Snatcher was released 25 years ago

Tizoc

Tizoc

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In Late 1988, Hideo Kojima's cyberpunk adventure game was released on PC-8801 & MSX2, over the next decade, it got re-released on the PC Engine and other disc based consoles of the 90s at the time.

The game's only English release was on the SEGA CD.

Snatcher got a radio drama prequel called SDATCHER written by the one and only
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hitoshi said:
Yes, there is, and it is amazing! Also, Hardcore Gaming 101's article is still the best about the game:

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/snatcher/snatcher.htm
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What would you say is the best ver. of the game to play? Been wanting to play this for the longest time.
 
I was really confused when I read "25 years ago" and then saw Sega Saturn cover art. I was like, how could my math possibly be that bad.
 
Snatcher is one of my all time favorites. Its probably my favorite Kojima game overall too. The characters, setting, music, and atmosphere in general all come together so well. The first time I played that game was an unforgetable experience.

I played the Sega CD version. Not entirely sure how it stacks up to the others in terms of censorship and stuff like that.
 
Unless you know Japanese the Sega CD version is your only choice. I actually played it for the first time about a month ago. Its ok I guess. Nothing great.
 
Makes me sad that Kojima will probably never go back to this style of game and all I've been asking is for a HD version for the last 5 years. But Konami doesn't seem to care about us Snatcher fans :(
 
Kojima's best game, imo. A classic. Happy birthday, GIllian!

Pappasman said:
I played the Sega CD version. Not entirely sure how it stacks up to the others in terms of censorship and stuff like that.
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From my earlier post:

The changes to EU/US versions from the JP version are:

-A dog is still barely alive after being eviscerated by a Snatcher. It's dead in the english version.

-A female Snatcher's dress comes undone after you kill her and exposes a breast. She's covered up in the english version.

-A porn video can no longer be discovered and watched in a shop.

-A very young girl's age is changed to make her more legal, which makes your character's lechery toward her less weird, her shower scene removes an ass shot, oddly though was redrawn for the english version with some very obvious nipples poking through her towel not present in the Japanese versions.

And that's pretty much it. Nothing significant is changed, including some very stark violence and horror. For english speakers, it's the definitive version by a country mile. Jeremy Blaustein's VA team worked wonders and Kojima was apparently thrilled with the work they did.
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Lakitu said:
Makes me sad that Kojima will probably never go back to this style of game and all I've been asking is for a HD version for the last 5 years. But Konami doesn't seem to care about us Snatcher fans :(
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Even if it's not a full on old school adventure game (or graphic adventure/visual novel/whatever the hell Snatcher is), I'd love to see Kojima revisit the universe, look, and atmosphere with a new Snatcher game. Unfortunately it seems like he'll forever be attached to MGS.
 
One of my favorite games of all time. I played it when I was a young teenager and didn't realize at the time Kojima was the same guy that made Metal Gear, one of my other favorite games of all time. You can imagine my face when I watched the credits to Snatcher and realized the same guy made Metal Gear.

God, 25 years? Really? I'm fucking old. I'd kill for an HD remake. Barring that I really, really, really want to play Policenaughts. I know there was a fan translation for us in the U.S. who never got to play it, but I still don't know how to do so legally. Do I have to buy like a Japanese Saturn or something to play it? I really want to play it, but legally.

It's at the point where if Konami doesn't want to re-release it, I hope there's a Kickstarter or something.
 
Bought a genesis and mega cd just for this game.
Payed 60€ for the game and then I got stuck because the cd had a scratch.
So I bought an other version for around the same.

Was worth it.
Awesome game.

Like to see am other one like snatcher and policenauts.
 
My favorite Kojima game with MGS1. Great 80s cyberpunk atmosphere and aesthetics; and from a gameplay viewpoint, I love how the first chapter give an impression of freedom to the player while not being fundamentally less linear than the following chapters.

As the Sega CD version cost a little too much on the auction sites, the only version that I own is the CD-ROMantic on Pc-engine. It comes with a nice little comics about Random.
 
GillianSeed79 said:
One of my favorite games of all time. I played it when I was a young teenager and didn't realize at the time Kojima was the same guy that made Metal Gear, one of my other favorite games of all time. You can imagine my face when I watched the credits to Snatcher and realized the same guy made Metal Gear.

God, 25 years? Really? I'm fucking old. I'd kill for an HD remake. Barring that I really, really, really want to play Policenaughts. I know there was a fan translation for us in the U.S. who never got to play it, but I still don't know how to do so legally. Do I have to buy like a Japanese Saturn or something to play it? I really want to play it, but legally.

It's at the point where if Konami doesn't want to re-release it, I hope there's a Kickstarter or something.
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lol I made it about halfway through Policenauts way back before the translation, not completely understanding everything(only very very basic Japanese)
but I still enjoyed the hell out of it.
with translation though, its a masterpiece.
 
And don't forget the OST.
So many awesome tracks.

The intro track is so badass.


And it is the game I got my name from.
 
Such an amazing game. I make it a point to play it at least once a year, along with Turtles in Time and Famicom Detective Club. It's still is one of the best Japanese adventure games ever made.
 
So good, I remember playing this on my PC-Engine. Didn't understand a word of Japanese but damn, the atmosphere and music were awesome. Replayed it later when the Sega CD english version was out.
 
Razgriz-Specter said:
with translation though, its a masterpiece.
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The 'Lethal Weapon' similarities were overplayed and not that really funny or interesting as characters looked more like archetypes than true characters, but I love how the game addressed in a very pessimistic way the subject of space conquest - it really did help to add some depths to the setting.
 
GillianSeed79 said:
Do you know how to play the fan translation legally? I tried doing some research on it a few years ago, but it was something like you had to have a copy of the Japanese PS1 or Saturn version (I forget) of Policenaughts to play it legally without being a pirate. I'd actually be willing to do that if I had the spare cash around some day.
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Rip the iso, patch the image, and either play on an emulator or burn the patched image and play on a modded system.
 
GillianSeed79 said:
Barring that I really, really, really want to play Policenaughts. I know there was a fan translation for us in the U.S. who never got to play it, but I still don't know how to do so legally. Do I have to buy like a Japanese Saturn or something to play it? I really want to play it, but legally.
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Just buy a Japanese PSX copy and rip it, patch it and play it on an emulator or a modded PSX.

EDIT:beaten
 
I've heard about this game. I was told it is the 'Blade Runner' of games, whatever that's supposed to mean.

Anyway if I wanted to get around to playing this on PC how would I go about it? Looks like there's lots of versions...
 
Which theme tune is better, the "one night in Koebe City" or the theme tune to Policenauts? Which I thought was awesome personally, never played it though, I recently watched the walkthroughs of both games on Youtube! Great games, Surprised Kojima hasn't gone back to these, especially Policenauts..
 
From the camera of MrCunningham comes a blurry and glarey photo:

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Even with the lights on in this room, I still had to use the flash. I fail at photography. But I still have my original copy of the game, complete with half torn "new" sticker. I remember only paying like $15.00 from an Electronics Boutique back in 1996 or so. Really awesome find.


Pappasman said:
I played the Sega CD version. Not entirely sure how it stacks up to the others in terms of censorship and stuff like that.
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There really isn't much censoring in the English Sega CD version, to be honest. A few small things here and there, but nothing that affects the story of the game in any meaningful way. From what I understand the Japanese PS1 and Saturn versions are actually more censored than the Sega CD game in many ways. The PC Engine CD version is one of the least censored that contains all three acts of the game. From what I understand the PC-8801 version didn't even have the final third act of the game that is found in the PCE versions onward. It ends on a cliffhanger.


MacNille said:
So... do anyone where you can get it today?
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The game was released on PC-8801, MSX2:, PC-Engine Super CD-ROM²:, Sega-CD/ Mega CD, PlayStation: and the Sega Saturn, so Ebay is your best bet... unless you use those other means... you know the ones.
 
I liked it a lot, but the last hour or so is nothing but talking and odd plot twists. You can clearly see there where Kojima's love for cutscenes and exposition comes from.
 
NewGame said:
I've heard about this game. I was told it is the 'Blade Runner' of games, whatever that's supposed to mean..
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Well, to be fair, it's kind of the Blade Runner of games because basically Kojima wasn't shy about lifting or downright copying stuff from popular culture back in the day. I'm pretty sure they actually used some of the concept art for Blade Runner to make the backgrounds for Snatcher. Gillian Seed is basically Harrison Ford's Deckard character in Blade Runner at least in visual design. There's also a big terminator influence in Snatcher too. The bad guys are basically Terminators. With Policenaughts, at least from what I understand, it's Lethal Weapon in space and one of the main characters is basically modeled after Mel Gibson.

Which actually wasn't that uncommon for Kojima back in the day. The cover art for Metal Gear is basically is a replica of a shot of Kyle Reese in Terminator. I even think they had to replace the codec portraits in the American release of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake when it was finally released in the US with MGS3 Subsistence. In the original MSX version that was never released here, the codec portraits were Mel Gibson for Snake and the Big Boss character portrait was Sean Connery. Kojima is a big movie buff, but nobody really gave a shit about copyright infringement back in the 1980s and early 1990s when it came to Japanese videogames.
 
Never played it but a preview in either GamePro or EGM was the first time I had ever seen gore in a video game.

Ended up watching a playthrough on Youtube because I had put off playing it for too long but I wanted to know its cyberpunk story for reference.
 
This and Policenauts are really fantastic. Unlike anything I have ever played. May I should check out some more point and click adventure games or something.
 
RAIDEN1 said:
Which theme tune is better, the "one night in Koebe City" or the theme tune to Policenauts? Which I thought was awesome personally, never played it though, I recently watched the walkthroughs of both games on Youtube! Great games, Surprised Kojima hasn't gone back to these, especially Policenauts..
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Policenauts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibhd88GjdCQ
awesome on its own with the added bonus of crazy amounts of MGS1 Konami logo nostalgia.
 
...I'm surprised no-one has ever asked Kojima would he be interested in going back to these series anytime soon?
 
Man, I loved this game :) The atmosphere and music had that lovely 80's vibe.
I finished Snatcher and Policenauts both in a few days and enjoyed every minute. Check it out, guys!
 
The memories! One of the first adventure games I played. And SD Snatcher was one of the first JRPG's I played. Love both games. When playing it as a kid, I didn't really get the whole element of the impact of 1/3 of the world population killed. As a setting rather original - most games are either world intact or world completely gone to (post-apocalyptic) shit. Snatcher sorta hoovers in-between, like Children of Men.

If Kojima or Konami ever have any interest in returning to the Snatcher universe, I hope they do it in style, perhaps blending elements from modern adventures/RPG hybrids such as Mass Effect and Deus Ex with more traditional JRPG gameplay elements. If they ever go HD remake, I'd rather have an updated SD Snatcher then Snatcher though.
 
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