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Atari's CEO has expressed interest in remastering some older titles, including the second game Hideo Kojima ever directed.
Although it makes sense given how many times he would try and give up the series, it is weird that Hideo Kojima's first fully directed game was Metal Gear, and that was meant to be it. Kojima only made Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake after hearing that Konami was making its own NES sequel: Snake's Revenge.
But in between those was Snatcher, a cyberpunk adventure game that borrowed a little liberally from Blade Runner in places, which was never localised until the Sega CD version released in 1994, which apparently "sold a couple thousand units at most" in the US, according to translator Jeremy Blaustein. That, in turn, makes it nearly impossible to play nowadays without spending a heavy chunk of money on the Sega CD game or resorting to piracy and downloading a ROM for it. A huge shame, because look at how incredible the vibes are in the opening alone.
While speaking to VGC's Chris Scullion, Atari CEO Wade Rosen discussed his approach to re-releases and remasters, explaining that there needs to be a balance between guaranteed sellers and more niche picks. Atari's studios Digital Eclipse and Nightdive Studios are working on Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection the Outlaws remaster for release this year, which Rosen cites as a good example of both sides of the coin.
Rosen said, "If we ever had a chance to work on Panzer Dragoon Saga or Ogre Battle or Snatcher or something like that… I don’t know if it would do well, but I’d probably push it through and make sure we did it just because I would love to work on one of those." Rosen adds, "But it all has to be in a balance. If this company just became like ‘what games does Wade want to work on?’ we would not be around too long."
Hopefully, Konami is listening because Snatcher is an absolute banger, and I would love more people to have a chance to experience it, and while we're at it, remaster Policenauts too with an official English translation, too, please and thanks.
