10 More Great Video Games Nobody Bought
2. Snatcher
Hideo Kojima’s second game project as writer and director, Snatcher was a cyberpunk story inspired by Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Terminator and Bladerunner. It followed a twisting plot about androids killing and replacing humans in a society recovering from biological warfare. The game first launched in Japan in 1988 for PC-8801 and MSX2 and remains charming in a late 80s lo-fi sci-fi kind of way; a fully voice-acted cyberpunk visual novel that feels like a precursor of what the auteur would go on to create.
When Snatcher finally came to the West in 1994 it did so on the Sega CD, when what little light that the system ever had was waning. The game has been described as only selling a “couple of thousand copies” thanks to the Mega Drive peripheral having low sales numbers itself and Snatcher being six years old already by this time.
The game’s spiritual successor, Policenauts, never actually released outside of Japan and one has to wonder if Snatcher’s failure was one contributing factor.
It’s crazy to think about a Kojima game coming out and passing most people by but of course this was before he became the huge name that he is today. Interested players now have to seek Snatcher out via emulation or overpriced resales thanks to the game never having a rerelease in nearly 30 years since it first appeared in the West.