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Watcha Listening To: Retronauts Episode 55: Snatcher Edition

Posted by Bob Mackey

This podcast is dedicated to all those cyberpunks who fight against injustice and corruption every day of their lives.

That wasn't how the latest episode of Retronauts began--but it should have, damn it! Sorry, I got all worked up there. But there's a good reason to get excited: Hideo Kojima's Snatcher is an awesome game, and people are talking about it. On the Internet, no less!  In the latest episode, Retronauts ringmaster Jeremy Parish leads an Interesting discussion of a game made at a time when Hideo Kojima wasn't the Bono of his respective industry. And as a bonus, the podcast also includes a brief chat with localization producer Jeremy Blaustein, who worked on the ahead-of-its-time English language version of Snatcher.  If you can't believe the awesomeness, check check out the game's intro:



All of this Snatcher chatter got me thinking of the Policenauts (AKA Lethal Weapon in space) translation, which was announced as "complete" 20 months ago, but has not yet been released to the public.  Since it's a game made by Kojima very much in the style of Snatcher, I'm dying to play it.  Maybe we need to helicopter over some of those Mother 3 translation guys to whip them into shape.

Oh, and if you found Blaustein's behind-the-scenes Konami talk interesting, you might want to check out this podcast interview (archived on YouTube, since the original page appears to be down) that's extremely candid and often inflammatory. It's a nice little bit of dirt-dishing on one of gaming's most respected developers. The story about the actor who played James in Silent Hill 2 is especially hilarious.

Related Links:

Watcha Listening To: The Final GFW Radio
Watcha Listening To? Retronauts Episode 48
Serious Business: Dennis Dyack Blames the Internet


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Comments

epenthesis said:

Love, love, love Snatcher. One of my favorite soundtracks ever, and some pretty spiffy gameplay as well.

October 30, 2008 2:24 PM

raridco said:

Wanna hear a tragic tale?

I went home for Christmas last year, hoping to bring back my copy of Snatcher.  My Mom told me when I got there that my Dad burned all my games while cleaning out my room.  That just about sent me into a blinding rage.  (Which I kept to myself.)  Luckily she was mistaken.

After Christmas I brought Snatcher back to my apartment.  Now I should mention that my Sega CD had been working fine ever since I shipped it.  Working fine until three days after I brought my copy of Snatcher back.  Now I have the game and I can't play it.  Curse my wretched luck.

October 30, 2008 3:19 PM

About Bob Mackey

For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.

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