Play Undercover Cops Online

Summary

Undercover Cops landed on the Super Famicom in 1995, bringing its gritty, neon‑slick New York of 2043 to a home console for the first time. The port kept the arcade’s love of improvised weaponry – you can swing oil drums, hurl steel girders, or even toss a fish at a mole‑creature – while swapping the two‑player brawl for a solo experience that lets you tweak lives, credits and difficulty.

The three city sweepers each feel distinct: Zan (Claude in the US build) mixes balanced moves with fireball bursts, Matt (Bubba) trades speed for raw power and a brief ground‑dive, and Rosa (Flame) darts around as the fastest rookie, even unleashing a wave of energy when surrounded. Their health can be topped up by nibbling on mice, frogs, birds or snails, a quirky detail that underscores the game’s off‑beat charm.

Enemies range from street thugs to jet‑pack mutants and the oddly vulnerable mole‑creatures that die in a single hit. Bosses are memorable – the Terminator‑style Cue Ball can be crushed in a garbage compactor, while Fatso wields a jackhammer and cries louder as her health wanes. The final showdown pits the trio against Dr. Crayborn, a bespectacled scientist who mutates into a towering monster.

A cancelled US SNES version was reviewed in Nintendo Power, and Retro‑Bit finally gave the game an official English release in 2021, shipping 3,000 copies to North America and Europe. The console version also tames the arcade’s more risqué moments, covering the Fox enemy’s exposed chest when she’s knocked down.

Storyline

In the SNES beat‑'em‑up *Undercover Cops*, the action is set in a dystopian New York City in the year 2043. The city has fallen under the control of the mad scientist Dr. Crayborn (also called Dr. Clayborn), who commands an army of thugs and can transform into a giant monster for the final showdown. Commissioner Gordon issues a desperate plea for help, summoning three elite "city sweepers" to restore order. The trio consists of Zan Takahara – a scruffy Japanese ex‑karate master (named Claude in the US version) who once taught philosophy, Matt Gables – an American ex‑gridiron star (Bubba in the US version) disgraced by a false murder charge, and Rosa Felmonde – a tough British blonde vigilante (Flame in the US version) whose lover was slain by the same criminals.

Each sweeper battles through waves of enemies across the city, confronting Dr. Crayborn’s lieutenants before finally confronting the scientist himself near the end of the last stage. The climax pits the three heroes against Crayborn’s monstrous form, a showdown that decides whether law and order can be reclaimed in 2043 New York.