Ever dreamt of being thrown into the plot of a big budget, all out extraganza of a film? Well, unless you're one of those poofs that goes to acting school, I very much doubt that you'll ever get the chance.

Namco's latest shoot 'em up is probably the closest you can get without all the leotard abuse. Dead to rights is a typical rebel cop takes on world scenario, where the main character finds out that the system is corrupt and that HE is the only one who can change it. And no, it's not the sequel to Max Payne.

Your character, Jack Slade (how do they come up with such cool names?),a good cop in a bad city is forced to be a fugitive as he fights for his life after arriving at a murder scene to discover that his father, private investigator and former cop Frank Slate, is the victim. As Jack begins the dangerous and labyrinthine task of finding his father's killer, he is framed for another murder. Such said seeding and twisitng plot will surely keep players engrossed into the game as you begin to unravel the lies and corruption in the system. Still, it all seems pretty mundane and the plot sounds like it's been copied from any number of movies with a clichéd introduction but hey, if its not broke don't fix it right?

Yes, we've seen it a thousand times before, and we'll see it a million times again (more so for those of you who DARE to own the playstation 2), and to most, the above will sound just like your average shoot 'em up fare. But this one, like most, has a twist. And not one of those crappy ones, where the dude you control is a robot, oh no, it is far better than that. You have your own dog. A dog that does stuff like help solve puzzles and attack people. But more importantly it has a cool name – Shadow. Being a partner despite his hairy and doggish ways he can be used to investigate crime scenes, retrieve weapons, attack enemies and what kind of partner wouldnt sniff out bombs and the like for you eh?

It's the kind of thing that flooded 70's television and is still looked upon with glee by 30 somethings and kids that had too much time on there hands. You could just imagine it – A cheesy, unknown actor could take on the role of Jack Slade, and always have his face halfway in the shade, with a big, scary Rotweiler always by his side. And there would be some African-American involved with a dodgy accent and an afro. Genius.

The difficulty level which was so high on the X-Box version has been lowered for the Playstation 2 and GameCube version, probably to lower the quite wussy critiques who labelled it too hard. They've obviously not sampled the delights of Ikaruga then, have they? Dead to Rights will feature more than a dozen game mechanics including diving, rolling, punching, kicking, and lethally disarming enemies in a variety of over-the-top ways though so difficulty can be assured all in all sounding quite exciting.

Early reports and American reviews however are pointing towards a game with many flaws, especially with the camera angle, which is a bit ironic, seeing as this is meant to be a free-flowing cinematic piece of genius. Apparently, it often gets itself in the most awkard of positions, not allowing you to move it, ala Mario Sunshine. Only with a lot less innovation, colour and, probably, fun.

It's also been mentioned that the dog often just disappears, nowhere to be found. This would've been cool if it was supposed to be an invisible dog, and on that merit alone I would've bought the game, but, supposedly, this is a glitch, and an unwelcome one, which will increase difficulty.

Enemies are plentiful and armed to the teeth, which is to be expected if this is to be the 'hold the A button' game I believe it shall be. Whilst it does have its downsides, it does have a few features which could be classed as 'cool' by some, like being able to take a hostage. Now if only the Dog could take hostages. Now THAT would be worth watching. Hopefully, Dead to Rights will pull itself through the tangle it's in now, and let you just do everything, like killing and mass-murdering with the dog perhaps.

We can pray.