$20 Game of the week/Lost Classics special: Die Hard

Because of the holiday, and the fact that the one of the greatest action movie franchises of all time has returned to theaters, we’re gonna dedicate this week’s Lost Classics and $20 GOTW to the Bruce Willis masterpiece. So read on after the jump to read all about the official series of video games based on a series of the finest examples of cinematic art ever created.

We begin with Die Hard Trilogy for Playstation, Saturn, and PC. It was three games in one, each based on the movies. The first, based on the original film, was a Robotron-esque third person shooter. John McClaine traveled throughout Nakatomi Plaza, blowing away terrorists, rescuing hostages, and diffusing bombs. The second, Die Harder, was one of the first light gun shooters on Playstation 1. With a look similar to Virtua Cop, albeit bloodier, McClaine shot up Dulles International airport, a chapel, a military base, and several more locations in order to stop the terrorists. It featured a level route editor that could be accessed by a secret code. The game based on Die Hard with a Vengeance was a racing game in which John McClaine drove around New York city and destroyed car bombs by ramming them. There were no weapons involved, but the game turned out to be a lot more fun than it would seem. The game used a very archaic password system, but that was the only major issue with it. It had a shocking amount of blood and guts. Terrorists and innocent bystanders explode into a bloody mess, and even stick to your windshield in Die Hard with a Vengeance. When you’re done with the game, you can pop the game disc in your cd player and listen to the excellent music. For a second generation PS1 game, it was ahead of it’s time, just like the movie franchise it was based on.

A few years later, Fox interactive wanted to revive the glory of the original game. However, there were no new Die Hard movies at the time! Luckily developer N-space would fix that problem by creating an all-new tale of John McClaine’s epic saga. John McClaine would travel to Las Vegas for some R&R, only to once again find himself in the middle of a terrorist plot. Instead of having three separate games, the stages were a mix of driving, third person, and light gun shooting. You can play in the game’s story mode, or just play through one gaming type in the game’s arcade mode. The game had a number of hidden features, including hidden levels, gorier effects, and even an FPS mode. The game’s soundtrack was heavy on hip hop, featuring music from Black Rob, Lil Zhane, and others. It was one of those games where you had to ignore the low ratings that it got, least you totally miss a hidden gem.

After Die Hard Trilogy 2, the most we got was a crappy Gamecube first person shooter that attempted to appeal to gamers looking for more mature titles on the system. (Thankfully it’s plot is now non-cannon thanks to the movie.) There was also a little known PC FPS based on the original Die Hard called Nakatomi plaza. Also of interest was a Sega Saturn beat-em-up entitled “Die Hard Arcade” which while being decent, had nothing to do with the movies, and didn’t even feature John McClaine as the main character. (This was because the game was originally a sequel to Dynamite Duke, with the Die Hard name being attached at the last minute before the game’s completion.)

With the movie now in theaters, and no announcements being made of a tie-in game, these two discs are perfect for fans wanting to get some John McClaine action. They’re both available for cheap, and can be found pretty much anywhere that sells used games.