Demolition Man

2026-05-01

"Demolition Man" is a SNES game from 1996, loosely based on the movie of the same title, starring Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes (for some reason, I remembered it was Dennis Rodman; mayhap due to the hair colour, no clue). It's generally a side-scrolling shooter, with two top-down levels. I found it accidentally while browsing the SNES catalogue on my R36S. I played the first level for a bit, and it fell to my liking, so I returned to it this week.

First impressions

Upon my return, I found out that the third option in the menu explains game mechanics, which turned out to be useful. John Spartan can run and shoot or you can stand shooting, an interesting distinction; then, you can throw some grenades. There is some amount of platforming.

The pixel art is beautiful and works really well on a 3.5-inch screen. There is Stallone's likeness in the menu, but later it's gone. It's pretty much in line with how these games were done back then.

Level 1

The first level is set in 1996, and it introduces all the important stuff, including sliding on a zip line and using a rope for bungee jumping (and you can kill yourself if you don't land properly). It's fast paced, and you can die easily, though John Spartan can take considerable amount of damage (looking at ya, "The Chaos Engine!").

Level 2

And speaking of "The Chaos Engine," to my surprise, level 2 turned out to be a top-down shooter. At first, I was not pleased, but when I learned the mechanics (for a change, not explained in menu), it became fun. The key part is in the title: you're Demolition Man, which moniker was earned by destroying everything in the process of enforcing the law. So, you just shoot your way through the level. Luckily, hostages that we have to free are immune to our bullets.

The top-down variant of gameplay has three modes of shooting: you can shoot as you run, stand and direct fire in 8 directions, or, and this is new here, you can lock the direction of shooting and move like that. The last mode is a really good design; and blessing, compared to "The Chaos Engine." Oh, how the game would be more manageable if I could run through levels like that.

And, of course, you can throw grenades, too, though I don't use them that much.

Level 3 is again a platformer.

General remarks

Both first two levels end up with encounter with Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), the antagonist and arch-nemesis of John Spartan. Each time you win, he escapes, like a cartoon villain. I wonder if all the levels will be like that. In the defence of this, though, each encounter plays out a differently: level 1 had running away from exploding barrels, level 2 -- a shooting battle; level 3 I played only once and died, and I don't remember how it was.

To be continued. Maybe. But it's a good game to play for 20 minutes in the evening. RetroArch allows me to save the state, and the game itself has never-ending continues, so when you die, you may try again, and again, until you succeed.

Once again, I cannot stop wondering how people played those games with D-pad alone. While side-scrolling part is fine, in the top-down section, I had to switch to the analog stick. Kudos, people of the past.

The funny thing about the top-down level, compared to "The Chaos Engine," is that at first, I didn't like small characters, but pretty soon, I realised that it gives me more room to manoeuvre and just see incoming mooks. The size brought pleasant memories of "Cannon Fodder," which I am planning to play at some point, too.