King of Chicago, the
King of Chicago reminds me of Sinbad and the throne of the falcon because it uses almost exactly the same formula. The game is basically a collection of minigames and in between it gives you some control at what to do next by presenting you with a multiplechoice menu. You play the part of Pinky Callahan and you are the righthand man of the the Northside boss (in Chicago). Now that Al Capone has been jailed you set out to gain control of the northside and finally to become the king of Chicago. Ofcourse noone will just give up their turf without a fight so be prepared to take care of anyone or anything that stands in your way.
The first obstacle is your own boss but be carefull because if your men suspect you have anything to do with his death they’ll most likely go after you so it’s best to make it look like a hit from another group. After you gain control of the northside you are presented with a map of Chicago and you can decide which of the three remaining territories to go for next. You can’t just go around shooting everything because your group is very fragile at the start and with limited funds so you’ll have to plan carefully what to do next. You can take the cautious aproach and buy some corrupt politicians to help you gain power in a territory but in return they’ll expect you to help them come election time to swing the voters towards them. All this goes on until you gain control of the entire city or you meet an untimely demise at the hands of an assasin.
Altough this game is similar to Sinbad that game allowed you to travel a lot more while this game only has a limited number of locations. The minigames are very short and most of them only need you to press the button once usually to shoot someone at the right time. The graphics are a bit weird as most of the backgrounds are detailed and well done but the characters have different heads stuck to the same bodies and it looks very cheap. I remember enjoying this game a lot more when I was younger but now it seems a bit dated. The game was advertised at having over a billion choices for you to take but when most of these lead to a quick death it seems rather pointless. This is an average game from Cinemaware and unless you have some fond memories of it then I don’t think you’ll get much out of it but see for yourself.
Overal rating: 6/10
This game was released for several different systems here are some notes:
| Amiga | Released in 1987. Game has been tested but not completed with winUAE v0.9.91. The original and best version. |
| DOS | Released in 1987. Game has been tested but not completed on a DOS PC. The entire game is in CGA which makes the game look horrible compared to the amiga version, very strange considering that EGA cards were already common and VGA cards were already available. |
| Others | This version is not available. Apple released in ?, this version is very buggy and locks up frequently which is why it’s not available here. |
| Date added | Feb-04-2005 19:28 |
| Name | King of Chicago, the |
| Developer | Cinemaware |
| Publisher | Cinemaware |
| First released | 1987 |
| Genre | Puzzle |
