PlayStation 2

Starsky & Hutch

So we have great atmosphere, graphics and gameplay, all we need now are some groovy tunes to dance the night away. And Minds Eye has given us exactly what we crave. Aside from the unlockable music, the Starsky and Hutch theme is here! Beat-bopping away over menu screens and core gameplay the 70's thriller is included in its shining glory. Fantastic.

The downtown environments are not spectacular but are perfectly functional and surprisingly large in scale. The control is terrific in two-player mode, and even the single-player experience is serviceable with its unique "auto-aim" mechanism. My friends Scott and Jonathan begged me to rate this game even higher, but I found the missions to get repetitive after a while, and you need to complete them in order. Still, Starsky and Hutch is a very likeable game, and for the low price (I picked it up for $9.99 at Best Buy) you really can't go wrong.

S&H uses the Renderware 3D engine for gameplay, and an unusual animated comic book approach for the storyline scenes, which are wisely played for laughs. The game's fictional Bay City backdrop is nowhere near the size of Vice City's urban sprawl, but it's an interesting place to explore, with a movie set and a roller rink among its most memorable locations. There's also a very subtle effect in which the screen slightly tilts in the direction of a power-slide, adding to the suspension of disbelief. I love little touches like that.

Overall, it is a well polished and fun game - addictive, but not obsessively so. You will enjoy this game, but there is probably not quite enough to win any awards.

This game has one of the most interesting two-player features available: one player plays as Starsky, and the other plays as Hutch. The game isn’t an RPG, where you try and solve mysteries. Instead, the game revolves all around Starsky’s driving skills and Hutch’s shooting so you could consider this a driving game with a twist.

With television in the 1970s rife with cop shows of varying quality, you needed some sort of hook in order to stand out. Starsky & Hutch had one of the best--a 1974 Ford Gran Torino with a memorable red and white paint job. Though the show didn't rely as heavily on its trademark car as, say, The Dukes of Hazzard, it was still a fundamental part of the show. Now Gotham Games has released a driving-and-shooting game that evokes the general style of the show. The gameplay isn't terribly deep, and the story mode isn't very long, but the game is still mildly enjoyable. What Starsky & Hutch does best is pay homage to the wonderful clichés of 1970s cop shows.

Although persistence is rewarded with a host of unlockable cars, weapons, interviews and the like, it's doubtful whether you'll have the desire to get drawn into the experience as obsessively as the developer requires you to. Make no mistake, this is no GTA, nor does it attempt to be, but like that other fun but shallow driving game, Crazy Taxi, it's one that you'll get fun out of for a while, get stuck, and probably never bother to return to. At full price you'd struggle to justify parting with the cash, so it's got 'one to rent' written all over it, and ultimately there are about 10 driving games you'd be better off buying instead.

Starsky & Hutch is broken up into three seasons of "episodes." In reality, this game doesn’t deserve to be on the air as long as Cop Rock was. My favorite level was when I chased a car around for 10 minutes, trying to destroy it. Wait, that was my least favorite level. Wait, that’s EVERY level! At least the scripted scenes were mildly amusing. People with light guns and steering wheels may have a toenail’s width more fun than those just using a controller, but that’s still not saying much. Gotham and Empire were going for a retro revival, but what they ended up with was something that’s just old. And stinky.

Alala, une grosse déception tout de même que ce Starsky & Hutch. Lassant, possédant un gameplay relativement pauvre, ce jeu pourra vous amuser le temps d'un après-midi (c'est ce qu'il vous faudra pour terminer le mode Histoire) mais une fois bouclé vous n'êtes pas près d'y revenir.

Digging once again into America's pop culture, this time TV culture, the brethren game label of Rockstar Games, Gotham Games, has unearthed one of the most popular '70s cop shows, Starsky and Hutch in videogame form. If you have even the measliest of imaginations, Starsky and Hutch easily lends itself to the medium. It's got all the ingredients: really, heavy American muscle cars, a buddy cop team, one blond, one brunette, and a filthy underworld of urban drug dealers and corrupt people trying to get ahead in the harsh, darkened post '60s landscape.

Starsky & Hutch supports both steering wheel and lightgun peripherals; hook them both up and the game becomes cooperative; one player will drive while the other will take aim at the TV. You can also use the regular controller for either action, but good luck moving the aiming cursor if you're the gunman. At any rate, it's good seeing a developer take a risk and hopefully we'll see this kind of thing in other games.