Stealing content from other works normally doesn't get you very far, but most of these "influences" had something in common: they were all adult science-fiction, dealing with technology in a dirty, practical fashion, and featuring dark storylines in which not everything comes up smelling of roses at the end. For fans of this kind of stuff, works of their ilk were strangely rare, and since at the time these series' fanbases (even in Japan) had a lot of dovetailing, Snatcher was a rare opportunity for them to indulge their interests, especially since the game didn't shy away from including at times very graphic imagery of things like corpses (though some of these were toned down for the game's release in the West).

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The other reason Snatcher burns on in many people's hearts is its writing. Kojima is well-known for his love of telling a story, and nowhere does this work to better effect than in Snatcher. Unlike Metal Gear, which is at times simple (owing to it being an action game) and others bloated (owing to the fact it's been around for decades), Snatcher's adventure game setting means Kojima was able to weave his various influences together into a strong, coherent storyline that boasted surprisingly strong writing, both in terms of framing the story and in your dialogue with the game's characters.

Of course, it helped the game also looked gorgeous, especially in its later updates (originally released in 1988 on Japanese computers, it would later be ported and seriously upgraded for the PC Engine, Sega CD, Saturn and PlayStation). It wasn't just the graphics being updated between versions, either; later versions added improved intro sequences and voice acting, while the Sega CD edition (the only one ever released in the West) even had support for Konami's light gun peripheral to make the shooting sequences easier.

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For all the game's critical success, though, it's never seen a sequel, the only other game released bearing the same name being 1990's SD Snatcher, a remake of the 1988 original in the style of a top-down RPG, complete with cute character portraits.

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If you've never played Snatcher, you can check out a high quality playthrough of the Sega CD version here (or, you know, given the fact its only Western release was on a long-dead platform you could find yourself a copy). Also, if you speak Japanese, the first instalment of a radio play based on the franchise, Sdatcher, is now available for download.


Total Recall is a look back at the history of video games through their characters, franchises, developers and trends.