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Action Games. Usually not the genre that requires a lot of planning or fancy thinking: shootin', punchin', jumpin' and dodgin' will win the day. Yes, if it ends in an I-N-apostrophe, chances are it's all you need.

But you know what you CAN'T spell with "I", "N", "apostrophe"?   F.A.Q.

So you'll imagine my surprise when I fired up these seemingly knuckle-dragging, gun-slinging adventures and found myself pressing pause and going to the web for a FAQ before I'd gotten out of the second level...or, in some cases, off the first screen.

Let's look at one of these instances!

So I thought I was in for a run-and-gun, but right away realized at least two things wrong with that idea: big clunky RoboCop can't run (or jump), can barely walk, and much of the time decides to keep his gun holstered, limiting him to going mono-e-mono with his enemies with his bare metal knuckles. (not this)

But aside from that, and some severe stair-descending issues, and his tendency to run out of battery power while just trying to walk from one side of the level to another (cough seen that before cough), we were in for good times, right?

Well, not so much. After a straightforward Level 1 (albeit with a bullet-proof boss; of all the times to AUTOMATICALLY holster your gun, maybe "when facing an enemy it won't work on" should be high on that list), and a bit of choose-a-path fun in Level 2 (complete with secret doors!), the Level 2 boss is...this:

...and if there's anything that Hostages in video games have taught us, it's that any attacks directed at them somehow invisibly ricochet back and do damge to YOU.

If you blaze away at Pudgy White-Shirted Guy and hit Noodly Brown Suit Fellow, you die quickly. If you watch their dance for a while*, the hostage gets pushed down a bit and you have an instant to take a shot or two...while probably being hit by Pudgy White-Shirted Guy's incoming fire.

Given that just a few shots and/or accidental hostage-hits will kill you, you have all of a few seconds to analyze what's going on before you die and have to repeat the whole level all over again. Yeah, I died a handful of times on this boss then went straight to the FAQs.