We’ve been blessed with dozens of Saturn translations over recent years, but today we give a nod to one of the trailblazers: the 2016 fan translation of Hideo Kojima’s Policenauts. A 1994 PC-98 release that saw ports to consoles including the Japanese Saturn in 1996, the game was penciled in for official localization… but ended up cancelled.
Massive shame, as the Saturn version is considered the definitive Policenauts experience with additional scenes, an in-game glossary, and Stunner light gun support not found in other versions. Policenauts is best described as a hard science fiction fusion of point-and-click visual novel interspersed with shooting scenes, thus also supporting the Shuttle Mouse (or NetLink Mouse) in addition to the lightgun.
You take the role of private investigator Jonathan Inghram of Old Los Angeles, and in the game’s opening scenes, accept a job just before your client is murdered right outside your offices. Packing your guns and your cigarettes, you’re off chasing the suspect, unknowingly launching yourself into the heart of a web of lies and deceit that transcends space and time.
Widely considered a Kojima cult classic, the game was very well rated upon release, being hailed as a masterpiece of storytelling. Mature players, step this way — this is no romp through Green Hill Zone.
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