Crime Game Won’t Leave You Breathless

Warren Beatty’s profile didn’t do much for the movie and it does even less for Disney’s “crime-solving adventure” game “Dick Tracy.” Like the movie, the game looks good but could use heavy doses of writing and directing.

A game for children of an uncertain age, the players get to be the inimitable Dick Tracy. Tracy’s mission: Stamp out the thugs and put a stop to all criminal activity in the city. The cast is all present and accounted for. Familiar mugs populate the city: “Big Boy,” “Flattop,” “Lips Manlis” and others. Not to mention the good--Tess--and the not so good: Breathless Mahoney.

Striking out from headquarters, Tracy careens around the city in his police car. Although the station managed to provide the street address of the crime in progress, they don’t provide a compass or map of the city. Making your way through the city streets can be hard on pedestrians and fellow drivers alike.

Although the game is presented as an adventure game, it often deteriorates into a bad copy of an arcade game. When Tracy chases bad guys in the sewer, he has to maneuver up and down a maze of ladders and avoid falling into sewer slime and the local population of rats.

Based on Disney’s reputation with their other children’s games, this juvenile adventure game should be much better. The set, the characters and the sound are there, but the story and the play fall short.

Dick Tracy

Rating: *

IBM and compatibles, Tandy; 640K RAM req.; EGA, VGA or Tandy graphics req; joystick, Disney Sound Source optional. List Price: $39.95.

Computer games are rated on a five-star system, from one star for poor to five for excellent.