Tequila shots

by ERIK LEIJON

Consider Stranglehold (X360, PC, PS3/Activision, Tiger Hill) a case of art imitating art. Director John Woo and star Chow Yun-Fat have taken their 1992 Hong Kong action film Hard Boiled to the small screen in the form of a highly cinematic, action-stuffed shoot ’em up game with manic gun fights and amazing graphics. Even if Stranglehold contains the tell-tale signs of a Woo picture, the gameplay is heavily influenced by the Max Payne game-noir series.

Stranglehold stars Yun-Fat as Inspector Tequila, a hardened good cop who doesn’t mind spilling the blood of an endless stream of henchmen or reducing public areas to rubble if it means catching the crooks. Like most action films, each action sequence raises the WTF bar slightly higher, to the point where you can’t help but roll your eyes (ie: Live Free or Die Hard), and Stranglehold is no different. If anything, every scene is such a visual feast of destructible environments and flying bodies that one can’t help but feel blasé about escaping yet another room with hundreds of gun-wielding baddies aiming for your head.

The game is played from a third-person, over-the-shoulder perspective. Digital Yun-Fat’s facial expressions are well done, and even as a CG character, he delivers a better performance than the wooden Jackie Chan ever could. The actual levels all commence in similar fashion. Tequila apprehensively walks into a room and the door locks behind him. Then the enemy, perched on the balcony, taunts him before walking away. Right on cue, the entire population of Roxboro comes flying through every door and window with a gun, and Tequila responds by swinging from the chandelier and shooting everyone in Max Payne-style slo-mo (called Tequila Time).

Any action movie would be lame if the protagonist couldn’t interact with his environments, and nearly every inanimate object in the game can be used. It may be clichéd for Tequila to slide across the room on a roll cart, guns ablazin’ while half-wit foes completely miss their target, or that, when outnumbered, our hero shoots the auspiciously placed gas canisters, causing a kick-ass explosion, but no matter. Looking like a secret agent is easy in Stranglehold, even if the moves tend to lose their lustre through repetition.

Perhaps the best part of Stranglehold is enjoying the destruction afterwards. Everything from the walls to the furniture usually take a few bullets, and it’s extremely cool when a ritzy hotel penthouse looks as if a typhoon had just passed through. The destructible environments are the best I’ve ever seen. Another nice touch are the special moves—the best one being an in-game scene when Tequila kills everyone on-screen as Woo’s trademark white doves flutter around him.

In true Hong Kong action movie style, Stranglehold is just a big, mindless orgy of guns and violence. By the end of the game, there was even a counter informing me I had killed over 1400 enemies. Sure, 99 percent of them were via gunshot to the head, but isn’t that what action movies are about anyway? Speaking of which, here’s hoping John Woo decides to tackle the rumoured Max Payne film project.

Step right up

Carnival Games (Wii/Global Star, Cat Daddy) takes the Wii Sports concept of simple games for the whole family and clowns it up considerably. For those saddened by La Ronde closing for the season, this title takes annoying amusement park games like ring toss, dart throwing and fucked-up rim basketball and turns them into slightly less annoying Wii games. This game is definitely tailored towards kids, so if you have some—and they aren’t spooked by clowns—it should provide similar ephemeral joy as Wii Sports.