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Metal Gear creator Kojima talks Snatcher, potential mobile adventures
Though it's not likely that we'll see a Hideo Kojima game on mobile devices in the near future, it is a possibility that the Metal Gear Solid creator has put some thought into. In a interview broadcast via Twitch, Kojima sat down with Geoff Keighley to field questions from the public. When asked if he'd ever develop a game for the mobile platform, Kojima stated that he has no desire to create the short, replayable diversions that constitute most mobile games. Instead, he cites indie hit Papers, Please as a personal favorite and claims that he would eventually like to develop "a practical, easy to play adventure game that is quite deep." "[I have] no idea when I'll be able to do this, but I'll ask," Kojima added via translator. "[H]opefully someday in the future I will be able to develop one of those, but unfortunately, right now, my full time is devoted to The Phantom Pain." A later question centered on the future of Snatcher, Kojima's cult classic adventure game that, while highly regarded, has been overshadowed by Metal Gear Solid. While Kojima would like to see Snatcher return, he has no time to develop a sequel himself, but wouldn't be opposed to someone else reviving the sci fi epic. "If someone wants to adapt those games ... I would definitely support that person, I would help out that person, but I don't think there are too many people like that."
Snatcher devs reunite for steampunk adventure Blackmore
Watching the Kickstarter pitch video for steampunk-themed adventure game Blackmore is like watching your favorite band get back together - if your favorite song by said band was the cyberpunk adventure game Snatcher, that is. Jeremy Blaustein, localizer for Snatcher, Metal Gear Solid and the Silent Hill series, is heading up a new studio called iQiOi in hopes of developing Blackmore, a game he says has been his "dream" since he started working in the industry. His dream has until March 12 to raise $200,000. Blaustein has tapped several other creators who contributed to Snatcher as well. Satoshi Yoshioka will reprise his role as character designer, while Motoaki Furukawa will handle the game's soundtrack. Blaustein has also recruited David Hayter to voice main character Emma Blackmore's brother, Jonas. There's no footage or screenshots available yet, though the game's Kickstarter page describes gameplay as "classic point and click" in a isometric-view, 2.5D environment. Players will guide Emma through a gadget-laden, steam-powered vision of 1888 London on a quest to catch a murderer. Those more historically-minded may recognize the date as the year Jack The Ripper began his infamous killing spree. Should Blackmore pick up enough steam - and money - Blaustein plans to release the game for PC and Mac in spring of 2015.
Hideo Kojima recalls Snatcher's heat-activated disk (what?)
Among the many things that Metal Gear series creator Hideo Kojima is known for – microblogging about everything he eats, for instance – we're particularly interested in his proclivity for breaking the fourth wall. The first Metal Gear Solid's controller port trick is but one example of his bizarre, outside-the-box thinking when it comes to making games. As it turns out, he was trying to do so as early as 1988, when he first worked on the original Snatcher for Konami.During a roundtable interview session today, just ahead of his appearance at the Smithsonian's "The Art of Videogames" event, Kojima detailed his first forays beyond the game as presented on screen. "Back when I was making Snatcher, which is a PC game – at the time we used floppy disks," he said. "One thing that I wanted to do that I wasn't able to do was that I wanted to have a secret message on the disk -- actually have something written or printed on the disk." Kojima wanted the missive to be heat activated – which is to say "activated by the heat created by the disk drive itself." S ... seriously?"So maybe when you put it in your disk drive and you're playing for about fifteen minutes, the heat from the disk drive interacts with that chemical and creates a certain smell. It smells like blood or something like that," he said through a translator. "And when you pull it out you see like a dying message on the disk. That was actually an idea I had for the original Snatcher but unfortunately I got yelled at for it and they didn't let me do it." Isn't it always "they?" Those guys are the worst!
Sdatcher radio drama begins, swag for sale at TGS
For those of you who can understand Japanese, or just like the way it sounds, the first act of Kojima Productions and Suda 51's "Sdatcher" radio drama has been posted. You can access it from the Snatcher-inspired website set up for the series. And if you're the type of person who has been waiting for years for new Snatcher merchandise, and plans on attending Tokyo Game Show -- we're mostly referring to ourselves here -- Konami will be selling some exclusive Sdatcher stuff, including a postcard set and a clear file folder. We'll make sure to look and sound as American as we can, to send a clear message to Konami staff that there are Anglophones who are way into this stuff.
'Sdatcher' radio drama will be distributed for free, sold on CD later
In a tweet, Hideo Kojima announced that the Snatcher-universe radio drama, "Suda 51's Sdatcher," will be released as a free download. A CD will be sold later to pay the voice actors, including many Metal Gear series cast members. There's still no official release date for the drama, but it was planned to be concurrent with Hideradio podcast number 300 -- they're on 298 right now. Kojima subsequently tweeted the character art of Jean Jack Gibson above. Kojima also said that he's heard the music Akira Yamaoka is making for the drama, which was to be '70s progressive rock and '80s electro pop. Per Andriasang's translation, Kojima likes it but questioned its reception by the masses. And when you bring in Suda 51 to make a podcast radio drama based on an adventure game from 1988, you don't want anything to get in the way of that built-in mass appeal.
Kojima on Snatcher: 'If anyone else would like to develop it, I would love it.'
During an interview with PlayStation Blog, Metal Gear mogul and transfarring technorati Hideo Kojima dropped a crucial truth-bomb about the future of Snatcher, his cyberpunk cult-classic. With L.A. Noire's brain-bustingly successful existence as an adventure game, and with Deus Ex: Human Revolution bringing cyberpunk back into the limelight, Kojima was asked whether or not he thinks the world is ready for another Snatcher. "I would love to do something like Snatcher," he said, "but I do not have the time or the means to do so. But if anyone else would like to develop it, I would love it." It's sad to hear that the series' progenitor won't be returning to Neo Kobe City anytime soon, but at least die-hard Snatcher fans (Snatchies, we call ourselves) can look forward to a radio drama based on the game. What do you think? Should Snatcher be handed off to another developer, or left as-is?%Poll-66471%
Kojima announces Snatcher-inspired radio drama, for real this time
This week, Hideo Kojima teased a surprise announcement coming on the latest edition of his Hideradio podcast. The real surprise is that it's something he already announced in 2007: a radio drama inspired by his 1988 cyberpunk adventure game Snatcher, scripted by Suda 51. It's called "Sdatcher" as a pun on Suda's name. This is the long-awaited Kojima/Suda "Project S." The drama will include music by Akira Yamaoka, and will be released to coincide with the 300th episode of Hideradio -- this one is #296, and they are released biweekly, on Fridays. So ... two months or so? Of course, we'll then have to wait for some kind of translation, official or otherwise. We take back what we said earlier. The real real surprise with this announcement is that Kojima actually announced something that isn't Metal Gear.
Kojima reveals how Snatcher almost stank
Metal Gear Solid's "codec frequency on the box" gag wasn't the first time Hideo Kojima thought about integrating a game's packaging with the contents of the game. Kojima tweeted the story (and Andriasang translated) of how he originally thought to cover the disk for the PC-8801 version of the cyberpunk adventure game Snatcher with a paint that smelled like blood. The idea was that as you played, the disk would get warm, and eventually your computer would "release the smell of the crime scene." Or, to think of it another way, the scent of blood would gently waft out of your computer, freaking you the hell out. He now calls it the "Dead Smell Project." In a more sensible plan, Kojima also wanted to use the heat of the computer to hide a message on the disk, only visible when it was warm. [Image: JunkerHQ]
Kojima's next could be something 'you always wanted to have'
Mr. Hideo Kojima, you've been hanging out with too many countdown websites. Speaking to IGN at GamesCom, the Metal Gear Solid maestro had little to say about his numerous unannounced projects, but managed to impart just the right amount of ambiguity to leave us checking our watches for the impending announcement of ... well, what is it, exactly? "The one that I said that I've been wanting to make – this is a new franchise and a new title," he said, confirming at least one fresh property under development alongside Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid: Rising. "For the other couple of titles, it could be something that you always wanted to have. It could be, or it could be something else. It's a matter of the timing of when we can get it out."Is it a new Snatcher? Zone of the Enders 3? Lunar Knights 2? That does it! Something that we've always wanted to have is ... the ability to read this man's mind. What do you think is tumbling around in there?
Fan recreating Kojima's Snatcher in Crysis Wars
One of Hideo Kojima's lesser-known works (to most English-speaking folk, anyway) is Snatcher, a game released to the West on the Sega-CD/Mega-CD way back in 1994. Featuring cyberpunk elements, this adventure game is fondly remembered by some, and the focal point for a new mod in Crysis Wars.ModDB user ASH172 has been working on this project since February of last year, all by his lonesome. The mod, which looks to recreate the classic game in full, was started using Crytek's CryEngine2, SandBox2 and SDK tools, but now ASH172 is looking to transfer the project over to the Crysis Wars engine, SDK, and tools.Snatcher enjoys quite the cult following, and in the right circles will net you a stabbing should you diss it. So, in the interest of internal organ preservation, we're totally down with this.[Thanks, Buffel!]
Rumor: New Kojima Productions project sneaking out in three days
According to a "cryptic email" sent to 1UP by a "source within Konami," Kojima Productions may be planning to announce ... something in three days. The email was titled "T - 3" and contained only a link to a currently unavailable page at the URL http://www.konami.jp/kojima_pro/next. If the information in this email -- or even the information about the email -- is accurate, it could be a hint about Zone of the Enders 3, which has evidently in Hideo Kojima's thoughts recently. It's got a 3 in it! But if we're speculating, we figure we might as well go for broke. Maybe it's a new Snatcher game! We never heard of anything coming out of the Kojima/Suda 51 "Project S" collaboration except for radio dramas -- the pair could still be working on more Snatcher-related material.Other possibilities -- which we must include lest a Kojima post go by without mention of Metal Gear -- include the trademarked Metal Gear Solid arcade game, and, if it's a different project, "the next MGS." And let's not ignore the possibility that this isn't true.
DS Daily: The next great remake
Maybe it was a matter of time, but that isn't important -- what is important is that you guys called it. Chrono Trigger is headed to the DS (and we wouldn't be surprised to see something Snatcher-related for the DS eventually), and that makes last year's celebration of the age of remakes a success. Which, of course, means we need to do the whole thing again, and that means we have to turn to you, gentle readers. We need all-new games to explore for their remakeability, so open up. Let us know what you might like to see, with the exceptions of Snatcher, Super Smash Bros., Abe's Oddysee, and of course, Chrono Trigger. We'll make a new poll from your suggestions, so get to suggesting. Remakes, ports, and re-imaginings of titles are all fair game. Tell us what you'd play!
Kojima already seeking out his next title
It really should go without saying, but aside from Metal Gear Solid 4 and Metal Gear Online, Hideo Kojima has been hard at work figuring out his next move, outside of the Metal Gear franchise. Rumors have been swirling for a year now; everything from a collaborative sequel to Snatcher with Suda51, to a remake of Policenauts, to the heavily anticipated and partially expected Zone of the Enders 3. So, what's he working on?We won't know until 2009, apparently. A formal announcement isn't to be made until after Kojima finishes penning the new title's scenario. This won't happen until after Metal Gear Solid 4 is released and Metal Gear Online given a big push. So, maybe if things go particularly well for Kojima, we'll hear something near the end of the year, but we'll just safely assume we won't know if any of the aforementioned games are coming around until 2009.
Snatcher Pilot Disk ported, fantastic
Fresh off its abridged port of visual novel Fate/Stay Night: Trial Edition, Multiple: Option has posted another homebrew adaptation of a text-heavy game, Snatcher Pilot Disk.This release is based on the PC-Engine demo of Hideo Kojima and Konami's acclaimed adventure title, but uses still images from the Sega CD version. Though there isn't much players can do to deviate from the game's very linear progression, the cyberpunk plot and voice acting keep Snatcher Pilot DS interesting. For those of you who demand interactivity beyond selecting text options, there's also a fun bug-blasting segment towards the end.Unfortunately, this "pilot" comprises only the first act of the full Snatcher game, taking players through the J.U.N.K.E.R. headquarters and factory scene (Multiple: Option does not plan to port the complete game). Still, it's an entertaining, 10-minute experience worth playing through. [Via PAlib]
Super Odd Chrono Snatcher: Your choices for DS remakes
DS Fanboy readers have excellent taste, and we all know it. After all, you own the greatest handheld in the world, and hey, you're here. But if that's not enough to convince you, then the winners of the recent most-desired remakes poll should do the trick nicely. DS Fanboy readers chose four very different titles as candidates for the rampant remake craze, and each game has the potential to be a fantastic DS game in its own right. Let's just hope the right people are paying attention.Out of a field of seventeen titles, all chosen by the readers, Chrono Trigger, Snatcher, Super Smash Bros. and Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee were selected as the best choices for future DS titles. Now we're here to tell you why.
Poll results: Remakes of choice
Our celebration of the age of remakes continues as we reveal your choices for games that need to be given the DS treatment. The full poll results are located after the jump, but we probably don't need to tell you that we chose correctly when putting together the boxart mockups above. Chrono Trigger blew everything else out of the water among the mainstream titles, with Super Smash Bros. picking up a distant second. Among our lesser-known titles, things were a lot closer. Snatcher won -- which means all is right with the world -- but the battle for second was decided by a mere four votes. We're always happy to be reminded of just how diverse taste are among our readers!Check back later in the week for a wealth of coverage on remakes, including the profile of the four winning games and what we would like to see in a DS remake.
DS Fanboy poll: Remakes of choice
Earlier this week, we asked you, our dear readers, to discuss games you'd like to see given a spit and a polish for the DS in this age of remakes, and as usual, you came through in a big way. In fact, you gave us so many fantastic suggestions that we've decided to split our selected list into two polls instead of just doing one. We can't include everything suggested, obviously, but we've prepared a selection of bigger releases and more obscure titles, and we're going to let you vote every day, just in case you want to throw your support behind more than one game. Once you've voted, we will profile the top two results from each poll and examine exactly why they would be well-suited to our favorite handheld. So try to vote for the titles you think are the most suitable, those that would most benefit from the kind of treatment we're seeing with the Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy titles ... and hey, vote for the games you'd just like to see in portable form as well.And if you just can't decide ... well, that's why we're letting you vote more than once! You can vote your heart and your brain, and the cream will rise to the top.
Wii Warm Up: Suda 51
He's got a weird name, he makes weird, violent games, and he's got really, really cool friends. He's also writing the Snatcher radio drama, which makes him our best friend. Grasshopper Manufacture's Suda 51 applies a punk-rock philosophy to game design, and the results are always interesting.He seems to have made the Wii his home console for the time being. Do you welcome his contributions? Are you looking forward to No More Heroes as much as we are? The kind of stuff he likes to make is pretty far outside the usual Wii fare, but we feel that the Wii all about shaking up the norm. Is there merit to his disruptive game design ideals, or are they just disruptive for disruption's sake? If you're a Suda fan now, would you still be if he didn't have the glow of Wii association? Can we put some more question marks in here?
Kojima working on a Snatcher sequel?
Hideo Kojima and Suda 51 (Goichi Suda) recently murmured about a project they've been plugging away at, aptly titled Project S. Rumors abounded that this project was, in fact, a sequel to the cult classic Snatcher by Kojima himself. Turns out the rumors are true -- this project is indeed based on Kojima's Snatcher title, but this project isn't actually a game. Oof.Turns out the project, re-named Snatchers, will be a radio drama written by Suda 51, who will also appear as a voice actor in said radio drama. Yep... radio drama. Seems we've taken a step backwards in time. There are other parts of the overall project, but Suda and Kojima are remaining hush-hush... let's see if a game is hidden between the secret decoder rings we'll need to solve the puzzle in the radio drama. More Ovaltine, please!
Suda 51 & Kojima's 'Project S' based on Snatcher, radio drama announced
According to Famitsu, Suda 51 has declassified 'Project S,' a not-so-mysterious collaboration with Hideo Kojima. As suspected, "S" is for "Snatcher," Kojima's 1988 cyberpunk adventure, which was eventually translated and released for Sega CD in 1994. During this past weekend's 'Snake vs Zombie Vol. 2' event, Suda confessed that Snatcher was his favorite Kojima effort, prompting a few snickers between the No More Heroes creator and Kojima, who joined Suda on stage. While the pair alluded to Project S's presumed connection to Snatcher, it wasn't until this week's article that the link was openly confirmed.Project S is apparently a series of works based on the Snatcher property. The first, a radio drama (yeah, you read that right, radio drama), will be written by Suda 51, who will also star as one of the voice actors. "I think I will call it 'Snatchers.' I can't talk about the details of the story at this point," he told Famitsu. Any chance it'll make it to satellite?
