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The situation is critical. The evil Doctor K has created an army of deranged replicants in order to take over the world, and only two men can stop him - Andy Attacker and Ben Breaker (where do they get these names? - Jaz), the top soldiers of the CIA's special Crackdown force.

Each is armed with a machine gun, several super bombs, a set of explosives and their wits, and the two super-soldiers must negotiate their way through a series of multidirectionally scrolling levels of progressively more numerous and nasty enemy forces, playing explosives at certain points marked with a large red "X". Once all the charges are set, they must exit the level before the bombs go off.

If Ben and Andy finally make it through to Doctor K's lair, the good doc has a final surprise for them - a giant, planet-eating goat-headed demon, ready to be unleashed upon the world...

At present this is only available from Megadrive software importers and is not officially available from Sega in the United Kingdom. This means that the game will work fine on Megadrives that have been imported from Japan, but will not work on official UK Megadrives unless you have a Japanese games adaptor (available from mail order import companies) or your machine has been modified (which we do not recommend you do as this invalidates your warranty).

Ben and Andy may be almost clone-like in their appearance, but each has their own particular strengths and weaknesses. Both are skilled in the use of firearms, but Ben is better equipped to deal with explosives, whereas Andy is the stronger of the two in hand-to-hand combat.

Strategy is the name of the game if you're playing alone - getting to all of the markers in time is a tricky situation which needs a lot of forethought if you're going to get through unscathed.

Two-player mode is a different ball game altogether - this literally halves the amount of work each player has to do, and not only means that the level can be cleared that much quicker, but you get more bonus points at the end!

The Sega coin-op from which this is converted is a very interesting piece of arcade hardware - not featuring the sprite expansion system of previous Sega 3D coin-ops, but the rather flash System 24, with an improved colour palette, a better souond system, and a whopping great 26" screen!

Although not exactly an epic coin-op by today's high standards, Crackdown is still an entertaining and highly enjoyable machine and is definitely worth a few plays.

I enjoyed playing this great arcade conversion - it features a tense and exciting atmosphere as you sneak around the levels planting bombs and avoiding baddies.

The graphics are small but perfectly formed, and the sound and presentation are reminiscent of the coin-op original. The only thing that disappointed me was that the game slows down when two players are participating simultaneously - a bit annoying, since this is supposed to be a two-player game!

Still, this doesn't ruin the enjoyment too much, and the game is well speedy with one player, which is the way most gamers will play it anyway.

Crackdown was a fun coin-op to play, and more than reminiscent of the Gauntlet series. The Megadrive version retains almost all of the arcade's playability, but with slightly smaller graphics - hardly surprising, considering the size of the coin-op's screen!

The sound is good, and fits the bill nicely - lots of explosions and the like. If you enjoyed the coin-op, you'll certainly enjoy this, so go forth now and purchase it pronto.

Presentation 80%
A few nice intro screens, with simultaneous two-player options and difficulty levels, but not a whole lot else.

Graphics 88%
Smaller than the coin-op, but colourful, well detailed and animated very well indeed!

Sound 84%
Bangs and explosions abound, with other spot effects and some very good soundtracks.

Playability 90%
Very addictive - once you've picked up the pad, you'll have a hard time putting it down.

Lastability 82%
With loads of levels to overcome, this definitely isn't a game that you'll complete in one sitting.

Overall 84%
An excellent conversion of an entertaining coin-op that deserves a place in your collection.