other's way. You even get a point multiplier for tricking one Replica into destroying another.
- Mad Scientist: Mr. K is very explicitly called this, long obsessed with being all-powerful.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Ben and Andy die in one hit from any enemy attacks. So too, however, are most enemies. Mr. K included.
- Smart Bomb: You have a limited number of Super Bombs that you can activate with the press of a button to eliminate all enemies currently on your screen. You can also earn more by collecting grenade power-ups you find lying around.
- Take Cover!: The game is one of the earliest examples of a game featuring a cover system. By moving into a wall, Ben and Andy can stick to them and sidle across them. This can be done to dodge out of the way of enemy bullets.
- Time Bomb: The Sigma bombs are set to explode three minutes after each stage begins. The players must race to place them in the planned spots and leave the stage before they explode.
- Timed Mission: Your bombs are set to detonate exactly three minutes after you start each act. You must plant them all and escape the stage before that happens.
- 20 Minutes into the Future: This 1989 game takes place during "The beginning of the 21st century" according to the manual to the Mega Drive version. The arcade ending, however, puts it as occurring in the year 2088.
- "X" Marks the Spot: The spots in each stage where you must plant your bombs are marked with a big red X on the ground.
