Vice: Project Doom

Vice: Project Doom is the NES game that cannot decide what genre it is, and is much better for it. Across eight stages it cycles through three completely different play styles, changing the camera and the rules each time.

Most of it is a side-scrolling action stage where CIA agent Hart fights with a sword and a handgun, but the game regularly cuts away to a behind-the-vehicle driving stage on a motorcycle, and to a first-person shooting gallery where the D-pad aims a crosshair rather than moving a character. It is an unusual structure for 1991 and it keeps the game from settling into a groove. The story is a straight conspiracy thriller about a drug called B'yon and a corporate plot, told through cutscenes that were unusually talky for the system. It was released in Japan as Gun-Dec, and the two versions differ in framing but not in level structure.

• ▸Three play styles - side-scrolling action, driving and first-person shooting
• ▸Sword and handgun both always available, with different reach and rate
• ▸Eight stages with heavy cutscene storytelling for the era
• ▸Released in Japan as Gun-Dec