Games that Need Comebacks: Snatcher - News
by Jake Weston , posted on 06 September 2011 / 4,625 Views
Some game series stand the test of time, seeing new, high quality releases every generation, sucking back in old fans while gaining new ones. However, for every Mario, Zelda, and Sonic, there are thousands of great games that had the potential to be great gaming franchises, that just never took off. In this weekly feature, we examine the great games that need to be reintroduced to audiences today.
L
Led by renowned designer Hideo Kojima (of Metal Gear fame), Snatcher was a revelation to those who first played it. While many home console games of the time focused on action and platforming genres, Snatcher's 1994 American release made it one of the first digital novel adventure games to make it stateside. American gamers who had the fortune of owning a SEGA CD add-on had the chance of experiencing one of the earliest attempts of a mature, serious game on a home console.
The digital novel genre was prevalent long before Snatcher , but Snatcher trumped all others in the competition, and showed Americans what the genre was all about. Drawing from noir, science fiction and anime, the best way to describe Snatcher is "Blade Runner meets Terminator meets Japan". The story follows Gillian Seed, a type of detective known as a Junker, who is tasked with rounding up Snatchers, murderous cyborgs that take the appearance of and impersonate normal humans. Of course, being a Hideo Kojima game, many of his sensibilites remain, such as a side-kick robot called the Metal Gear Mk. II (which modern gamers may recognize from Metal Gear Solid 4), a night club called Outer Heaven, and Kojima's trademark fourth-wall breaking.
Unlike many adventure games of the time, Snatcher 's puzzles actually made sense, and could be reasoned through without simply having to rely on trying every available option (though that method works as well). Between interrogating suspects, searching for clues, and typing names into your computer database, Snatcher actually made you feel like a hard-boiled detective. Unlike the hand-holding of games such as L.A. Noire, however, Snatcher actually relied upon you to decipher the facts yourself, as well as figure out what leads to follow up on.
How it could work today:
The success of recent games such as Heavy Rain, L.A. Noire, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution have shown that there is a large audience for mystery thrillers in games. If an updated Snatcher sequel were to draw upon the strenghts of those games while avoiding their weaknesses, while staying true to the core of what Snatcher is about, then it would be an enormous success.
The most satisfying parts of Snatcher were those eureka moments of solving a puzzle, or figuring out what to do next. This aspect must remain for a Snatcher follow up to work. At its heart, Snatcher is about being a detective, and any hand-holding would greatly hurt the game.
/Update%208/5SNATCHER_021.jpg)
Snatcher could also take another cue from modern day gaming with an overhauled dialogue system, such as with Mass Effect and Deus Ex, that would take the conversations down branching paths. Perhaps combine this with L.A. Noire's interrogation system of Truth/Doubt/Lie, but with improvements on the system. Once again, the recent Deus Ex: Human Revolution proves to be a great source of inspiration.
The world and mechanics of Snatcher combined with modern gameplay and graphics could prove to be one of the most unique and refreshing experiences out there. Hideo Kojima has recently stated that a Snatcher sequel is on his "to do list", but commitments to other projects are keeping him from doing it. However, he is finding time to collaborate with Suda 51 (No More Heroes, Killer 7) to produce a radio drama based on the game. It's doubtful if it will ever make it to America, but hopefully the experience will inspire Kojima to return to the gritty, sci-fi, noir world of Snatcher.
What would you guys like to see in a Snatcher sequel? Let us know in the comments!
More Articles
Majora's Mask.
How I wish.
We need Midwinter to comeback : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwinter_(video_game)
Wow you guys just toke that Kotaku article that was wrote yesterday and copy and pasted it ,hell you didn't even bother to take your own screenshots , just copy them as well, good job vgchartz, shame on you.
kotaku . com / 5837305 /snatcher-hideo-kojimas-adventure-masterpiece?tag=total-recall
Wow, talk about coincidence 0_0 I literally submitted this article yesterday, I had NO idea about the Kotaku article. This is awkward...
holy crap, you just copy and pasted that Kotaku article, that is ironically , posted it a couple of days ago, hell you didn't even bother taking screenshots, so you just copied and pasted the screenshots as well, good job VGchartz on effort, good job.
http://kotaku.com/5837305/snatcher-hideo-kojimas-adventure-masterpiece?tag=total-recall
I'd vote for Snowboard Kids, Diddy Kong racing, Streets of rage, Ristar and Mystic Quest :P
How about some "Saturday Night Slam Masters" love?
Wow didin't knew about this game, it sure sounds great. I will included it on my "To play" list :)
Could be a market for it; devs are starting to understand that gamers want to be intellectually challenged, not just stimulated, which means that hopefully more games as intelligent as DE:HR and Heavy Rain can be produced. I would love to see this re-made.
Those times are gone.
Seems that Blade Runner is a major influence for this game, and that's never a bad thing.
Well when Konami's financials depend on Kojima it must be hard to make games like this.
