Feature By

Ben Hopper

When you think of the Sega CD, "Great Games" isn't exactly the first thing that comes to mind. In fact, most tend to associate the ill-fated CD-ROM drive for the Sega Genesis with the beginning of Sega's fall from grace. Indeed, the Sega CD was the first of three game platforms (32X and Saturn being the others) that ultimately failed to live up to its grand billing. As a result, Sega went from the market leader in the Genesis days to the financially troubled company it is today. However, the Sega CD did have a handful of memorable games that showed us what the console was truly capable of. Of those, Konami's Snatcher has firmly cemented itself among the best and most memorable games ever made.

June 6, 1996—the day of "The Catastrophe." Half the world's population is wiped out when an explosion at the Chernoton Research Facility in Moscow releases a secret biological weapon called Lucifer Alpha into the atmosphere. Cut to Neo Kobe City, December 2047—we're introduced to Gillian Seed, and his estranged wife, Jamie. We learn that they both suffer from severe amnesia as a result of spending 50 years in suspended animation somewhere in Russia. The specifics surrounding these events are kept under wraps from the government, and neither Gillian nor Jamie can recall anything prior to being picked up in the Siberian Neutral Zone, much less anything about their past together. Only the word "Snatcher" keeps popping up in Gillian's head. Gillian and Jamie separate after trying to resume their marriage—"Without any memories between the two of us, I'm afraid there was little left to base a good relationship on," Gillian later says. After undergoing extensive military training, he decides to become a JUNKER (Japanese Undercover Neuro-Kinetic Elimination Ranger—an anti-Snatcher task force) in an attempt to get his memory back.

That's just the premise to Snatcher—quite possibly the greatest game you've never played. However, you're forgiven if you haven't heard of it. Snatcher for Sega CD remains to this day the only version of the game ever released in North America—truly amazing considering the game's importance in the development of video games as popular entertainment. Snatcher was created by Konami's resident game brain, Hideo Kojima—the man now known the world over as the creator of Metal Gear Solid and the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 2. His first two games, Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, were both originally released for the MSX 8-bit computer. Snatcher would be yet another game from Kojima that would make its debut on an 8-bit personal computer that was virtually unknown in America—this time for the NEC PC-8801. That was in 1988. The Sega CD version of Snatcher didn't arrive in America until 1994, but Konami made this particular release significant by adding several Sega CD-exclusive features, not to mention elevating the production quality standard for all games that would follow it. Snatcher would later be tailored for the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation platforms in Japan as well. Why Konami America chose to release the game for the derelict Sega CD and not for the best-selling PlayStation is still puzzling to say the least.