Video Game / Lethal Enforcers 1

North American flyer.

Japanese flyer.

Lethal Enforcers is a 1992 Arcade Light Gun Game developed and published by Konami.

The game has six levels (including the training level) where players assume the role of two Chicago Police Department (CPD) officers taking on various enemies, ranging from bank robbers to heavily armed terrorists.

The success of the game led to the development and release of Lethal Enforcers II: Gun Fighters and Lethal Enforcers 3. It also influenced the development of the Police 911 series.

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Lethal Enforcers contains examples of:

• All There in the Manual: The player character is a police officer named Don Marshall and the game is set in Chicago, Illinois.
• Apathetic Citizens: Most citizens are just annoying jumping out of cover to yell at you to not shoot, but a few, notably in Chinatown Assault, seem to be completely unconcerned with the active shooting situation going on around them. Notably one old man in the subway station who is sleeping on a bench throughout the entire scene, only moving to scratch himself or look up annoyed at you.
• Bank Robbery: The first stage of the game requires you to put a stop to this.
• Battle Amongst the Flames: Before the Final Boss battle in the Chemical Plant, an explosion occurs and the area darkens with flames in the background, forcing you to put on your night vision goggles while you shoot at the terrorists and tanks.
• Behind the Black: Every level has its own Mook type that emerge from below the screen right in front of you. Most shoot, though the asian enemies in Stage 2 will stab you instead.
• Blatant Burglar: Per the North American version of the trope, many of the bank robbers wear black clothing and balaclavas.
• Bowdlerise: Stage 4, "The Drug Dealer," becomes "The Gunrunners" in the Super NES port. It also removes all references to Chinatown in "Chinatown Assault," with the title becoming "Downtown Assault" and the "China Inn" renamed to simply "Restaurant." Most oddly, no one flinches from any shot. Enemies will simply blink away in the frame of animation you shot them on; and hostages will be unharmed, but the game will throw a "Caution!" message on the screen and take away a life.
• Car Chase Shoot-Out: The first and fourth levels have the player(s) taking on escaped bank robbers and drug dealers, respectively, in a car chase while firing at enemies periodically sticking themselves out to shoot at the players. Both levels culminate in a boss battle, respectively against a rocket-launcher wielding boss in an armored van and a helicopter whose side-turret spams missiles on the players.
• Dark Action Girl: Plenty of female criminals will try to put a bullet through you. You must shoot them.
• Digitized Sprites: The first Light Gun Game to use them.
• Dynamic Difficulty: When the game begins, enemies will take around three seconds to shoot. The longer you go without losing a life, however, the less time they wait before shooting, until you have to have superhuman reflexes to take them out. Losing a life will reset it back to normal. The game will also become tougher, with extra enemies showing up, if you play with two players.
• Everything Fades: Enemies flinch and blink out of existence when shot. Hostages simply vanish a few seconds after being shot, but not before the game admonishes and punishes you for shooting them.
• Friendly Local Chinatown: The not-so-friendly setting of Stage 2 (Chinatown Assault).
• Gameplay Grading: From "Patrolman" to "Commander." Being a good shot will raise your rank, but shooting innocents will lower it.
• Gas Mask Mooks: The terrorists in the Chemical Plant wear NBC/hazmat equipment, complete with gas masks. The hijackers in the airport also wear gas masks.
• Grenade Launcher:
  • You can pick one up in Stage 3 (Stage 6 in the consoles); it has a wide blast range and (like the below-mentioned Magnum) can shoot enemies through their cover. However, it cannot be reloaded; once you're out of ammo, you revert to your default revolver.
  • The third level boss attacks with a large rotary grenade launcher, though the projectiles act the same as rockets fired from other bosses.
• Guns Akimbo: You can do this with both guns—if you're good enough.
• Hand Cannon: The Magnum, which allows you to shoot enemies through their cover.
• Hostage Spirit-Link: One of the Trope Codifiers; shooting an innocent will cost you one life.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Be on guard for mooks who pop up armed and who do something along the lines of screaming "DON'T SHOOT!".
• More Dakka: The assault rifle (with a three-round burst) and machine gun, which will cause most mooks in the arcade version to flinch from each shot. If you're fast on the trigger, you can replicate this with your revolver and shotgun.
  • The bonus at the end of a level is based on how many hits you've landed, too, meaning that applying this trope is the quickest path to a 1-Up.
• Night-Vision Goggles: You throw these on in Stage 5 (The Chemical Plant) when the power goes out near the end.
• Painfully Slow Projectile:
  • Some mooks will throw grenades that can be shot out of the air. Stage 2, Chinatown Assault, features enemies throwing daggers at you instead.
  • As is custom for many light gun games, in order to let you defend yourself against opponents that aren't taken down with one shot, the bosses all attack with a barrage of projectiles that can be shot out of the air. Most use explosive projectiles like rockets or grenades, while the second level boss throws swords.
• Point of No Continues: No matter if you have lots of coins handy, even the arcade version can limit the number of times you can continue per playtrough! Downplayed in that second players can still join in should things go downhill for you after continuing for the final time in a particular playthrough, so you'd better count on them.
• Red Shirt:
  • During the opening montage for stage 2 ("Chinatown/Downtown Assault"), a police officer is shown being shot to death. This gets censored in the Super Nintendo port, though.
  • It's implied that another police officer is shot and killed during the opening montage for stage 4 ("The Drug Dealer/The Gunrunners").
• Rewarding Vandalism: Given you are in the middle of a ferocious firefight. You can still deliberately shoot surveillance cameras, glass windows, car fenders, etc. and uncover gun power-ups.
• Shooting Gallery: The bonus stage.
• Shout-Out:
  • The game as a whole was inspired by the Dirty Harry franchise, right down to the title screen◊ resembling the opening titles◊ to Magnum Force. The game also features the famous .44 Magnum sound effect from the films for the player's default gun.
  • Near the end of the Drug Dealers level, an enemy resembling a T-800 is fought.
  • Speaking of Terminator, the police car you see exploding in the opening montage for the Chinatown Assault stage? It's Stock Footage taken from the Cyberdyne raid at the end of Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
• Sunglasses at Night: If they're not wearing masks, the enemies are wearing sunglasses, even indoors.
• The Triads and the Tongs: You're fighting them in the second stage.
• Unnecessary Combat Roll: Some enemies will roll out of cover. The knife throwing bad guys in Chinatown Assault tend to really ham it up, cartwheeling out from cover to throw knives at you.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: The Genesis port is very unforgiving of shooting innocent civilians. Hitting a single one will force you to redo the entire stage after you've cleared it, on top of the standard life loss.
• Western Terrorists: The last stage has you fighting against them after they seize control of the chemical plant.
• What the Hell, Player?: The game will call you out if you shoot several innocent bystanders or fellow cops with comments such as "What are you doing?!" and "Concentrate, man!"
• Wraparound Background: Present in Stage 1 and 4's car chases and the subway train battle in Stage 2. The chase in Stage 1 (The Bank Robbery) takes place on a seemingly never-ending block with "a lot of National Rubber Stamp Co.'s," as noted by The Angry Video Game Nerd while reviewing the Sega CD version.