1990 US Gold (UK)
by Arc Developments
The game is really good, but the graphics and background are too small and simple.
Never saw the arcade original but I'm guessing its a lot more appealing (no kidding?!).
The 2 player option is what makes the game stand out from the rest.
Review by YOR on 20 Feb 2019 (Rating: 3)
Another Sega arcade conversion and this is an arcade game that I really liked back in the day so I had high hopes for this one, please can this conversion be good? Please can this be good? And well, it's average at best. The graphics aren't a major problem, yes they are small but that was a problem with the arcade version too, but the colour use in some levels are offputting. Also, one of the things that stood out in Crack Down was you place time bombs on different areas of each level identified by an X on the map, here it's difficult to see where the X's are because they are the same colour as the map. And the difficulty is really cranked up here, the arcade version is pretty tough but this was intense! There is predictably no music during the game, but there is an excellent title tune from the legendary Mark Cooksey, which seems to contain almost all of the arcade game's melodies into one complete tune and it quite possibly one of the longest title tunes in Spectrum history. So Crack Down on the Spectrum is a bit of a disappointment and this I saw this coming to be honest. Not the worst conversion mind you, but if you are familiar with the arcade game like I am it won't take you long to figure out that this port doesn't really do it justice.
