Minority Report

Precrime and punishment.

NA release: 19th November 2002
EU release: 6th December 2002
JP release: N/A
Developer: Treyarch
Publisher: Activision
NGC Magazine Score: 39%
Mods Used: None

Minority Report was a hit film starring Tom Cruise. The game tie-in is a bit of a strange one in that it follows some of the main set pieces of the film, but with a different story, one involving the evil SOL Enterprises (you never find out what they do, but multiple characters that find out tell you that they’re pure evil). John Anderton, who looks more like Max von Sydow’s character than Tom Cruise, gets involved in a case when the future-telling precogs predict that he’ll murder someone, so he flees to prove his innocence, by beating up (and almost certainly killing) hundreds of police officers.

One interesting thing about this game is that almost everywhere online lists it as “Minority Report: Everybody Runs”. However, that just seems to be a tagline on the front of the box. The spine, disc, GameCube menu and the game’s title screen just lists “Minority Report”.

Minority Report is a very basic beat-’em-up game. Just punch and kick the same enemies over and over again. You can also pick up guns, which you can use by locking onto enemies. It’s passable combat, but won’t hold your attention for a while. The levels are also extremely short, sometimes only being a single room, which really disrupts the flow of the game. There is some nice destructible scenery and the ragdoll effects are great to see. You can also pick up enemies after you’ve knocked them out, which is mainly useful for throwing them out of windows or into vats of water and sewage.

Speaking of ragdoll physics, there’s a cheat that makes Minority Report far more entertaining: one that replaces the crouch button (which is never needed) with a ragdoll button. At any point in the game, you press crouch and the game will make Anderton flop as the physics take over. Playing with this is far more fun than the game itself, especially combined with jumps and destructible scenery. The cheats turn a bog-standard beat-em-up over something silly.

Fine

Loose-fitting themes aside, it’s a dull, workaday fighting game with jerky, jaggy visuals the N64 could have handled, a useless camera and a few throwaway weapon and power-up buying options, but – apart from comedy police brutality – it’s hard to sustain enough interest to club your way through yet another levels of identical goons/cops/robots. Mindless violence is all well and good, but this isn’t even that sophisticated.
Dan Geary, NGC Magazine #77

Remake or remaster?

Nothing needed with this one.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get Minority Report.