Police Connection

Description

Police Connection sees players assume the role of detectives attempting to solve a series of criminal cases. Three scenarios are available, including two murder investigations and a case involving stolen money, with human and computer-controlled participants competing to crack the mystery first. Gameplay takes place on a board representing a city, with movement determined by dice rolls. Players travel between police stations, crime scenes, businesses, and other locations, gathering information by questioning witnesses, examining evidence, and following leads. Special cards can provide advantages such as taxi travel, investigative tools, and case-related actions, while branching routes force players to decide which locations to pursue. Unlike most board games, success depends less on wealth or position and more on uncovering information in the correct sequence and piecing together the evidence before rivals do.

The game’s unusual combination of detective fiction and board-game mechanics makes it stand out within the PC Engine library. Its jazzy CD audio soundtrack and detailed presentation were generally well regarded, but the underlying investigations are highly linear, requiring clues to be collected in a specific order before progress can be made. Computer-controlled detectives also tend to follow similar investigative paths, reducing unpredictability in single-player games. As a result, Police Connection is often remembered as an interesting experiment that combines mystery solving with digital board-game mechanics, even if its execution is more rigid than its premise suggests. Retrospectively it is an obscure and interesting late PC Engine Super CD-ROM² title that has become somewhat scarce.