Dynamite Cop (Dreamcast)

If Dynamite Cop were any shorter, it would be a demo. In this very video, we actually finish the game twice. There are only three missions to choose from, each remixing a few locations and enemies, but mainly adjusting the difficulty. Mission 1 is a free ride with endless continues, Mission 2 starts to demand precision, and Mission 3 punishes every mistake. Beneath that simplicity lies one of Sega’s most remarkable internal teams: AM1. These were the same developers behind The House of the Dead, Wave Runner and Crazy Taxi. Their design philosophy was pure kinetic energy, focused less on balance and more on impact. Every explosion, punch and absurd prop feels like it’s there to keep you moving. Dynamite Cop is AM1 at their most unfiltered: loud, quick and joyfully self-aware. Originally an arcade release from 1998, the game was ported to Dreamcast the following year. The plot is pure Saturday-morning nonsense: pirates hijack a luxury cruise ship, and a trio of agents brawl their way through decks, kitchens and cargo holds using anything they can grab — benches, fish, tables and even a giant octopus. The Dreamcast version adds a few extras, most notably Tranquilizer Gun, an early AM1 arcade title from 1980. In it, you play a park ranger armed with a tranquilizer rifle, capturing wild animals before they escape. It’s oddly calm compared to the chaos of Dynamite Cop, but it shows how long AM1 had been experimenting with timing and tension, decades before they were flinging pirates off boats. Critics at the time were divided: too short, too repetitive, too Sega. But Dynamite Cop has aged better than anyone expected. It’s chaotic, ridiculous and an absolute blast in two-player mode. Even twenty-six years later, it’s still worth boarding this doomed cruise ship just to wreck everything in sight.