Shatterhand

aka: Tokkyū Shirei Solbrain

Released

1991 on Arcade

Credits

18 people

Releases by Date (by platform)

1991 (Arcade)
1991 (NES)

Publishers

Developers

Natsume Co., Ltd.

Moby Score

7.9

#2,615 of 163K

Critics

84% (15)

Players

(23)

Ranking

#32 on NES

Collected By

42 players

Genre: Action
Perspective: Side view
Setting: Sci-fi / futuristic

Arcade Specs [ all ]

Input Devices Supported: 2 buttons
Number of Offline Players: 1 Player

Buy on Arcade

eBay

Buy on NES

Amazon
$82.48 used, $1,075.00 new at eBay

(prices updated 10/2 3:52 PM )

Description official description

Shatterhand is an action game with eight-direction scrolling. You control Shatterhand in his quest to find and defeat General Grover, leader of the Metal Command. Through the game you’ll encounter all kinds of mechanical and biomechanical creatures. Shatterhand’s primary weapon is his cybernetic fists and therefore most enemies must be defeated by punching them.

Additional help can be given from any of the eight hovering satellite robots, each of which has it’s own weapon that fires automatically when Shatterhand throws a punch. These satellite robots can be obtained by collecting combinations of alpha-beta letters that appear when you punch some of the white boxes that are scattered throughout each stage.

The game has seven stages. The first and the last must be played first and last respectively, but the five middle stages can be played in any order. The path to the final showdown with General Grover leads through a factory, a refinery, an anti-gravity research facility, a submarine, a burning subway, a filtration plant and finally to General Grover’s missile launch complex.

Spellings

特救指令ソルブレイン - Japanese spelling

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (NES version)

18 People (6 developers, 12 thanks)

Program	Kazuhiko Ishihara
Graphic	Shunichi Taniguchi Norihide Mizoguchi Sachiko Matsuura
Sound Program	Iku Mizutani
Music Composer	Iku Mizutani
Sound Effect	Hiroyuki Iwatsuki
Special Thanks	Atsushi Tanaka Shin Chan (Shin.chan) R. Xie H. Autumn (Autumn) Tomoyuki Nishiyama (T. Nishiyama/Tom) Toshiyasu Miyabe (Kotobuki) Tomoko Okamoto (Okamoto) Bit (Bit) Kevin Sullivan (as Kevin Cullivan) Robert Morse (as Robert Morce) Michael Maubry Jim H. Yajima

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 84% (based on 15 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 23 ratings with 1 reviews)

Forgotten Classic

The Good
For some reason, Shatterhand is barely remembered today, which is a pity since it really is an excellent side-scrolling action game.

What I really like about Shatterhand is the certain kind of flow that the game has. There's something about it that drives you forward; it makes you want to progress and beat the crap out of everything that stands in your way. One of the contributing factors is without doubt the music. Seriously one of the best NES soundtracks I have ever heard. The tunes are fast paced, but totally memorable and catchy, and they the game perfectly.

The level design also plays a large role into making Shatterhand such as satisfying game to play. There's always a sense of reward when you get past obstacles and sub-bosses. Also, it never gets stale or predictable. There's plenty of surprises in the game that will keep you focused. While the game is sort of simple it nonetheless has some cool features, such as the satellite droids, which makes it stand a part from other games in the genre.

I also really like the fact that once you complete the first stage you can select which stages you want to play.

The Bad
One the things that bugs me a bit about Shatterhand is the fact that you sometimes can't get a sense of how far into a level you have progressed.

Perhaps it is also a bit short, but the skill level is fairly high, so it's not like you can just waltz through the game.

The Bottom Line
While not groundbreaking or particularly innovating, Shatterhand is a superb, addictive and extremely well made game. Definitely a cult game for those in the know.

NES · by Apogee IV (2279) · 2005