Minority Report puts you in the role of John Anderton sans the likeness of Tom Cruise. Fundamentally following the formula of the movie, you'll find yourself being hunted by the very precinct you work for. Cut scenes and voice acting help flesh out the story, while punches, kicks, and weapons are the basis for beat-em-up gameplay. There's a short tutorial to get you on track, or you can delve right into the story. Either way, the learning curve is pretty shallow, so it shouldn't be but a few minutes until you feel in control of Mr. Anderton.

In the first stage, the pre-cogs haven't seen Anderton committing murder yet, so this mission is strictly by the book pre-crime. Baddies come running at you in an office surrounded by windows. Immediately I'm drawing comparisons to Die Hard Arcade, which was a pretty fun game in a Double Dragon kind of way. You have punch, kick, and block buttons, and they combine to form a number of three-hit combos. The block can be used at the end of a combo or while someone is dizzy to perform a grab or throw. The fighting system is strangely attractive as I'm taking on three to five guys at a time. Much excitement was had by throwing bodies (alive or dead) out of the high-rise's office windows. It was even kind of fun to jump out myself. Just about every window, door, and piece of furniture is completely destructible. By the end of the stage, I thought I'd really be able to get into this game.

The problem is that Minority Report didn't stick with this simple and intuitive beat-em-up process and instead strove to broaden its level designs to include weapons, robots, jetpacks, and platforming. Somewhere in all of that it loses focus and becomes quite a chore to play. Enemies come by the boatloads, most of them brandishing long range weapons. Your character can become easily surrounded, and using traditional combos for fighting will get broken up by a punch in the back, a blast from a concussion rifle, or a pop to the head by a puke stick. In these scenarios, you'll either be forced to pull out a weapon of your own or make for the exit. Neither of which are very much fun. Add to the fact that weapon ammo is limited to pick-ups (rare) or buying them on the black market. Speaking of the black market, it's implemented poorly. Instead of stocking up on power ups and weapons in between stages, you can just hit the pause menu and spend your money on the spot. Right in the middle of a fight even.

I'd have to say the graphics are pretty good though on the whole. Character models have more detail than say, Vice City, but it's nothing near the top tier of the current generation. The bullet trails left behind a shot are very cool, and the effect is almost exactly the same as Metroid Prime's charge shot. They also did a pretty good job on the animation, at least as far as fluidity goes. The big problem with the animation is how the characters flop around like rag dolls in low gravity. The result is hilarious, to see bodies sagging, rolling and bouncing off tables like they were filled with sand. I don't think this is the reaction they were looking for though.

There's not much going on in the sound department except for the voice acting, and it's a pretty valiant effort. John Anderton, while not played by Tom Cruise, is especially well done. He's got a tough voice, and delivers his lines with all the right amount of emotion and smoothness. The rest of the supporting cast, while not terrible, don't quite live up to the bar set by him. Sound effects and music are on track but don't stand out.

I'd have to say, while still better than most movie to game conversions, Minority Report is still very average. The combat system is frustrating and delivers very little fun after a couple of hours. All versions of this game are virtually identical, so you can't go wrong if you need to pick one. But, more than likely, you won't need to be burdened with that problem (if you know what I mean).