Policenauts: Hideo Kojima’s Sci-Fi Classic
30 years ago, Konami released Policenauts, a game that continued the fusion of movies and video games pioneered by Hideo Kojima. As an LA detective named Jonathan Ingram—a former astronaut in cryosleep for 24 years—the game combines visual novel elements with action-based scenes to create one of Kojima’s most memorable stories. However, despite its brilliance, Policenauts was never officially localised into English and has remained relatively unknown outside Japan due to the lack of official translations. Fan translations do exist, however.
Wasted Potential and Future Releases
As Hideo Kojima’s career took him from Policenauts to iconic works like Metal Gear Solid, fans have often speculated about the potential of a second Policenauts game. Unfortunately, despite Kojima’s plans, this sequel never came to fruition, leaving many wishing that the game could have reached its full potential.
Do you believe Policenauts should be given an official English release? Why or why not?
I played it when the PSX translation was released and loved it. I was thinking about playing it again soon, I’m about to finish the Phoenix Wright saga and this was the game that came to mind.
Weirdly enough, I would have loved to play the PC-98 version, I see the art style and find it more attractive, maybe because I find it closer to Snatcher.
Eh, from what I saw in SuperBunnyHop’s video on the game, we’re really not missing that much. It’s an interesting curiosity for Kojima fans, but his previous work in that style of game, snatcher, is far superior.
They’re both good, but they’re also… you know, visual novels.
Which, weirdly, makes them more accessible today than they were at the time, and especially than during the big Metal Gear Solid years where that really wasn’t the expectation. If Konami and Kojima weren’t engaged in a blood feud it would be a good time to re-release them together.
I mean Snatcher is fantastic, but that doesn’t mean you should skip this one. It’s like sleeping in a 8/10 game because the prequel was 9/10.
I haven’t ever played Metal Gear Solid, and I thoroughly enjoyed both.
Note: The Sega Saturn version is the one to go for it. If you have the virtua gun, great, otherwise you don’t need it.
ALSO NOTE: HOW COME YOU DON’T HAVE THE VIRTUA GUN, it should be mandatory with any Sega Saturn.
I guess, at least for me, Policenauts looks pretty meh compared to the high that is Snatcher, and I suppose I’ve gotten more picky as to what I spent time with as I’ve gotten older, but that’s just me! If you found a lot of enjoyment out of it, then I can’t really say it’s not worth someone else’s time, so maybe it deserves a re-release indeed. :)
I am playing Policenauts and nearing the end now.
This is a masterpiece. The amount of detail that went into the game is astounding. It feels real. The story is also told an a realistic way: it doesn’t stick to only what’s relevant to proceed, but a lot more.
Snatcher is also a game that not enough people played. The Sega CD version is excellent!
Is that what this picture is from?! I only knew it from a music channel on youtube and assumed it was an anime or something.
