Back in the 90s, the Super Nintendo
pretty much ruled over everyone else. Sure, the Sega Genesis had some pull to it
and had earned its share of diehard fans, but the Nintendo brand name had all
but conquered the industry. The only problem with that is Nintendo is a very,
very PC company. (By PC, I mean "Politically Correct" and not "Personal
Computer".) Their games were designed with the idea of not hurting the player's
feelings, so you were never given "lives" in any Nintendo made game, you had
1Ups, or "Continues".
So when this title came out, it must have
come as a huge shock to some people who had grown accustomed to the coddling
afforded them in previous games. When looking at the source material for
Shadowrun, it's hard to imagine it being any other way besides dark and
foreboding. The game's based on the old FASA pen and paper role-playing game of
the same name.
A game set in the year 2050 where
information has become the new currency and where skyscrapers blot out the sun.
In the shadows is where the general populace found their hope. For there, in
between the cracks, they could hack the systems, and fight back at the
corporations, or just eke out a means of subsistence for themselves. When
something really, really needed to get from one place to another safely, you
used a courier who would store the information in a computer in his skull and
ferry it from one place to another, and upload the information once he got to
the client.
Sometimes, someone doesn't want this
information to get to the other client, and they take out the courier. That's
where you come in... You've just been taken out. Sucks to be you. Less than 30
seconds into the game, and they're shoving your ass into a morgue locker. The
Nintendo guys must have flipped when they first saw this.
Anyway, you are Jake Armitage. You don't
remember anything except that you were almost killed a couple minutes ago, and
you'd really like to prevent a repeat occurrence. Time to find out what you
know, and what's in your head. (Sounds odd, but they actually are two different
things this time.) At the beginning of this game, you don't even know where you
live. You have to go find your apartment again. That's how messed up you are. In
addition, you gotta find yourself a gun POSTHASTE. That's because as you walk on
around on the streets people will pop up from everywhere and start shooting at
you.
Becoming a Karma Whore
Combat works
very simple once you've found yourself a gun. Hit the "A" button to bring up a
target cursor, and hit the "A" button again to start firing at whatever's under
your cursor, whether it be a Sniper, Orc, or just a Busy Man. (You know how you
get less busy? You die.) After you've gotten yourself some magic spells, you'll
use those in a similar method, only substituting the "X" button for the "A"
button. Along the way you'll be able to pick up other party members and buy
yourself new weaponry. Building up your character is done through "Karma". Kill
a certain amount of evil people, and your Karma goes up. When you reach a bed to
rest at, you can spend your Karma. Kill innocent people, or just shoot at
civilians who aren't firing at you, and you'll be rebuked by the computer, and
lose Karma. Karma is used to raise your stats and skills. You learn new skills
by either buying upgrade modules for your computer, or by talking to people who
have the skills. To raise a stat or a skill, you need Karma points that are
equal to what you currently have that skill at. I.e., if you want to raise a
stat from 3 to 4, it costs you 3 points.
Basic Instructions to Aid in your
Quest
You'll get from one part of the city to another by using the 1-car
monorail. It seems inefficient, but the plus side is that you never have to wait
more than 3 seconds for a car to come pick you up. Interacting with objects is
done by using the "B" button. If you're too far away from an object, the game'll
let you know, and you'll be given a list of interactions you can have with that
object. The "Y" button will allow you to bring up an items menu, and this
interface is kind frustrating, especially since the items don't disappear after
they've been used. I mean, I wouldn't be carrying around the key from the first
locked door in the first area of the game in any other system, so it's a big
hassle to scroll all the way down through the item list later on. A much more
elegant way to work all of this out would just figure out what items in your
inventory were meant to be used in this situation, and then just go ahead and
use them. What's also annoying is that the Start button brings up a menu, too,
but it has an entirely different purpose. I would have just made one menu for
the two of them if this was going to be the case, especially since they look
nearly identical.
He Dreams In Digital...
Another facet of the game is
"Decking". A decker is someone who is proficient in the use of a CyberDeck, a
computer that one can use to connect to the information network that houses all
of the world's data known as... The Matrix. That's right. The Matrix. How
random is that? I hope FASA got some cash out of the guys who stole their
concept. I mean, this was like maybe a decade before the movie. While you're
decking, it basically plays out like a big game of Minesweeper. You're trying to
get your guy over to the little data cubes on the network. The path is blocked
by ICs, programs designed to stop intruders from making off with their data. You
can't see where the ICs are, but you can tell how many of them are in squares
around you. Hitting the "B" button will try and engage the ICs in combat, but
you don't always win. It also costs you health. Die while jacking into The
Matrix and you die for good. The graphics for the game look a little dated, but
that's because the game's 9 years old. Also, the random guys popping their heads
out of peepholes and shooting at your gets really old after a few hours.
Especially when you have to keep healing your loser party members. One
impressive thing for the time it was made is the use of stereo and volume
effects for the game. If you're trying to get to a club that's cranking music,
you'll hear the music get louder as you get closer to the club. On top of that,
most of the music from the game is pretty good. One of the few times I've caught
myself actually noticing that music in a game was actually enjoyable to listen
to.
Present Day
This game's engrossing to this day. If you can find a ROM
or a cart of it around, knock yourself out and pick it up. I mean, what else is
out right now?
Tsunami 2265? You're better off poking out your own eyes. A trip down
memory lane that proves to be almost exactly as much fun as you remember it
being. Do yourself a favor and revisit this classic. Unfortunately, you're
unlikely to see a newer version of this game, as Microsoft has the rights to the
game license (probably picked up at about the same time they had the MechWarrior
license.) and then scrapped the game they were going to make with the license.
Uncoolness.
