Name: Kikō Keisatsu Metal Jack
Item: Kikō Keisatsu Metal Jack
Author: Retro Replay

Kikō Keisatsu Metal Jack

Kikō Keisatsu Metal Jack gets moving quickly: choose Red, Silver, or Blue Jack and start punching through a side-scrolling stage. Its best moments come when a vehicle rendezvous upgrades your armor, turning a straightforward brawler into a brief power trip with stronger attacks and a charged screen-clearing strike.

There is not much narrative glue here, and the three characters are differentiated more by combat options than personality. Give it a look if you enjoy compact, anime-based SNES brawlers and want to experiment with the weapon-using Red and Silver or the simpler Blue; come for the action rather than a faithful story campaign.

Platform: SNES

Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The opening choice is the game’s strongest invitation. Red Jack, Silver Jack, and Blue Jack all share the basic brawler toolkit—multi-hit combos and jumping attacks—but Red can use a gun and Silver a baton when you find ammunition. That immediately gives you a reason to sample more than one run instead of treating the cast as a cosmetic selection.

Moment to moment, this is a scrolling, side-view beat ’em up built around moving forward and keeping enemies under control. The combo and jump attack give you more to work with than a single-button slugfest, while the limited-ammo weapons create a small but welcome decision: use the firepower now or save it for a tougher crowd.

The vehicle meetings at the end of levels are the hook that separates Metal Jack from a completely routine brawler. Once the vehicle merges with your armor, your attacks become stronger and you can charge an attack that hits every enemy on screen. That sounds like exactly the kind of escalation a short arcade-style stage needs: survive the ordinary scuffle, then enjoy a temporary chance to wipe the slate clean.

Frustration may set in if you need a deep move list or radically different fighting styles, because the documented differences between the Jacks are modest. Still, the selectable heroes, weapon pickups, and armored transformations give the action enough texture to make experimentation worthwhile.

Graphics

The action is viewed from the side as each Jack fights through scrolling stages, with the armored heroes and their vehicles at the center of the imagery. The armor merge at each level’s end gives the game a clear visual punctuation point before the powered-up fighting begins.

Story

Do not expect the game to introduce its world, explain its conflict, or carry you from fight to fight with cutscenes. No story is told during the game.

That makes this a weak entry point if you are curious about the anime itself. You are asked to recognize—or simply accept—the three Jacks and their transforming vehicle-and-armor setup without context.

For an action-first game, that absence is not fatal, but it does make the experience feel leaner and less memorable between stages. If story matters to you, watch or track down the anime separately; the game is interested in the fighting, not in catching you up.

Overall Experience

Kikō Keisatsu Metal Jack is a modest but sensible fit for an afternoon when you want an old-school brawler with a mecha twist. The first hour’s pull is simple: test the three Jacks, make use of Red’s gun or Silver’s baton, and look forward to the next armor-powered stretch.

The transformation mechanic is the payoff. Stronger attacks and a charged strike that reaches every enemy on screen give each level an escalation point, and that is a much better reward than merely walking into another group of foes.

Its limitations are equally plain. There is no in-game story to deepen the license, and the shared basic combat means the character selection may not sustain endless replay on its own. Even so, if you can enjoy a direct, compact SNES brawler and the thought of powered armor cleaning up a crowded screen sounds satisfying, this is worth a chance.