Beverly Hills Cop

About

Beverly Hills Cop splits its gameplay into four distinct styles. The first tasks you with navigating a top-down shooter, then switches to a high-speed pursuit where you tail trucks in a 2D road chase. Next comes a side-scrolling mansion defense that's heavy on blasting foes. The final level swaps to a rudimentary first-person 3D maze with limited camera angles and sparse enemy encounters. Each mode can be played separately in most versions, letting you rotate between driving, shooting, and platforming. The C64 and Spectrum ports add a warehouse action sequence up front, while the BBC Micro only features the chase gameplay. The game leans into its 1990s tech limits but uses them creatively. The mix of arcade styles works better than it has any right to, with the chase segment feeling surprisingly tense. While the final 3D section lacks polish, its novelty as one of the era's early first-person attempts earns it a nostalgic bump. Nostalgia hunters and fans of quirky 8-bit experiments might find value here, though the lack of true sequel support and clunky control schemes keeps it niche.

Storyline

Eddie Murphy became a star in the police film Beverly Hills Cop, and it was this license that Tynesoft used to create a game featuring four distinct sub-games, each of which can be practiced from the main screen in some versions. First Axel Foley visits a warehouse to shoot out some bad guys in a Green Beret-influenced sequence. The second level (first on the C64 version) involves driving after 3 lorries full of weapons, and shooting them out one by one, Chase HQ-style. Avoid contact and stay on the road to complete this. Next you must cross the grounds of a mansion, shooting anyone who gets in your way. The final section is set within the mansion, and is first-person 3D, although with few movement angles and only one enemy on screen at a time.