Dirty Larry: Renegade Cop

Dirty Larry - Renegade Cop was released  for the Atari Lynx system in 1992 and was created and developed by a company called knight technologies, and was published and distributed by Atari themselves.

As the title character of Larry you'll roam the streets of Steel burg, USA on the trail of drug dealers, pimps, corrupt public officials and politicians, and any other suspicious individuals you feel like gunning down. Using your fists and gun, you'll fight knife wielding hoodlums, bearded biker gangs and killer clowns who stalk the streets and subways with blades and baseball bats. The style is much like that of a double dragon, or streets of rage game, with the player side scrolling across the screen taking on foe’s as they come at you.

Dirty Larry is a generally a well designed game, with acceptable graphics and sound, which utilizes the Atari Lynx’s stereo abilities to good affect. This is evidenced by the careful Xenophobe style placement of each sound effect. At times the sprites can become a bit ropey, and the animation slightly jerky, but this does not effect overall game play. It’s a very enjoyable game, and is definitely one of the top ten games released for platform. Without doubt this game should be in any Atari collectors library.

In the end Dirty Larry - Renegade Cop is not much more than an extremely simplistic side scrolling beat-em-up, but if you like this genre and style of play, there’s just not much wrong with this game.

Critical Reception

When released Electronic Gaming Monthly issued the scores of 5,6,6,7 adding, "...one of the best Lynx games to come along in a long time.  With exceptional graphics, and solid game play, though too easy for my tastes, Dirty Larry shows that the Lynx is back".