The 16-bit Arcade and Console Era (1990-1995) - Shatterhand (a.k.a. Super Rescue Solbrain)

RELEASE DATE: 1991

DEVELOPER / PUBLISHER: Natsume / Jaleco

BEST VERSIONS: NES

Shatterhand is yet another NES game featuring a tough guy with big muscles running around and solving all of his problems with violence. But unlike most heroes, Steve “Shatterhand” Hermann never picks up a gun, even when his opponents are armed with them. He just punches the bullets into smithereens and keeps on going.

And that’s an idea I wish more 8-bit and 16-bit games had explored.

Shatterhand began life as a licensed title in Japan based on the live-action Super Rescue Solbrain tokusatsu series that’s essentially RoboCop meets the Power Rangers. Curiously, the show is not about cyborg police officers solving all of their problems with their fists. The main character, SolBraver, does like to punch his way through walls, but he generally has a foldable gun called the Cerberus Delta that can transform into melee weapons. He also has a double-laser grappling beam he can use to swing around and, most important of all, two allies named SolJeanne and SolDozer who help him out of jams.

In the Famicom game, those allies never appear, and SolBrabver’s only equipped with a punch and some disposable floating satellite robots he can acquire to hover over his shoulder and grant him extra powers. Because of this, I actually wondered if perhaps Super Rescue Solbrain was the reskin and Shatterhand was the original, but from what I’ve been able to find, the game truly was created by Bandai’s development studio Angel as a Super Rescue Solbrain tie-in first and then retooled by Natsume and Jaleco for North America into the much more marketable Shatterhand.

(UPDATE: After publication, BlueSky User @32mbit.bluesky.social pointed me to TCRF, which suggests my feeling about Shatterhand being the earlier game could be correct!)

And honestly, Shatterhand is so good in both concept and execution that I wish it was the original, because there’s something just so 1990s about giving a guy two metal arms and then sending him off to battle evil cyborgs with nothing more than his fists. Terminator 2: Judgment Day came out the summer before Shatterhand was released and its famous image of the T-800’s flesh giving way to a machine underneath meant a deluge of half-man, half-machine characters in comic books, toy lines, video games and cartoon shows. Where Shatterhand is different is in the implementation of those satellite robots Shatterhand can collect, because they’re his only chance at gaining any range on his foes.

The system for obtaining these satellite robots is also truly unique. As you progress through each stage, you find items that are either labeled alpha (α) or beta (β), but which the manual describes as resembling the letters B or L. You can punch them to change their letter. You need to collect three to get a satellite bot to join you, but which three matters a lot. Do you want the pyrobot with its flamethrower (ββα), the grendebot with its useful explosives (βββ), the laserbot with its surprisingly wimpy laser beam (ααβ) or the swordbot that swings a powerful blade (αβα)? Or would you prefer something odder like the yoyobot (βαβ), yobobot (ααα), the ricobot (αββ) or the bounceobot (βαα)? It’s your choice, and if you can build two of the same bots in a row while the first one’s still around, you can even take on a temporarily invincible armor suit and blitz through the stage.

The power-up system’s main flaw is that the bots have their own health and frequently collide with enemies and shots, making them quite disposable. And you’ll want to keep them alive, because they are useful for not only extending your attack range, but also because you can duck down and have them pick you up and help you hover to higher spots. Other than that, Shatterhand can find money to spend on special platforms that give him a double-strength ability (turning his outer sleeveless jacket from green to orange-brown), and he can also restore his health meter or pick up extra lives (only necessary to complete stages since you have unlimited continues).

The game’s designed with an introductory first level that’s an absolute blast, allowing Shatterhand to knock bad guys off screen and punch down walls. The first boss is also a piece of cake, and the entire experience to that point makes you feel like you can take on anything.

At that point, you can select one of five stages and complete them in any order. Most of the levels are pretty industrial and have a gimmick like water or anti-gravity, and to keep with this theme, Shatterhand removed a carnival stage from Super Rescue Solbrain and replaced it with a rather creepy submarine level full of mutant monsters. The good news is that every stage is quite distinct and just challenging enough to push you without being so difficult that you won’t want to bother progressing further. The controls are a little stiff and I find it aggravating that the satellite robots are so easily taken down by enemies, but the game’s designed so that you truly can just punch your way through it.

As an NES game, Shatterhand follows the style adopted by similar games like Power Blade and Kick Master by limiting its palette, using negative space in the backgrounds to help create layers and depth and keeping its action simple and focused. There aren’t a lot of enemies onscreen, but that helps focus your forward momentum and forces you to react to the ones that are there. The music is also pretty good, driving you forward without ever getting grating or overly repetitive.

Unlike many other Natsume NES games, Shatterhand is not part of the Nintendo Switch Online library and it’s not presently available in any form but the original cartridge. Because it’s well-known as one of the better third-party NES games, you’re going to pay collector’s prices to own a copy, so I’d instead recommend just finding the game ROM and playing it on your favorite emulator.

We’re moving on to the 1990s console and arcade games to cover one of the golden eras of video gaming as gaming shifted to 16 bits at home and true 3D in the arcades!

We’ll cover shoot ‘em ups, run and guns, fighters, brawlers, RPGs, platformers and, of course, strategy games, sports games and more. Take some time learn about great games you may have missed like Power Blade, Ranger X, Thunder Fox, Liquid Kids, Alligator Hunt, Arabian Fight, Crystalis, Popful Mail, Alisia Dragoon, Kid Dracula, Little Samson, The Space Adventure, Rocket Knight Adventures, Rolo to the Rescue and even oddities like The Haunting Starring Polterguy and The Ooze!

If you missed my series on the hundreds of 1980s PC, console and arcade games you probably never played, you can find the entire archive at https://greatestgames.substack.com.

Anything I don’t share here will be in my upcoming book, tentatively titled The Greatest Games You (Probably) Never Played Vol. 3. Subscribe to this newsletter so you won’t miss it!

If you missed my previous series on the hundreds of 1980s console, arcade and PC games you probably never played, you can find the entire archive at https://greatestgames.substack.com.

Anything I don’t share here will be in my upcoming book, tentatively titled The Greatest Games You (Probably) Never Played Vol. 3. Subscribe to this newsletter so you won’t miss it!