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 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. :)