Video Game / Dynamite Cop

Featuring the Cowboy Cop that Sega swears isn't Bruce Willis.

Dynamite Cop (known as Dynamite Deka in Japan) is a small series of arcade beat 'em ups from Sega. It was born in the context when the 3D technology was quickly becoming the industry's standard. The games were designed and directed by Makoto Uchida, who's previously responsible for Altered Beast (1988) and Golden Axe.

In this game, you assume a role of Bruno Delinger (and his colleagues), who must rescue a daughter of the United States' president held by terrorists.

Dynamite Cop series is pretty well-regarded for an early attempt at 3D beat 'em up (especially when compared to Eidos' mediocre Fighting Force for PS1), but it's also remembered for its over-the-top humor, topped with 80s action flick cheese. Unfortunately, the series became all but forgotten after the second game, although Bruno Delinger eventually showed up in 2013 crossover game Project × Zone.

The series consists of the following games:

• Die Hard Arcade / Dynamite Deka (1996) - Ported to Sega Saturn, PlayStation 2
  • The first game that was released for Saturn-based system ST-V. As Bruno Delinger and Cindy Holiday, you're on a mission to rescue the president's daughter, Caroline Powell, from terrorists led by Wolf "White Fang" Hongo. For the international debut, Sega decided to tie it with then-popular action flim Die Hard, which also happened to be about terrorists seizing a skyscraper. Outside Dub Name Change, nothing else was changed to match it to the film.
• Dynamite Cop / Dynamite Deka 2 (1998) - Ported to Sega Dreamcast
  • The second game developed for the more advanced Sega Model 2 system. Once again, the president's daughter has been kidnapped, this time by a band of modern-day pirates still led by Wolf Hongo. Bruno Delinger, joined by other allies Jean Ivy and Eddie Brown, must fight through levels on board a cruise ship and a deserted island to save her.
• Dynamite Deka EX: Asian Dynamite (2007)
  • Informally a sequel, but in terms of gameplay, it's a remixed version of Deka 2 with a wacky Asian theme and several changes on the gameplay mechanics (for instance, the player characters can transform into different characters with their own fighting styles by picking up items). This time, Bruno is joined by a grown-up Caroline Powell as well as the newcomer Jennifer Genuine in fighting through Asian-themed stages. Only released in Japan and Asia (in Asia, it's only referred to as "Asian Dynamite"), and didn't receive a port to any home system.

Because of Title Confusion between the English versions, the individual games will be referred to by the Japanese names: Deka 1, Deka 2, and EX.

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The Dynamite Cop series contains examples of:

• Action Commands: At various points when entering a new screen you may get a quick time event to deal extra damage at the beginning of a fight.
• Aerosol Flamethrower: The spray can, which merely stuns enemies for some damage, becomes this if you find a lighter.
• Affectionate Parody: Of '80/90s Hollywood action movies. Asian Dynamite throws some Asian action movies from Hong Kong into mix.
• Arm Cannon: In the Final Boss fight of 2 and EX, Wolf Hongo has one of these (A wrist-mounted gun in 2, a cybernetic claw in EX), that fires either machinegun rounds or missiles.
• Artifact Mook: The "Collector" enemy in EX shows up on just about every screen. This is most obvious on the penultimate screen, where every other enemy is wearing a hazmat suit.
• Beating A Dead Player: Enemies will endlessly taunt and mock you during the continue countdown.
• Big Bad: Wolf Hongo is the mastermind behind the terrorists taking control of the skyscraper. He later returns in the sequel leading a group of pirates who take over a cruise ship.
• Bilingual Bonus: The opening sequence of Asian Dynamite starts with news reports from different Asian languages, especially Japanese, Chinese and Korean.
• Clothing Damage: In the first game, the players lose clothes as the game progresses, mirroring John McClane's own loss of attire in Die Hard. In the second game the players instead lose clothes the more they take damage. Averted in the third game.
• Denser and Wackier: The first game is this to Die Hard, and the second and third games are progressively this. It culminates in Asian Dynamite where the player characters can transform, among other things, to a Chinese Vampire.
• "Die Hard" on an X: Well yeah, the first game was inspired by Die Hard and just meant to use Expies of the characters. SEGA managed to get the rights to legit make it a tie-in to Die Hard (despite only barely resembling the film in terms of story i.e a building and terrorists taking it over). The second game is pretty much Die Hard on a Cruise Ship and the third is Die Hard in a Asian District.
• Dolled-Up Installment: Die Hard Arcade, featuring John McClane as a playable chatacter.
• Downloadable Content: The Dreamcast version of Dynamite Cop got one in the form of the Detonator Pack, known as the Elements of Deka Pack in Japanese. This DLC adds Cindy Holiday/Kris Thompson as an alternate costume for Jean Ivy, and also serves to update the existing game to its revised arcade counterpart in Japan, Dynamite Deka 2.1. Has sadly become Permanently Missable Content with the Dreamcast's death, outside of alternative methods.
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole: Die Hard Arcade changes the setting from three skyscrapers conjoined at their base to Nakatomi Plaza, the layout of which doesn't quite match the in-battle scenes, most noticeably at the part where the players fight on and inside a skyway connecting two of the skyscrapers.
• Dub Name Change: In the international version of Deka 1, the protagonists of the first game were named John McClane and Kris Thompsen, the former being the main character of Die Hard. Likewise, the final boss is known as Gruber.
• Elite Mooks: A few varieties in all three games:
  • First game:
    • Martial arts users that attacked much faster than the other enemies and tended to keep their distance and bait the player.
    • Pistol-wielding enemies that would fire from a prone position and would pull out another gun if the player made them lose it (though they'd run out after four).
    • Robots that could fire lasers from a distance and could not be arrested.
  • Second/Third game:
    • Dual Wielding enemies, with either swords or guns. The sword-wielders occasionally teleport or use a combo attack that knocks off a third of your health. The Guns Akimbo variety could make your HP vanish in a flash and tended to fire as they got up from being knocked down. Neither type can be arrested.
    • Hunchbacked enemies that used acrobatic moves and would use a slide-attack when knocked down. Asian Dynamite adds a version that wears a basket from which they will throw projectiles. Can't be arrested.
    • "Ghost" Pirates, exclusive to the second game, that would split into two enemies after being knocked down. Could be combined with the aforementioned Dual Wielding Mooks.
    • The Collector from Asian Dynamite is a Downplayed Example, he wasn't much stronger than the common thugs, but had a projectile attack where he spits at you.
• Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting: Asian Dynamite does this in full-force.
• Evil Chef: The second game has three chef bosses who are fought on different routes: Alexander the French chef on Route 1, Jumbo Matsu the Japanese chef on Route 2, and Master Yang the Chinese chef on Route 3.
• Fighting Your Friend: If the final boss is defeated in multi-player mode, the president's daughter declares she'll give a reward to the stronger player, triggering a fight between the two.
• Fire Hose Cannon: In the underground parking lot area, the terrorists managed to hijack a firetruck and weaponize its hose, blasting water at you regularly. It knocks you down but doesn't damage you (and can stumble the enemies too if they're distracted enough).
• Game-Over Man: In Asian Dynamite, a chef serves you a bowl of Game Over rice.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: One of the bosses in Deka 2 is a wholesale and thoroughly pissed kraken that's beneath the engine room for some inexplicable reason. It is also fought as a cyborg in Route 3 of EX, the ending of which implies it may be an alien. In the other routes of EX, you instead fight a statue possessed by ghosts.
• Improvised Weapon: Deka 1 has pepper, which can incapacitate enemies for a moment. Deka 2 has even stranger collection of weapons, including a freezing tuna and a toilet. The fact that many handheld items can be weaponized is made as the selling point of the second game.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Many mooks, after being knocked down, will feign pleading for mercy only to throw a Groin Attack at the player.
• It's a Wonderful Failure: Get a game over in Deka 2, and your treated to a view of the cruise ship sinking in the background while one of the boxes float by with the word "Game Over" on it. Though in the game proper, this will happen regardless, with the final stage taking place in the pirates' hideout.
• Killed Offscreen: The penultimate boss in the second and third games is a Master of Disguise/Shapeshifter who has pulled a Kill and Replace on the heroes' superior.
• Market-Based Title: The first game was internationally released as a licensed product of Die Hard series.
• Ms. Fanservice: Cindy Holiday, who spends the second half of the first game dressed in a sports bra and shorts. Jean Ivy in the second game, especially when she suffers from Clothing Damage.
• Offscreen Teleportation:
  • In the first game, Wolf Hongo appears in several quick-time events: fleeing from the players before the first robot fight, firing a rocket launcher at the players before the boss fight with Jocko, and firing another rocket at the players before the second robot fight. The cutscenes afterward have him right back in President Powell's office.
  • In Route 1 of Dynamite Cop, a quick-time event has the players dodging the terrorists' speeding ships while swimming, only to have somehow gotten on one of said ships in the following cutscene.
  • In Route 2, a mook appears from nowhere to disarm the President's daughter when she threatens Hongo with an SMG. Later, after the Final Boss fight he teleports from the ocean liner to one of the terrorists' ships (this is repeated in Route 1 of EX).
  • In Route 3, Hongo and De Pedro manage to beat the players to the terrorists' hideout despite the players passing them while riding a helicopter.
• One-Hit Kill: Grappling lesser mooks when you have a handgun equipped allows you to perform an arrest, taking them out of the fight instantly.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: While Mask De Pedro's disguise as the captain is completely perfect, he's revealed as an impostor much earlier on Route 3, yet the heroes still fall for his Wounded Gazelle Gambit later.
• Pepper Sneeze: You can use the pepper shaker in every game to do this.
• The President's Daughter: You have to rescue her in all three games, though in the first game, it was actually the daughter of a company president rather than the US president.
• Press X to Not Die: All games have these between areas; failure means either taking damage or having to fight extra enemies.
• Right Under Their Noses: Caroline in Deka 1 hides right under the desk of the boss' room, and yet the terrorists are too daft to realize it until the players enter the last stage.
• Sequel: The Original Title: An odd inversion. Some arcade cabinets for the second game bear the title Die Hard 2: Dynamite Cop, though the game itself still just used Dynamite Cop.
• Shout-Out: In the Sega Ages 2500 version of the first game, on Easy Mode, there's an item that, if picked up, turns Bruno into Ax Battler and Cindy into Tyris Flare. If either character is transformed, the boss Jocko will be replaced with Death Adder, and the accompanying location and music will also be Golden Axe themed.
• Took a Level in Badass: A grown-up Caroline is one of the playable characters in EX.
• Vocal Dissonance: The reuse of assets from the second game in the third means Jennifer Genuine, a white female, has the voice of Eddie Brown, a black male.
• Weaponized Headgear: Wolf Hongo uses a laser-shooting cybernetic helmet/mask in 2/EX, which he uses liberally alongside his Teleport Spam. Aside from aesthetics it's not much different from his Arm Cannon and even uses the same sound effects, though its "secondary fire" replaces the missile with a charged blast that causes a mushroom cloud if it hits you.
• We Can Rebuild Him: Hongo gets more mechanical in each sequel. The Kraken as well in Asian Dynamite.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In all 3 games, the rest of the hostages besides the president's daughter are never seen being rescued.
• Would Hurt a Child: When cornered in Deka 2, Hongo tries to throw the president's daughter off the top of the ship you're on. On Route 3, he and De Pedro sadistically rough her up prior to taking her to his hideout.