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While never managing to achieve the prominence of Capcom, Konami or Taito, Natsume nevertheless proved to be
one of the most competent developers of action games for Nintendo's Famicom and Super Famicom consoles. Throughout the
'90s they built a small but impressive body of work on these systems, with titles ranging from solid in the absolute worst
instance (their first Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers game) to masterpieces (like The Ninja Warriors Again and
Wild Guns) surpassing many of the offerings of their more recognized competitors. Shatterhand is one
of the earlier games that falls into the latter category.
Released in late 1991 for the NES, Shatterhand is a side-view action game in the mold of Akumajou Dracula,
Ninja Ryuukenden and Sunsoft's Batman. As such, it involves fighting primarily with short-range attacks (which in this case are
delivered from a pair of advanced, weaponized prosthetic hands) with assistance from various projectile-based weaponry,
along with coordinating jumps onto platforms and wire netting that Shatterhand can grab. Progression is
linear, with each phase culminating in duels against Metal Command's most powerful cyborg creations.
The game is impressively versatile for a NES title, in part due to the main character's
move repertory. Shatterhand has a punching sequence somewhat comparable to those of the characters in
Final Fight, starting out with three fast jabs, followed up by slower, more powerful hooks (unless he's
airborne). This is important, since you'll need to choose between more power or quicker recovery
according to the situation. With proper timing you can also punch through many enemy projectiles.
Taking the place of Akumajou Dracula's sub-weapons are satellites: one of eight small robots that hover above
you. In addition to their unique attack functions, they can also damage enemies by collision, either by
simply hovering into them or by being thrown, though they disperse after sustaining a certain number of hits. In order to acquire
one, you first have to collect three alpha and beta power-ups. By collecting the same satellite
combination twice, while the first is still in operation, the robot will fuse to Shatterhand's body
and form an indestructible armor lasting fifteen seconds. In this mode you'll gain extremely powerful punches
that shoot fireballs, whilst getting hit will merely reduce your remaining armor time, rather than your
lifebar. Additional power-ups come in the form of upgrades (including health restore, double-power and life
extend) which you download from special platforms, as long as you've
collected sufficient money from defeated opponents.
Since Shatterhand was a late-generation title, Natsume was in a position to utilize a host of excellent
NES action games as reference points for its design, including their own Kage (Shadow of the Ninja)
from a year prior. Shatterhand really does play like a perfect amalgamation of the best elements of these games,
even improving on them in some cases, as for example in how the protagonist controls. Shatterhand is more agile and
responsive than Simon Belmondo or Sunsoft's Batman, and his punch is also more immediate and has a more generous
contact area than Ryu Hayabusa's sword. Its short range isn't much of an issue, even when deflecting bullets,
because of this. It also helps that there are no insidiously placed birds trying to dunk you into every chasm. In fact,
there are no chasms at all, just pits, so missing a platform is treated the same way as getting hit by an enemy.
This to me always seemed like the fairest way to handle platform jumping.
Stages and enemy designs use every trick in the NES action book to create challenging and diverse layouts
that require a great deal of dexterity to overcome. Each stage has some type of structural gimmick of its own.
Area B has you jumping across molten metal pits on conveyor belts and chain netting while taking on flying robots
that swerve like the Medusa heads in Akumajou Dracula. In Area D, you'll have to make some precisely tuned
jumps in reduced gravity in a mine- and rotor blade-infested pool, which also contains soldiers in underwater suits
resembling something out of Maschinen Kreiger (look it up if you're a fan of hard sci-fi). Area E even has
reversed gravity chambers à la Strider Hiryu where you'll switch from floor to ceiling by holding in
the jump button, avoiding flames, homing mines, and firing from turrets that shoot in alternating spread patterns.
The winner however has got to be Area F's elevator sequence where you must constantly dodge harpoons coming from
the bottom, and oncoming gears, bombs, missile-equipped airbikes, and fire debris from the top. Simply brilliant action
throughout.
In terms of aesthetics, Shatterhand is also a contender for the best looking NES game, with Batman,
Ninja Ryukenden II and Street Fighter 2010 as its only competition. Graphics are detailed but
well-defined for their small scale. The NES color palette is managed expertly, especially the effective use of the
color black as a fourth shade value instead of just as outline. This is a trick used by all the best looking NES
games, which gave them an inked comic book quality that I still find appealing to this day. The anthemic and tense
soundtrack from Iku Mizutani is also among the finest to grace the 8-bit console.
With arcade-standard length and no password feature, Shatterhand is clearly designed
to be beat in a single sitting with a single continue, when the player's skill eventually permits it.
After beating the game, it can be extremely fun to go back and experiment with different strategies:
seeing how fast you can go, how far you can get strictly as a pugilist without health recharges, or
taking risks with the satellites by deliberately crashing them into enemies, and so on. An outstanding
achievement, untarnished by age.
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