I’ve played a number of bad lightgun shooters with digitised graphics recently and Taito‘s 1994 arcade game, Under Fire, is probably the worst of the bunch.

Not only are the graphics washed-out and poorly-defined, but none of the enemies look even remotely convincing (in terms of the seriousness of their acting or in providing an appearance of threat). And – even worse – the same few enemies keep cropping up again and again in Under Fire, so that at times it feels like you’re battling a clone army of the least scary villains in gaming history…

It’s not uncommon for developers and their friends and family members to play the enemies and innocent bystanders in games like this, which almost always results in poor performances. Add to that: costumes that look pristine, garish or completely out-of-place and you have ninety percent of bad guys and innocents in digitised-graphics shooters. While it might have been fun for the ‘actors’ to pretend they’re criminals or bystanders for a day, in order to get the shots needed for a game like this, most directors appear oblivious to the fact that you really need good, professional actors (and good direction) to make an acted threat look convincing. It seems that some developers would rather save money and use amateurs – and consign their game to the dustbin of history – than do things properly…

But it’s not just the blurry graphics and wooden acting that make Under Fire a big, fat failure. It’s also the unimaginative locations, laughable translations to English, boring, overwhelming action, and dour, repetitive gameplay. Even the boss battles are dull. Considering that Under Fire came two years after Konami‘s Lethal Enforcers, it brings nothing new to the table and could even be argued is a considerable step backwards.

If you can believe it, Under Fire was a reasonable success in arcades when it was first released. Probably because – back in the days when people were stupid – digitised graphics were a novel and mesmerising attraction to the less-discerning gamer. Now games like Under Fire look little more than a joke…

More: Under Fire on Wikipedia