by:	October 23, 2004

Bad Boys: Miami Takedown was originally scheduled to be released side by side with Bad Boys 2 movie when it was released in the summer of 2003. Now it’s approaching the end of fall of 2004 and Bad Boys: Miami Takedown appears on store shelves with barely any advertising and promotions. With this taken into consideration, the game all but spells doom for any game that has this rough schedule in its past. Also the factor of the price tag may be a warning label to those who actually buy it. The $14.99 price tag is stuck on it to hopefully get it off the store shelves quick enough so no one has to remember this game.

The developer of Bad Boys is Blitz Games. You may know a little about Blitz Games without even knowing it. They created Fuzion Frenzy originally for the first generation of Xbox games. That would be their future title that gained them the most recognition to Xbox fanatics but they also created both Fairly Odd Parents (only one appeared on the Xbox, the other mysteriously didn’t), Frogger 2 for the PC and other various children’s games. Blitz Games really never had a hand with many action titles so I was wary to know they created Bad Boys. The only game they had any work on that closely resembles an action game is The Mummy and that turned out to be a major let down.

Miami Takedown of course is based off the world of the movies which star the “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. The story of course revolves around drugs, mobsters and the usual criminals that live on the Miami streets. It’s a third-person shooter as you will control both Marcus (Martin Lawrence) and Mike (Will Smith). Marcus will be the man who runs the action show as he will be the featured man to go one on one with the thugs. Mike is involved with all stealth missions so Blitz Games at least tried to make it a diversified game.

Here’s a quick layout of the controls. The left thumbstick & D-Pad can be used to move and also leaning out while covering yourself. The right thumbstick is for aiming of course but I didn’t like how you have to tap in the right thumbstick to also reload. The triggers are what they were expected to be. Right trigger is to fire while the left trigger is to lock on those targets that are giving you trouble. To switch your weapons or even pick up a new one that was dropped, you’ll have to tap the Y Button. Grenade throwing is managed through pressing the B button. The A Button is used to duck and dodge bullets and the X Button is to enter/exit cover mode.

About the cover mode, it’s an attempt to liven up the gameplay and make it a little more interesting. When tapping X, you’ll see colored circles to run to and use for cover. The cover mode is useful when outnumbered but once you enter cover mode, it becomes a disaster. Just moving the thumbstick will make it revert to first person mode. Sure the first person aim allows a better aimed shot but it throws the player out of synch with the quick switch without you actually wanting to enter the first person perspective. You’ll be safe though from fire as the A.I. is just down right stupid.

The game relies on numbers and all ready scripted out events. The enemies will head straight to the same spot over and over again if you played the same level. It’s simple to figure out and plainly awful. The developers went ahead and put a script into the enemies to know where you are. Actually they know where you previously were located at as when you move from cover to cover, they’ll remain shooting at the previous spot where you were taking cover at.

Just taking a look at the back of the game it’s obvious to see that the game looks like it is using a PS1 engine. They’re outdated and have no perks whatsoever to them. The character models have no resemblance to the movie duo and they just look like they didn’t even touch them up to even try to make them look good. Animations are repetitive and Bad Boys looks to only have a couple motions that they use for the entire game. The game gives the players the bare minimum to look at. The game I guess you could say looks rushed but it couldn’t have been with it being slated for a summer release last year. It’s just unacceptable and a pain to play as graphics are not up to today’s standards.

After hearing about the bad graphics, I am sure you aren’t expecting much from the audio. The voice acting isn’t identical to the movies as they didn’t splurge at all and hire Will Smith and Martin Lawrence to voice their own characters. The voice acting is laughable and a shame that they couldn’t hire the real life counterparts to take the roles. The whole production of the game is just pitiful. Sound effects have nothing to them and even games not based on the action genre deliver better gun shots then Bad Boys.

When it comes down to it, Bad Boys: Miami Takedown is a game you should pass on even if it’s offered for the bargain price. Renting of the game is the only reason you should pick this up unless your prices at your local rental store is fairly high. With the ill-fated graphics and atrocious audio throughout the entire the game, you’ll be wondering why this game ever had the green light to be put on video game shelves.

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Avoid at all costs unless you absolutely must play the game based off the movie. Though the movie lovers will be terribly let down by this game.

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