Snatcher
Encyclopedia
is a cyberpunk
-themed graphic adventure game
produced by Konami
, originally released in Japan
for the NEC PC-8801
and MSX
2 computer platforms in 1988. It was followed by a CD-ROM
-based remake released for the PC Engine
video game console in 1992, which was subsequently ported and localized into English
for the Mega-CD/Sega CD in 1994. Snatcher was the second video game written and directed by Hideo Kojima
, following the original Metal Gear
for the MSX2. The game's story centers around an investigator named Gillian Seed, who is assigned to investigate a breed of bioroids known as "Snatchers", who are killing humans and taking their place in society. The game is known for its heavy influence from science fiction cult films such as Blade Runner
, Akira
and The Terminator
.
or save their current progress. During key points of the game's story, the player must pass shooting sequences to defend Gillian from assailants. These shooting segments uses a 3x3 grid which the player can target to fire at enemies. A shooting trainer, called "Junker's Eyes", is accessible at Junker HQ that allows the player to measure their accuracy.
, is released into the atmosphere, resulting in the death of 80% of the Eurasian population which in turn results in the death of half of the world's population. The contaminated area becomes uninhabitable for a decade, when Lucifer-Alpha mutates into a non-lethal form. This tragic event later becomes known as "the Catastrophe".
Fifty years later, a breed of artificial life-forms or bioroids
known as "snatchers" began appearing in the artificial island of Neo Kobe City, killing their victims and taking their place in society. Nobody knows exactly what they are or where they come from. As Gillian Seed, an amnesiac working for an Anti-Snatcher task force called J.U.N.K.E.R., the player's goal is to track down the source of the snatchers and discover Gillian's mysterious connections with them.
Note: All spellings used are from the English-language Mega-CD/Sega CD version. Alternate spellings from other versions when they differ are provided in parenthesis.
Snatcher was first released in 1988
for the PC-8801
(on November 26) and MSX
2 (December 13) computer platforms. The first versions were released on floppy disk
s and were entirely text-based with no voice acting, instead a unique sounding bleep occurred when a character spoke.
The PC-8801mkIISR (PC-88SR) version not only corresponds to three channel output frequency modulation oscillator (YM2203) but also corresponds to the output frequency modulation oscillator of upper compatibility chip YM2603 of YM2203.
The MSX version came packaged with a proprietary audio cartridge
to match the music and sound effects of the PC-88 version. The graphic screen is slightly smaller in this version and has longer load-times. Due to time constraints, the developers were forced to truncate the story at the end of Act 2, leaving out the originally planned ending. Konami released a spinoff titled SD Snatcher
for the MSX2 on April 27, 1990. SD Snatcher, an RPG, features an alternate version of the original Snatcher storyline with its own ending.
Snatcher was remade as a Super CD-ROM²
release for the PC Engine under the title of Snatcher: CD-ROMantic, released on October 23, 1992. This version, in addition to offering improved graphics and audio, added voice acting during key portions of the game, as well as Act 3, the planned ending that was not included in the early PC versions. Konami preceded release of Snatcher with a Pilot Disk (released on August 7) containing a playable portion of the game, a trailer-like preview, a database of characters and mechanics of the game, among other features. This was the last version of the game developed by the original team, including Hideo Kojima himself.
In 1996
, Snatcher was ported to the PlayStation (February 12) and Sega Saturn
(March 29). These two 32-bit versions added slightly redone graphics, a CG animated
opening and other subtle changes (most of them derived from the English Mega-CD version). Most of the graphic violence were censored, the talking heads (when a character spoke) were completely redrawn, and the music was completely remixed.
An English localization of Snatcher was produced for the Mega-CD (or Sega CD) in North America
, Europe
and Australia
, all three of those versions were released in December 1994
. The Mega-CD port was produced specifically for the overseas market and was ported from the PC Engine version. The script was translated by Scott T. Hards, with Jeremy Blaustein
(who would later translate Metal Gear Solid
) supervising the localization. This version adds support for Konami's Justifier
light gun
peripheral for the shooting segments.
Several changes were made to conform with the different censorship standards outside Japan, mainly due to sexual content. Katrina's age was changed from 14 in the Japanese version to 18 in the English version (due to a nude shower scene she has in the game) and the exposed breast of a dead Snatcher was covered up. A scene featured in the PC Engine, which depicts a dying dog twitching with its internal organs exposed was redone so the dog is no longer twitching. The clientele at the Outer Heaven night club, which were originally parodies of popular sci-fi characters, were changed to Konami characters to avoid any potential copyright infringement
. The naked Snatchers were also redesigned to lessen the resemblance with the Terminator robot
: their endoskeletons were repainted with olive-colored body parts and their red eyes were changed to green, besides other minimal graphic changes.
The Sega CD version adds an extended opening intro (adapted from the introductory manga
story featured in the manual) and Act 3 was revised to allow more interaction with the player. The ending is extended with the addition of Katrina and Mika in the game's final scene, as well as a cameo from Napoleon.
According to Blaustein, the Sega CD version of Snatcher only sold a "couple of thousand units" in North America. He attributes the game's commercial failure due to Sega's waning support of the add-on at the time of the game's release. Because such a small number of copies exist, Snatcher has become one of the rarest and most sought-after Sega CD games, with copies usually going for over $100 USD on marketplaces like eBay
and Amazon.com.
praised Snatcher for being an ambitious cyberpunk
detective novel graphic adventure that pushed the boundaries of video game storytelling, cinematic cut scenes and mature content in its time. Kurt Kalata of Gamasutra
and Hardcore Gaming 101 praised the game for its graphics, soundtrack, high quality writing comparable to a novel
, voice acting comparable to a film
or radio drama
, post-apocalyptic
science fiction
setting, light gun shooter
segments, and in-game computer database with optional documents that flesh out the game world, though not its use of the amnesia
theme. According to Kalata, the Sega CD version of Snatcher was for a long time the only major visual novel
game to be released in America, where it, despite a Mature (which it actually has a Teen) rating limiting its accessibility, gained a cult following
.
RPG Fan gave the game a score of 95%, praising it for its "amazing story line," every character's "superb development and revelations," the "twists and turns in the plot," and the game's ending. Niall Macdonald of Console Obsession gave the game a score of 9/10, praising it for its "solid game world" as well as "excellent story, stylised visuals and deep concepts." He recommended the game to fans of film noir
and cyberpunk, concluding that it is "not just an excellent interactive movie
, but an example of gaming at its finest."
's Podcast, Hideradio. The prequel is written by Goichi Suda
and directed by Shuyo Murata. A commercial CD release is planned for December 2011, including the music by Akira Yamaoka
. The story revolves around Jean-Jack Gibson, a fellow junker from the original game. A fan translation is available at SDATCHER.net
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name is a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk, and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983...
-themed graphic adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
produced by Konami
Konami
is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
, originally released in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
for the NEC PC-8801
NEC PC-8801
The NEC PC-8801 was an early Zilog Z80-based computer exclusively released in Japan, where it became very popular, by NEC Corporation in 1981. It was informally called the "PC-88"....
and MSX
MSX
MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...
2 computer platforms in 1988. It was followed by a CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
-based remake released for the PC Engine
TurboGrafx-16
TurboGrafx-16, fully titled as TurboGrafx-16 Entertainment SuperSystem and known in Japan as the , is a video game console developed by Hudson Soft and NEC, released in Japan on October 30, 1987, and in North America on August 29, 1989....
video game console in 1992, which was subsequently ported and localized into English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
for the Mega-CD/Sega CD in 1994. Snatcher was the second video game written and directed by Hideo Kojima
Hideo Kojima
is a Japanese game director originally employed at Konami. He is currently the director of Kojima Productions and was promoted to Vice President of Konami Digital Entertainment in early 2011...
, following the original Metal Gear
Metal Gear
Metal Gear is a series of video games.Metal Gear may also refer to:*Metal Gear , bipedal tanks appearing in the Metal Gear series-Metal Gear video game series:...
for the MSX2. The game's story centers around an investigator named Gillian Seed, who is assigned to investigate a breed of bioroids known as "Snatchers", who are killing humans and taking their place in society. The game is known for its heavy influence from science fiction cult films such as Blade Runner
Blade Runner
Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
, Akira
Akira (film)
is a 1988 Japanese animated cyberpunk science fiction film directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, written by Otomo and Izo Hashimoto, and starring the voices of Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama and Taro Ishida. The screenplay is based on Otomo's manga Akira....
and The Terminator
The Terminator
The Terminator is a 1984 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, co-written by Cameron and William Wisher Jr., and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, and Linda Hamilton. The film was produced by Hemdale Film Corporation and distributed by Orion Pictures, and filmed in Los...
.
Gameplay
The game is set in a primarily first person perspective and uses a menu-based interface that allows the protagonist (Gillian Seed) to interact with his environment. The player can choose to "Look", "Investigate", "Talk", "Ask" and "Move" (in addition to other options) to acquire key items or receive vital information from other characters. The player can analyze items in Gillian's belongings or show it to other characters. The player uses Metal Gear (Gillian's robotic assistant) to communicate with other characters via a videophoneVideophone
A videophone is a telephone with a video screen, and is capable of full duplex video and audio transmissions for communication between people in real-time...
or save their current progress. During key points of the game's story, the player must pass shooting sequences to defend Gillian from assailants. These shooting segments uses a 3x3 grid which the player can target to fire at enemies. A shooting trainer, called "Junker's Eyes", is accessible at Junker HQ that allows the player to measure their accuracy.
Plot and setting
On June 6, 1996 (1991 in the Japanese versions), a chemical weapon known as Lucifer-Alpha under development in Chernoton, RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, is released into the atmosphere, resulting in the death of 80% of the Eurasian population which in turn results in the death of half of the world's population. The contaminated area becomes uninhabitable for a decade, when Lucifer-Alpha mutates into a non-lethal form. This tragic event later becomes known as "the Catastrophe".
Fifty years later, a breed of artificial life-forms or bioroids
Biorobotics
Biorobotics is a term that loosely covers the fields of cybernetics, bionics and even genetic engineering as a collective study.Biorobotics is often used to refer to a real subfield of robotics: studying how to make robots that emulate or simulate living biological organisms mechanically or even...
known as "snatchers" began appearing in the artificial island of Neo Kobe City, killing their victims and taking their place in society. Nobody knows exactly what they are or where they come from. As Gillian Seed, an amnesiac working for an Anti-Snatcher task force called J.U.N.K.E.R., the player's goal is to track down the source of the snatchers and discover Gillian's mysterious connections with them.
Characters
- The protagonist. An amnesiac with mysterious ties to the "Snatcher" menace. He joins JUNKER as its newest "Runner" (a type of field operative).
- Gillian's robotic sidekick. A "navigator" who serves as an on-site forensic analizer and has a built-in videophone. His designer Harry Benson claims that he designed Metal after the "Metal GearMetal Gear (weapon)is the name for a series of fictional mecha in the Metal Gear series. In the series, a Metal Gear is defined as a bipedal nuclear equipped tank, but in the case of Metal Gear RAY, is a large bipedal tank designed to destroy other Metal Gear...
threat from the late 20th century" (a bipedal tank from the eponymous video gameMetal GearMetal Gear is a series of video games.Metal Gear may also refer to:*Metal Gear , bipedal tanks appearing in the Metal Gear series-Metal Gear video game series:...
).
- Gillian's estranged wife, who was found alongside him, with no recollection of her past. Employed at Neo Kobe Pharmaceuticals at the start of the game.
- A mysterious bounty hunter who assists Gillian during the course of the story. Rides a one-wheeled motorcycle known as the "Road Runner", and bears a strong resemblance to the character Roy Batty from the film Blade Runner.
- The receptionist at JUNKER HQ. A young attractive woman of Japanese and Jewish descent.
- The young daughter of a JUNKER agent, who works as a model.
- JUNKER's mechanic. He survived the Catastrophe when he was a child. Designer of the robotic navigators "Little John" and "Metal Gear Mk. II".
- JUNKER's commanding chief. A special forces veteran.
- Katrina's father and the only other living field operative of JUNKER at the start of the story. He has a robotic navigator of his own called Little John, which unlike Metal Gear, was not programmed with a voice.
- An informant who suffers from allergies.
- The Director of Queens Hospital.
- A Russian scientist who was involved in a top secret Soviet project prior to the events of the Catastrophe.
Japanese versions
1988 in video gaming
-Events:*June — Nintendo releases the last issue of "Nintendo fun club news";*July — Nintendo releases the first issue of Nintendo Power magazine.-Notable releases:*January 8, Konami releases Super Contra....
for the PC-8801
NEC PC-8801
The NEC PC-8801 was an early Zilog Z80-based computer exclusively released in Japan, where it became very popular, by NEC Corporation in 1981. It was informally called the "PC-88"....
(on November 26) and MSX
MSX
MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...
2 (December 13) computer platforms. The first versions were released on floppy disk
Floppy disk
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...
s and were entirely text-based with no voice acting, instead a unique sounding bleep occurred when a character spoke.
The PC-8801mkIISR (PC-88SR) version not only corresponds to three channel output frequency modulation oscillator (YM2203) but also corresponds to the output frequency modulation oscillator of upper compatibility chip YM2603 of YM2203.
The MSX version came packaged with a proprietary audio cartridge
Konami Sound Cartridge
The Konami Sound Cartridge is supplied with the MSXvideo games Snatcher and SD Snatcher. Sometimes it is known as the SCC+. It includes a slightly improved Konami SCC sound chip and 64kB of volatile RAM...
to match the music and sound effects of the PC-88 version. The graphic screen is slightly smaller in this version and has longer load-times. Due to time constraints, the developers were forced to truncate the story at the end of Act 2, leaving out the originally planned ending. Konami released a spinoff titled SD Snatcher
SD Snatcher
SD Snatcher is a role-playing video game by Konami for the MSX2 computer platform in exclusively in Japan. It is a spinoff of the original Snatcher, adapting the same storyline into a different genre...
for the MSX2 on April 27, 1990. SD Snatcher, an RPG, features an alternate version of the original Snatcher storyline with its own ending.
Snatcher was remade as a Super CD-ROM²
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
release for the PC Engine under the title of Snatcher: CD-ROMantic, released on October 23, 1992. This version, in addition to offering improved graphics and audio, added voice acting during key portions of the game, as well as Act 3, the planned ending that was not included in the early PC versions. Konami preceded release of Snatcher with a Pilot Disk (released on August 7) containing a playable portion of the game, a trailer-like preview, a database of characters and mechanics of the game, among other features. This was the last version of the game developed by the original team, including Hideo Kojima himself.
In 1996
1996 in video gaming
-Notable releases:*January 29 — Duke Nukem 3D, successor to the simple side-scrolling originals, and a genre-redefining title for first person shooters....
, Snatcher was ported to the PlayStation (February 12) and Sega Saturn
Sega Saturn
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...
(March 29). These two 32-bit versions added slightly redone graphics, a CG animated
Computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....
opening and other subtle changes (most of them derived from the English Mega-CD version). Most of the graphic violence were censored, the talking heads (when a character spoke) were completely redrawn, and the music was completely remixed.
English version
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, all three of those versions were released in December 1994
1994 in video gaming
-Events:*Nintendo calls this year "1994: The Year of the Cartridge".*Nintendo Australia Pty. Ltd, the Australian subsidiary of Nintendo Co., Ltd is established and opened by Hiroshi Yamauchi and effectively ends Mattel Australia's distribution of Nintendo's products throughout Australia.*"Project...
. The Mega-CD port was produced specifically for the overseas market and was ported from the PC Engine version. The script was translated by Scott T. Hards, with Jeremy Blaustein
Jeremy Blaustein
Jeremy Blaustein is a Japanese translator and localization coordinator specializing in the localization of video games, such as Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill 2, as well as anime and other television programs, such as Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl...
(who would later translate Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid
is a videogame by Hideo Kojima. The game was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and first published by Konami in 1998 for the PlayStation video game console. It is the sequel to Kojimas early MSX2 computer games Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake...
) supervising the localization. This version adds support for Konami's Justifier
Konami Justifier
The Konami Justifier was a light gun used in numerous video arcade and home console games developed and/or published by Konami and Sega. Konami manufactured variations of the gun for the Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Super Nintendo, and PlayStation consoles. The gun was similar in appearance to a Colt...
light gun
Light gun
A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games.Modern screen-based light guns work by building a sensor into the gun itself, and the on-screen target emit light rather than the gun...
peripheral for the shooting segments.
Several changes were made to conform with the different censorship standards outside Japan, mainly due to sexual content. Katrina's age was changed from 14 in the Japanese version to 18 in the English version (due to a nude shower scene she has in the game) and the exposed breast of a dead Snatcher was covered up. A scene featured in the PC Engine, which depicts a dying dog twitching with its internal organs exposed was redone so the dog is no longer twitching. The clientele at the Outer Heaven night club, which were originally parodies of popular sci-fi characters, were changed to Konami characters to avoid any potential copyright infringement
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
. The naked Snatchers were also redesigned to lessen the resemblance with the Terminator robot
Terminator (character concept)
In the Terminator film series, a terminator is an autonomous robot, typically humanoid, originally conceived as a virtually indestructible soldier and assassin, as well as an infiltrator....
: their endoskeletons were repainted with olive-colored body parts and their red eyes were changed to green, besides other minimal graphic changes.
The Sega CD version adds an extended opening intro (adapted from the introductory manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
story featured in the manual) and Act 3 was revised to allow more interaction with the player. The ending is extended with the addition of Katrina and Mika in the game's final scene, as well as a cameo from Napoleon.
According to Blaustein, the Sega CD version of Snatcher only sold a "couple of thousand units" in North America. He attributes the game's commercial failure due to Sega's waning support of the add-on at the time of the game's release. Because such a small number of copies exist, Snatcher has become one of the rarest and most sought-after Sega CD games, with copies usually going for over $100 USD on marketplaces like eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
and Amazon.com.
Reception
Snatcher has been critically acclaimed by reviewers. 1UP1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
praised Snatcher for being an ambitious cyberpunk
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name is a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk, and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983...
detective novel graphic adventure that pushed the boundaries of video game storytelling, cinematic cut scenes and mature content in its time. Kurt Kalata of Gamasutra
Gamasutra
Gamasutra is a website founded in 1997 for video game developers. It is owned and operated by UBM TechWeb , a division of United Business Media, and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine Game Developer...
and Hardcore Gaming 101 praised the game for its graphics, soundtrack, high quality writing comparable to a novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
, voice acting comparable to a film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
or radio drama
Radio drama
Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...
, post-apocalyptic
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction
Apocalyptic fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that is concerned with the end of civilization due to a potentially existential catastrophe such as nuclear warfare, pandemic, extraterrestrial attack, impact event, cybernetic revolt, technological singularity, dysgenics, supernatural...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
setting, light gun shooter
Light gun shooter
Light gun shooter, also called light gun game or simply gun game, is a shooter video game genre in which the primary design element is aiming and shooting with a gun-shaped controller. Light gun shooters revolve around the protagonist shooting targets, either antagonists or inanimate objects...
segments, and in-game computer database with optional documents that flesh out the game world, though not its use of the amnesia
Amnesia
Amnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...
theme. According to Kalata, the Sega CD version of Snatcher was for a long time the only major visual novel
Visual novel
A is an interactive fiction game featuring mostly static graphics, usually with anime-style art, or occasionally live-action stills or video footage...
game to be released in America, where it, despite a Mature (which it actually has a Teen) rating limiting its accessibility, gained a cult following
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
.
RPG Fan gave the game a score of 95%, praising it for its "amazing story line," every character's "superb development and revelations," the "twists and turns in the plot," and the game's ending. Niall Macdonald of Console Obsession gave the game a score of 9/10, praising it for its "solid game world" as well as "excellent story, stylised visuals and deep concepts." He recommended the game to fans of film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
and cyberpunk, concluding that it is "not just an excellent interactive movie
Interactive movie
An interactive movie is a video game that features highly cinematic presentation and heavy use of scripting, often through the use of full-motion video of either animated or live-action footage.-Philosophy:...
, but an example of gaming at its finest."
Prequel 'SDATCHER'
SDATCHER is a seven episode bi-weekly radio play, airing as part of Hideo KojimaHideo Kojima
is a Japanese game director originally employed at Konami. He is currently the director of Kojima Productions and was promoted to Vice President of Konami Digital Entertainment in early 2011...
's Podcast, Hideradio. The prequel is written by Goichi Suda
Goichi Suda
, is the CEO of Grasshopper Manufacture. The "51" in his nickname, Suda51, is a pun on his given name. In Japanese, "Go" means 5 and "ichi" means 1. His works include Moonlight Syndrome, The Silver Case, Flower, Sun and Rain, Michigan, killer7, the No More Heroes series, and most recently, Shadows...
and directed by Shuyo Murata. A commercial CD release is planned for December 2011, including the music by Akira Yamaoka
Akira Yamaoka
is a video game composer, sound designer, sound director, and video game producer who worked for Konami since 1993 until his resignation in 2009. He is best known for creating the music in the Silent Hill series; he also worked as a sound director and producer on the series as well as serving as a...
. The story revolves around Jean-Jack Gibson, a fellow junker from the original game. A fan translation is available at SDATCHER.net
External links
- Hardcore Gaming 101 - Article on the game and regional differences with photos
- The Snatcher Experience - Comparison between Snatcher and Blade Runner
- JUNKER HQ - Snatcher research, scans and information
- The Kremlin - A Snatcher fansite that mostly focuses on the SEGA CD version.
- Complete playthrough.