Snatcher
1988 · Adventure · PC-8801 / MSX2
Overview
Snatcher (1988) is Hideo Kojima's cyberpunk adventure for Konami, in which an amnesiac agent hunts the robots replacing people in Neo Kobe City.
Deep Dive
Humanoid robots called Snatchers are killing people and taking their places. The player is Gillian Seed, an amnesiac American who joins the anti-Snatcher agency JUNKER. Play runs through text menus such as look and investigate, with mostly still images, simple puzzles and a few shooting sections.
Developer Story
Kojima wrote and designed it, drawing on Blade Runner, Akira, The Terminator and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It sold poorly but gained a cult following. The 1992 PC Engine CD version added a third act, and the English Sega CD version of 1994–95 was a commercial failure in North America.
Did You Know?
- Kojima planned five acts but had to cut the story to two because of memory limits, so the original ends on a cliffhanger.
- Its first working title was Junker.
Sources & further reading
- Snatcher (video game) — Wikipedia
