Virtua Cop

The Virtua Cop series broke a lot of ground in its first arcade appearance. At the time, most gun games featured flat, texture-mapped sprites that would just pop up at random locations; but Sega's title introduced 3D, polygonal enemies. They would realistically maneuver around the screen, striking different poses and coming from different positions. This made them all the more fun to shoot dead. Look out for projectiles, too, as things like knives and grenades can cause damage long after their thrower has bitten the big one.

The levels are faithful to the arcade game, including such exotic locales as Office, Lobby, and Docks. Sure, they don't sound like much, but what they do have is several places for scum to hide out. The camera roams around on its own, while it's your job to take out the garbage. In this version, you can tackle the stages in whatever order you want to, lending a small amount of options to a very linear game.

Like many other gun games, power-ups appear when certain random objects in the landscape are fired upon. The shotgun has a wider range and more attack power than the simple pistol, and health boosts will also be found if you take your precious moments of free time to shoot at anything that looks like it could be broken.

Something you ought not blast, of course, are innocents. These poor souls run around helplessly, inadvertently getting into your crosshairs while trying to escape danger. Should you accidentally cap one of these friendlies, you will lose one of your lives. Consider it the "eye for an eye" brand of justice.

This game is definitely an odd choice to bring to N-Gage, but that's just what Sega and Nokia are doing. The good news is Virtua Cop looks faithful to its arcade roots. Both enemies and levels are rich 3D -- obviously blocky by today's console standards, but bright and vivid on the game deck's tiny screen. It also doesn't require the use of the many numbered buttons the N-Gage has -- unlike titles like Tomb Raider or Red Faction. You pretty much just have to hit one button to shoot, and another to reload. It couldn't be simpler than that.

The anomaly has to do with targeting. The fun of gun games is quickly pointing your pistol-shaped peripheral where you want to fire, for accurate and fast blasting. This is obviously not possible on N-Gage. Instead, you're relegated to the gun-lacking console alternative of using the d-pad. It seems gameplay may have been tweaked to allow you more time to get a bead on a bad guy before he fires his shot (which never misses, for some reason), but you'll still need to pay close attention to the level to make it through with your tail intact.

When an enemy is about to appear, a reticule shows up in their location. You must move the cursor to that position and fire before the bad guy fires at you. The more narrow or red-hued the reticule is, the closer your butt is to being burnt toast. Unlike the arcade game and most console iterations, once you lose all your lives, it's Game Over.

N-Gage Arena will allow you to post your high scores for all to see. Bluetooth compatibility plays off of the best feature of this game in the past: its multiplayer fun. When going at it with a fellow agent, your perspective is different depending on whom you are. This means you have to keep an eye out for your partner; shoot him, and both your days are likely to be ruined.

We'll have to see a final version of Virtua Cop to see whether or not this formula actually works. It's likely to be a better multiplayer game than it is while going solo. Replayability may also be questionable; though this is one of the most acclaimed arcade gun games of all time, it's still an arcade gun game being done on a console.