Hidden Gems: Shatterhand [NES]

Posted by : Jack Thursday, June 13, 2013

Brought to you by the makers of Harvest Moon

Hello! and welcome to the first installment in what I hope will be a continuing series where I share some of the forgotten games of yesteryear that deserve more attention. Whether it’s for introducing an important technical or gameplay innovation, or just for that indefinable quality of “fun,” these are games that you might have missed but definitely don’t want to.

Have you ever dreamed of being an undercover cop? Taking down a techno-terrorist organization? In the future? With robot arms?

If you answered “Yes!” to any part of that badly formed interrogative, then you’ve already got something to love about Shatterhand’s irrelevant backstory. Set in the year 2030, you play as Steve Hermann, a young Bronx police officer out for revenge against the underground cyborg army “Metal Command.” After losing both arms in a confrontation with the techno-terrorist group, Hermann receives cybernetic replacements from the “Law and Order Regulatory Division” (L.O.R.D.), becoming the secret agent codenamed “Shatterhand.” In the tradition of classic action sidescrollers, none of this backstory is explained in the game. So...feel free to ignore this paragraph.

Pictured: All the exposition this game needs.

The gameplay is what makes this game stand out as a Hidden Gem. Shatterhand’s implied motto is “There is no problem that cannot be solved by punching.” Obstacle in your way? Punch it! Bullet coming right at you? Punch it! Need money? Pu- well, you get where I’m going with this. Shatterhand’s cybernetic arms are his primary weapon, but that doesn’t mean you won’t have help. Throughout the game you will find items marked with either an ‘α’ or a ‘β.’ Collecting any combination of 3 such items will summon a robot companion to help you punch things to death. Collecting a different combination gives your companion different powers; e.g. collecting ααβ allows your companion to shoot laser beams, while αβα gives him a sword!

But wait, there’s more! If you manage to collect 2 identical sets of these power ups before your robot companion is destroyed, Shatterhand and his robot companion combine, allowing you to become much stronger and practically invulnerable for a short time. In addition to the robot sidekicks, you can also find power-up platforms. These platforms can increase your attack power, restore health or even provide you with much-needed extra guys! In order to use these platforms, however, you must have at least the amount of coin indicated on the side.

Too tall to jump? Guess I’ll just have to punch it!

Shatterhand is a relatively short game. The game starts at a set intro stage, after which you are brought to a Mega Man-esque stage select where you can choose to play the next 5 stages in any order. After completing all of these, the final stage becomes unlocked. That’s only 7 stages. But don’t be fooled; what it lacks in quantity, the game makes up for in sheer brutal controller-throwing difficulty. (Good luck making it past the mutants on the submarine stage without planning your power-ups juuuuuust so!)

It was easy to miss Shatterhand when it came out.. It was released late in the NES’s lifetime; in December of 1991 the NES was already 6 years old, and the Super NES had already been out in America for almost 6 months. Because of this it takes advantage of every last ounce of power the NES could put out, boasting some of the nicest graphics and smoothest gameplay of any game on the system. But what really makes Shatterhand so special is the way it epitomizes the early-90’s “extreme” culture. It’s a futuristic sci-fi beat-’em-up adventure featuring cybernetic upgrades, a shadowy conspiracy and a protagonist who is equal parts Terminator, RoboCop, and Marty McFly, totally rad and awesome to the max!