Watcha gonna do when they come for you?

Set in a far-flung, futuristic 2014, Synergistic Software's New York Warriors is a top-down, roaming, arcade-action shooter analogous to the kind of games that originally built the genres' foundations. Ikari Warriors and Commando being two of the earliest and best-known representatives. It's a thinly veiled parody of The Warriors, Walter Hill's 1979 stylistically choreographed vision of gang culture, as conveyed through the altercations of rival factions. Which naturally gave me the perfect excuse to rewatch the movie and assess it side by side with its completely unofficial, accompanying game.

As in The Warriors, each of the absurdly infeasible gangs we encounter (on this occasion, channelling the commander of an elite anti-terrorist strike force), are identically coordinated in the gimmicky themed-uniform and weapons department. There are the Ramboids, Sammies, Assasins, Sluggers, Killer Klowns, Ganjas and Bombers, all of whom are begging to have their delicate limbs and torsos disunited via the exploitation of extreme force measures such as a bazooka, guided missiles, a flamethrower and so on.

Equally as formulaic and light on plot as its celluloid counterpart, New York Warriors is an entertaining blast in short bursts. I'd claim that its lack of originality is unlikely to set the world ablaze, although, judging by the array of intensely volatile firepower at our disposal, I couldn't possibly guarantee that.

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