11-Aug-2005 There's only one thing worse than when white middle-class folks try to act ghetto, and that's when polite, reasonable Asian people do it. So we were initially sceptical about Crime Life, what with it being made by Japanese bigwigs Konami.
But fear not, because Crime Life is actually being made in the UK - the first Konami game ever to be created over here. It's essentially a free-roaming beat 'em up set in the New York-a-like Grand Central City. You control a small-time hood who has to ruck with rival 'themed' gangs to survive. Interestingly, this sounds a bit like Rockstar's forthcoming heavy-hitter, The Warriors. The difference is that everything you do here will impact on the storyline, seeing your character, Tre, lead his gang The Outlawz to righteous victory or getting them all killed in an orgy of gang violence.
Specific gameplay details are still a bit vague, but we're sure that roughneck street brawling lies at the core of things.
We're always up for a resurgence of the scrolling beat 'em up genre - it's big and loud and stupid and fun - and this just might be the one to make it happen. If Crime Life pulls it off, then we'll be laughing all the way to the crack house. But all the cheap cultural stereotyping has to stop. I mean, how would the Japanese like it if Western games makers kept making games about ninjas? What's that, they have been for years? Oh. Okay.
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