Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The core appeal of Beverly Hills Cop lies in its quartet of distinct mini‐games, each drawing inspiration from popular arcade and home computer titles of the mid-’80s. From the main menu you can jump into any of the four stages, making it easy to practice your favorite segment or hone specific skills before tackling a full playthrough. This structure adds a layer of variety that keeps the experience from feeling too repetitive, even if individual sections can grow stale on their own.

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In the first stage, you guide Axel Foley through a dimly lit warehouse in a side-scrolling shooter reminiscent of Green Beret. You’ll take aim at goons popping out of crates, dodge return fire, and punch through doors to progress deeper into enemy territory. The controls are straightforward: one button to fire, one to jump, and limited crouch or backpedal moves—enough to give the action a satisfying twitch-shooter feel, if not the strategic depth of dedicated run-and-gun classics.

The driving level shifts gears into a Chase HQ style pursuit, where Axel hops into his Corvette and chases down three heavily armed lorries. Your task is to stay glued to their rear bumpers, blasting them until they explode. Steering is floaty by modern standards, and the pseudo-3D road perspective can make judging corners tricky. Still, the adrenaline rush generated by the looming trucks and relentless police sirens gives this segment a genuinely pulse-pounding edge.

Stages three and four take place on the mansion grounds and inside the heiress’s estate. The outdoor section returns to side-view shooting but adds more open spaces, forcing you to manage ammo and take cover behind shrubbery or walls. The final stage attempts a primitive first-person 3D approach, allowing only a handful of fixed movement angles and one enemy on screen at a time. It’s ambitious for its era but can feel clunky, with awkward turning and sudden difficulty spikes when foes pop into view.

Graphics

Beverly Hills Cop’s visuals capture the gritty, neon-tinted aesthetic of ’80s action films, albeit through the technical lens of 8-bit and 16-bit hardware. On the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, color palettes are limited but well-chosen: dark blues and grays dominate indoor scenes, while bright greens and yellows light up the mansion grounds. The Amiga and Atari ST versions benefit from richer hues and smoother animations, but all platforms share a charming pixelated style that invokes the film’s seedy underbelly.

The warehouse stage sports chunky enemy sprites and simple background tiles that scroll at a decent pace. Explosions are conveyed with brief bursts of colored blocks, and Axel’s running animation is surprisingly fluid given the memory constraints. You won’t mistake it for a modern sprite-packed shooter, but the artwork does its job, and the repetitive corridors help build tension.

On the roads, sprite scaling tricks give an illusion of depth, making the pursuing trucks grow larger as you close in. Roadside objects—palm trees, street lamps, and distant hills—scroll by, creating a sense of speed. Occasionally you’ll notice flicker or pop-in as the hardware struggles to handle multiple moving objects, but these hiccups rarely ruin the chase’s momentum.

The mansion’s exterior and interior levels show off the game’s greatest visual ambitions. The outdoor lawns feature simple bitmaps of hedges and marble steps, while indoor corridors are rendered with flat-shaded polygons in the first-person finale. Movement angles are sparse, so turning can feel like ripping the camera around in yawning leaps, but the occasional flash of a guard or door pulse helps sustain the illusion of a living environment.

Story

For players expecting a deep adaptation of the Eddie Murphy blockbuster, Beverly Hills Cop’s narrative is minimal but serviceable. You assume the role of Axel Foley, the wise-cracking Detroit detective sent to investigate a homicide in Beverly Hills. Beyond a short text blurb at the start of each level, there is little in the way of cutscenes or dialogue, so the storyline unfolds mostly in your imagination and in the manual’s brief descriptions.

Each mini‐game represents a different beat from Foley’s investigation: from storming warehouses to chasing suspects down city streets, from breaching a gated mansion to sneaking through hallways. While there’s no in-game voice acting or animated sequences, the level titles and occasional on-screen prompts hark back to memorable set pieces in the film. Fans will recognize the broad strokes, even if the finer plot points are left unspoken.

The game’s episodic design sacrifices narrative cohesion for varied gameplay, which can leave you feeling like you’re hopping between unrelated arcade stages rather than following a single detective story. Nevertheless, the sense of urgency—underscored by time limits in some levels and sudden enemy ambushes—mirrors Foley’s race against the clock to save his friend and expose the drug ring.

For newcomers to the film, the premise remains accessible: “shoot bad guys, save the day.” Those familiar with Axel Foley’s wisecracks may miss Murphy’s trademark humor, but the game’s no-nonsense action channels the film’s kinetic energy. Ultimately, Beverly Hills Cop leans far more on its license for atmosphere than on any deep storytelling ambitions.

Overall Experience

Beverly Hills Cop stands out for its ambitious four‐in‐one format, offering a smorgasbord of arcade-style thrills packed into a single cartridge or disk. The ability to jump straight to your favorite stage gives it replay value beyond a typical linear title, and clocking your best times or high scores can become an engaging challenge for dedicated players. That said, the uneven quality across stages means you’ll likely gravitate toward the warehouse shoot-’em‐up or the truck chase more than the brief, awkward 3D finale.

The learning curve varies dramatically by segment: the driving chase demands precision and memorization of bend patterns, while the warehouse stage rewards quick reactions and aiming accuracy. The mansion grounds and interior levels can feel unforgiving, with limited checkpoints and sudden enemy spawns. Casual gamers or younger players may struggle to overcome these spikes without patience or practice.

Audio design is sparse but effective. Engine revs, gunshots, and explosion samples are grainy yet satisfyingly punchy, and a looping synth track in each level keeps your adrenaline up. There’s no voice sampling of Eddie Murphy quipping “Axel Foley!” but the sound effects reinforce the game’s action-movie roots and help tie it to its cinematic inspiration.

In the context of mid-’80s licensed titles, Beverly Hills Cop manages to exceed expectations by offering multiple gameplay styles rather than a single, repetitive mechanic. While it falls short of classic arcade legends in terms of polish and depth, it remains a curious relic for fans of the film and collectors of retro action games. If you crave variety, enjoy a challenge, and appreciate the nostalgia of pixel-powered ‘80s thrills, Axel Foley’s digital outing is well worth a spin.

Retro Replay Score

6/10