Dick Tracy E3 2005 Impressions

At this point, Dick Tracy has faded completely off the radar screen. It has been 15 years since the big-budget film starring Warren Beatty, and the once-ubiquitous Sunday comic strip has lost a lot of ground too. What's an ailing property to do? Go mobile, of course! The Dick Tracy mobile game, published by Kayak Interactive, is a boldly colorful beat-'em-up steeped in the strip's highly stylized art style. The pre-alpha version of the game we played at E3 showed a lot of promise.

Dick Tracy already features a lot of neat touches that set it apart from the beat-'em-up crowd. The subject matter comes through loud and clear, that's for sure. For instance, the loading screen features bullets being slotted into a revolver--once the revolver's full, it's time to go fight crime. Tracy doesn't walk through the levels. He literally swaggers, adopting a confident, wide-open pose that invites the bad guys to just try him. They do, too... In our demo, we had to trash a couple of thugs wearing vests and old-timey tweed caps. You can fight hand-to-hand by throwing haymakers and uppercuts, or you can pull your piece and start ducking behind furniture. To top everything off, Tracy's wristwatch communicator is parked in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. The detective's buddies occasionally dial in to give you hints and directives over this device.

Dick Tracy's coming to BREW and Java phones this September. We hope to bring you a more in-depth preview once the game achieves beta.