Dirty Harry (NES) Playthrough

A playthrough of Mindscape's 1990 license-based action game for the NES, Dirty Harry. Dirty Harry for the NES came out a year-and-a-half after the theatrical release of The Dead Pool, the fifth and final film in the classic Clint Eastwood series that started way back in the early 70s. To this day, it still stands as the franchise's sole official video game tie-in. Like Gray Matter's previous NES game (https://youtu.be/CyL50xQreoQ), Dirty Harry is decidedly not a family-friendly game. As Harry Callahan, you run around San Francisco, being surly and unloading your hand cannon into throngs of gangbangers. You break into people's apartments to kick their end tables, steal their drugs, and step on their snakes. You jump on hookers for extra lives and pimps for new clothes. You off criminals with a harpoon gun and a rocket launcher, and there's even a scene where you electrocute a guy who's playing with toys in the sewer. It's gleefully dumb, violent, and schlocky, and that's why I like it. That, and the bitcrushed recording of Callahan's most iconic line. I find Dirty Harry entertaining, but that's in spite of the gameplay, not because of it. Everything feels lopsided and off. The first stage, which makes up 3/4 of the game, is a huge maze that doesn't offer any feedback on whether or not you're making progress, and if you explore every building thoroughly, you'll eventually find yourself trapped in a room where someone has scrawled "Ha Ha Ha" on the wall. If you see that screen, your only option is to hit the reset button. Once you get past the first stage, the rest of the game plays out as a linear platformer that's packed with pitfalls and enemies positioned to knock you into them. The controls are irritatingly rigid and become unresponsive at the worst times, but you're given so many extra lives that the enemies rarely pose a legitimate threat. If you manage to find your way through the maze, you'll finish the game pretty easily. The sheer novelty of having something so brazenly adult on the NES was enough to hold my interest until the end, but I think most people will absolutely hate it. _____ No cheats were used during the recording of this video. NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!