Aw man, I was sort of enjoying my vacation!
102. Shadowrun (SNES, Data East/Beam Software)
Brief Synopsis – Based on the popular cyberpunk pen-and-paper series, Shadowrun places you into a dystopic RPG that was more edgy than your standard JRPG of the era. With real-time combat and deep speech options, not to mention far more mature environments and some gritty writing, Shadowrun redefined what a RPG on a console could be.
Why is it Missing? – Well, it’s not for lack of trying. The creator of Shadowrun, Jordan Weisman, would love to re-release this and its Genesis counterpart, but unfortunately the games are lost in licensing limbo:
“It’s a matter of tracking them down,” he says. “We’ve actually been trying to track down the [Data East / Beam So{f}tware] SNES title because we would love to be able to in some way offer that to the fans. We’ll see where that goes, but I certainly don’t want to make any promises about it because we need to find out who owns it at this point.
“But we’re working on it. I think it is just, so far, lost in that change of title. And then there will be finding ways of being able to adapt it. So, there’s some hurdles there, which I think is why it hasn’t happened so far. We’re trying to see if we can figure that out. But again, it’s complete pie in the sky.”
Grim reality, once again taking away content from us. The good news in all this is that his Kickstarter campaign to create a proper sequel to these games has done spectacularly, so there will at least be a new title based on their framework.
Other (Legal) Options – The Super NES version is unique from its Genesis cousin, and to my knowledge they were only released on those systems. So, Super NES only for this particular rendition of Shadowrun’s world.
Jason X
/ June 29, 2012I think the Japanese actually got a Sega CD Shadowrun, as well, which was also different from the Genesis and Super NES versions. It’s a shame that this franchise really isn’t being shared with new generations of players.
Wildcat-Lvl
/ June 29, 2012Well, at least Weisman is trying to find the license holders to re-release them. That’s better than most.
Bosstiger
/ August 27, 2012Reblogged this on Gigable – Tech Blog.