Bronx Street Cop (ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC)

The reviews on this site are the text versions of the videos on my YouTube channel. The text based reviews use (if at all) very little pictures. Please follow the link to the corresponding video in order to see in game graphics.

Bronx Street Cop was made by Supersonic Software Ltd in 1989 for the ZX Spectrum. Later that year the game was ported to the Amstrad CPC.

The game consists of 5 levels, of which two are shooting training sessions. The first level is a shooting range. The second level is bank heist. The third level is a train station. The fourth level is a combat training range. The last level plays in the streets at a hostage situation.

In all levels civilians or targets thereof appear. Shooting a civilian target will decrease the score. Shooting actual civilians the first time per level will just injure them. At the second time per level they get killed and the game ends. Similarly the player may take one hit per level. The second hit injures the player and thus ends the game. Before the non training portions text screens are shown which put some story into the game.

The game has just very few animation and just very basic sounds. The CPC version has different music, more realistic colors and features blood. Personally I find the game very appealing for its fast paced action and great design. I enjoyed playing it and can recommend it to any light gun enthusiast. I think the game is rather difficult. Considering the short length of the game this might be a good thing though. The player will face the last level within a short amount of time. However, I feel actually beating this last level is very challenging.

In the book "Sinclair ZX Spectrum, a visual compendium" there is an interview with Chris Graham, who did the artwork for Bronx Street Cop and many other light gun games, such as F-16 Fighting Falcon, Jungle Warfare and Super Car Trans Am. In this interview Chris tells how he started doing ZX Spectrum art just as a hobby. A friend convinced him to send some artwork to Codemasters, who were advertising for graphical artists at that time. As an answer Chris received a box of games and an invitation letter to Codemasters. When working as a graphics artist he mostly enjoyed creating loading screens, as he found in game graphics sometimes frustrating to work on as for their technical limitations. Chris regularly stayed at Codemasters over night in order to play games there and then slept in the office. After being injured in a heavy traffic accident Chris decided to stop being a graphics artist and got another job.

I like the cover a lot! It is well drawn and matches the mood of the game.