Lethal Weapon (video game)

Lore & Background

The NES and Game Boy version is a side-scroller where the player chooses either Martin Riggs or Roger Murtaugh and battles criminals using fists, guns, and grenades. It is considered extremely difficult and frustrating because punching an enemy is more effective than shooting. The NES version is praised for its colorful graphics for 1992, and both versions are universally praised for the music by Neil Baldwin. In the arcade and SNES versions, the final boss is not Jack Travis but rather a generic helicopter or different enemy, diverging from the film's plot.

Reader's Guide

The arcade and Super NES version is also a difficult side-scroller with four missions leading to a fifth final mission. Riggs has a faster rate of fire but lower jump height, while Murtaugh has a higher jump height but slower fire rate. Missions include rescuing Leo Getz, defusing a bomb in a shopping mall, stopping a dockside smuggling operation, and preventing terrorists from blowing up the city's sewer system. The final mission involves going after Jack Travis, the main villain of Lethal Weapon 3. The Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS version is broadly similar but features unique levels and different gameplay mechanics. The Commodore 64 version is linear with redesigned levels. A Master System version was developed by Probe Software but unreleased for unknown reasons, with only music by Jeroen Tel known to exist. Super Gamer Magazine gave the SNES version a review score of 68%.

Did You Know?

• The NES version is considered extremely difficult because punching an enemy is more effective than shooting.
• The music for the NES and Game Boy versions was composed by Neil Baldwin.
• A Master System version was developed by Probe Software but never released, and no ROM or evidence of the game is known to exist online.
• In the arcade and SNES versions, the final boss is a generic helicopter or different enemy, not Jack Travis.