This game oozes unique. It is if not one of the only shooting gallery style games on the system, we're not counting Task Force by Froggo since it's the same code. The game was put out by Spectravision (Spectravideo in Europe) who are mostly known for Chase the Chuckwagon, Mangia and Bumper Bash, when it comes to rarity these guys are all over the spectrum. Thankfully Gangster Alley is one of their more common games, and I can see why. The game is quite fun for the first few minutes then it's flaws will begin to appear, the main flaw, which is a flaw I also share with Atari's Crossbow, is that this game NEEDED a light gun. It simply get's nearly unplayable once you get past level four, but I'll leave that for the game-play section.

Graphically this game is quite impressive, all the gangsters that you shoot up are well defined and recognizable, you can tell these guys are shifty lowlifes that need to be Swiss Cheesed. Every character is large and multicolored, and since this is a reactionary shooting game this is much appreciated since you can tell which guy to shoot before their entire face and body are exposed. The game takes place with the shooter (you) facing a building, or... I think that's what they were going for... the windows that the bad guy are popping out of are placed haphazardly around the screen, it really does look rather strange.

Sounds are basic, but that's nothing new for the Atari, you get like three sounds. You get the shot which is a whooshing noise, and the hit which is a krrshing! noise, and there's a short musical piece at the start of every new level. I would rag on the sounds a but more but it just sounds so good when you hit a guy, the sounds are just so meaty. Good stuff

Game-play is where the game falters unfortunately. Since the 2600 had no light gun you have to make due with an inaccurate cursor system much like in Crossbow. The cursor is very sensitive but only when it wants to be, leading to many missed shots and many unfortunate deaths, on your part at least. Another rather annoying game-play element is Nitro Ed, who flies around on top of the building not doing anything, but when he raises his hand up, UH OH! He's got a grenade and if you don't shoot him quick it's game over for you. This leads to even more deaths since you cannot move the cursor fast enough to hit Nitro Ed and whoever it was you were trying to shoot before Ed got all pyrotechnic. This is a real pity since the groundwork was there, it simply didn't have the hardware available, leading to a frustrating and eventually boring experience. I almost forgot to mention the hostages, you will likely never accidentally shoot them since they are instantly distinguishable from the bad guys. The programmers tried to get around this issue by having some bad guys disappear halfway through rising up from the window, (yeah instead of a sudden reveal they all slowly rise up from beneath the windows), this only leads to you wasting bullets and getting frustrated which may be the exact reason why they did it, I don't really know.

This game is fun for a little while but in the end you'll probably just put it on the shelf and never really play it again, and I don't blame you one bit. Oh and uh.. Don't try to get the whole Spectravision set... It's just not worth it.