Platform:  PLAYSTATION 2 Publisher:  EMPIRE Packaging:  VIDEO GAME Rating:  TEEN Driving games are about to get a lot funkier. Based on the 70's television show Starsky & Hutch will be careening to your PS2. Race through Bay City in Starsky's bright red Ford Torino while Hutch takes aim at criminals with his .357 Magnum - but don't go thinking this will be a joy ride! If your driving and shooting skills can't keep the TV audience on the edge of their sofas your ratings will plummet the show will be cancelled and it's game over! Don't think you can handle all the high-speed thrills by yourself? Find a partner and let them shoot while you drive. It's time to clean up the streets... in style!Features: Click Here for all 17 Screenshots Over 150 miles of Bay City roads to explore. 18 episodes (levels) spread over three seasons. Two-player cooperative allows one player to drive while the other shoots. Play together with two controllers or a steering wheel and a light gun. Voice-overs by TV show regular cast member Antonio Fargas aka Huggy Bear. Wild power-ups can increase vehicle performance cause story events and improve weapon power. A host of unlockable vehicles weapons and extras maximize replayability. Advanced car physics and real-time city environments make the action intense as can be. Authentic sound effects and original music help the streets come alive.

Based on the hit 70s TV show, you'll drive through Bay City while shooting crooks with your. 357 Magnum

High-speed driving and shooting action through 18 episodes -- and try to keep the audience TV entertained, or your show will be cancelled

Explore over 150 miles and collect explosive power-ups that add to the excitement, as you patrol Bay City

Thrilling two-player cooperative gaming -- one shoots while the other drives

Voiceovers by TV show regular Huggy Bear

Average Customer Review: ( 19 customer reviews )
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In fact, the game isn't about earning points or getting kills. It's about keeping the ratings high. If you drive around without doing much of anything, the ratings fall away. If you do fantastic stunts and flips while chasing the bad guy, your ratings soar.

There are fun comic-style cut scenes, but the actual action is in a vice city style realism. The car - the authentic Zebra 3 - handles wonderfully and really immerses you into the TV show world. You can drive and shoot at the same time, chasing down bad guys and solving crimes.

The map is huge, with no intermediate loading times at all. They claim there are 25 square miles of map here for you to roam around, and it's quite detailed.

If you're looking for a really complex game, you might want to rent this one first to make sure it's for you. There's no building up of characters or strategic thought involved. You're just racing, stunting, shooting and having fun. But if that's the game you enjoy, definitely buy a copy! The price is rather low, and it will give you weeks of fun!

6 of 6 found the following review helpful:

More fun than it looks...Nov 05, 2003
By Brantley
My girlfriend and I rented this game just because it's two player simultaniously. By the time it was due back, well, we were hooked. Now I owe blockbuster about $30 bucks for a game I could've bought for twenty. Regardless, we had a blast playing and now we're both failing our last semesters in college. THANKS STARSKY AND HUTCH!!!

5 of 5 found the following review helpful:

Starsky & HutchNov 29, 2003
By Ben Clark
Let me just start out by saying this game is pretty fun. I bought it for 19.99 and I was pretty surprised. When I put in the game I noticed that the videos were cartoons, and I thought the whole game would be like that. But it was not and I actually liked the cartoon cinimas, it added a humorus affect to it.

PROS:
Can shoot while you drive
Drive though things like tables, rails, ect.
Different weapons you can get
18 episodes
2 player 1-shoot 1-drive
Can use steering wheel or light gun

Can peel out and do doughnuts.

CONS:
Can somewhat get old fast.
The comments Starsky & Hutch make get old very fast.
You can only do damage when crosshair is Red
Suspects take forever to beat.

I just got it tonight and it got somewhat old, but don't get me wrong it is fun. If you like games like Driver, Grandtheft Auto you will like it or else I think you will. Hey but for 20 bucks or cheaper you should by it.

4 of 4 found the following review helpful:

Fun Budget TitleOct 05, 2003
By Hamster Army
This review pertains to the PC version.

Not expecting much, after playing the demo I immediately could tell this game had potential to be a very fun game, and right I was! For a measley $20, I also recieved a Starsky And Hutch "LP" for free, and enjoyed a game with quite a bit of replayability and adrenaline pumping action.

Playing the solo version is fluid, intuitive and fun. You car handles wonderfully and the the cinematic jumps, explosions and auto-aiming shooting function works great. As far as shooting while driving, it's not about aiming, but your timing in regards to when you pull the trigger. When your recticle turns red, you get a critical hit and a bump in VR points. When it's yellow on an enemey target, you still do damage but not nearly as much.

You have to earn so many police "badges" of a specific level to move on to the next "season." And by collecting "Huggy Cards" in missions and various weapon power-up's, and achieving particular final VR ratings new modes open up for you in the game. Free roam is fairly bland but worthwhile as you simply collect badges placed around town and in many instances require you to make stunt jumps to get them. You have to do this without running out of VR points, and are rewarded VR points for collecting each one. The "TV Episode" mode is a lot of fun, consisting of things like races where you try and take out other cars and of course avoid the citizens and scenery as you go...but it doesn't mean you can't be a little reckless as the game is fairly forgiving and the controls are excellent.

The Havok engine looks good and the graphics do a great job of providing realistic physics and nice explosions and an immersive, big city to drive around in. In fact the city is absolutely huge, yet the game performs without a hitch, unlike, say, GTA3. There are no loading times while you're in-game.

Over-all the game is a treat for the money, it's not a deep, open-ended game like GTA3, but it does a great job of being faithful to the 70's TV series, has great 70's music and voice over's from the characters.

It's a shame this game isn't more highly thought of, for the cost of it I think it's even more fun than a game like Serious Sam. Sadly underrated.

6 of 7 found the following review helpful:

Skuuuuuurttt!!! Blam!!!Sep 15, 2003
By Qurious George
This is definitely one of those game where you're like "Maybe I'll rent it to see what it's like" after seeing an ad for it, then when your rental time is up you rush out to buy cuz you gotta finish, not the best game in the world, but definitley in the top 20...

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