25 years ago, Hideo Kojima's legendary adventure sci-fi title Snatcher was released on the Super Nintendo CD. The game, which initially came to computers in Japan in 1988, was a groundbreaking adventure title that blended animation with voice acting and a compelling mystery set in the far future. It was brought to North America for the first time on the SNES-CD, and Nintendo believed that the game would help elevate the profile of the SNES-CD among adult gamers, as their uncensored 1993 port of Mortal Kombat had done. Intended to be a truly "mature" game, not just because of its violence and sexual themes, but because of its complex, engaging story, Snatcher wasn't expected to do very well in the West, even amongst the SNES-CD's older playerbase. It was only due to an eleventh-hour decision to market the game heavily to adult players, with prime-time television advertising and an extensive push by Nintendo and Konami to market the game in magazines and in stores, that Snatcher became somewhat of a phenomenon, selling a quarter of a million copies in North America and even generating some mainstream press and praise from outside the gaming industry, including Roger Ebert and James Cameron. Snatcher was even able to put up good sales numbers despite the release of the highly anticipated arcade port of NBA Jam around the same time. The legacy of Snatcher rippled across the industry, inspiring future games such as Dick and even the Blackheart series with its complex narrative and well-developed characters, while the game is also credited for inspiring MTV producers to create the first ever video game show aimed at teens and adults, GameTV, which had an enormous impact on games journalism in the late 1990s and beyond. While it's impossible to say if all of these things happened due only to Snatcher's success, it's likely that the world of gaming would be significantly different today had Snatcher not been released in North America and hadn't achieved the success that it did.
Which brings us to Ubisoft's 2019 remake of the game, intended as a 25th anniversary celebration of that groundbreaking 1994 release, as well as a way for Hideo Kojima to go back and revisit one of his favorite games. It ditches the visual novel/adventure game style of the original in favor of a full-on action title similar to the most recent Metal Gear Solid games, though it still preserves the keen sense of mystery and exploration that made the original game so great, with dialogue trees that change how protagonist Gillian Seed (voiced in this remake by who else but Troy Baker) interacts with allies and foes alike. The new Snatcher combines the stealth and shooting of Metal Gear Solid IV and Metal Gear Black with the adventure game roots of the original title, and while it doesn't always succeed at rising above the conventions of the action genre, it's a welcome change of pace, and it helps that the player has the option of avoiding direct confrontations with the enemy most of the time. Without spoiling too much, the remake also expands heavily on the original game's plot and characters, with Kojima sticking mostly to the main story beats of the classic while altering and expanding upon elements of the story, usually for the better. Let's make no mistake, this full remake is an entirely different game from the original, and for that reason, the original maintains its value to an extent. Though players only in it for the story will likely prefer the remake, which plays much more conventionally, the original Snatcher is still a classic of the adventure genre and is not to be missed for anyone who wants to experience one of the earliest visual novel games. The new Snatcher is also a bit less open than the original, and Gillian will at times be railroaded from place to place, which can be a disappointment for those used to the original's more open world feel. Whereas the original felt revolutionary, the remake doesn't quite approach that level of innovative wonder, and those who can remember being blown away by the original on the SNES-CD may be disappointed to learn that this new Snatcher doesn't do a whole lot of things that contemporary action games haven't done. There will be a lot of comparisons to the widely hyped Control on Google Stadia and PC, and in many aspects, Snatcher falls short of that game, though not so far short that it's strictly worse. Kojima's remake will rekindle nostalgia for many fans of the original title, and will introduce a new generation of players to a game that still shocks and amazes, even if it leans a bit too heavily on the conventional.
If you want to know why Snatcher was so revolutionary when it came to the West a quarter of a century ago, you'll just have to do your research. If you want to know why the original is so beloved, this remake does a fine job of making that clear.
-from an article on Blargo, posted on September 17, 2019
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When Hex Girls was originally pitched to Cartoon Network in 2015, it was intended to be a somewhat musically-themed, lighthearted spinoff of the Scooby Doo series, not unlike Josie The Pussycats with a bit of a horror-themed edge. However, though the property was greenlighted, it remained somewhat in limbo, as execs didn't know what to do with the property, and wondered if another musical would be excessive with the heavily music-themed Steven Universe already on the network. However, once Lyte and Darke's first season premiered to tremendous success, both the executives and Hex Girls' writing staff were on the same page: they wanted a more serious story, more heavy on the horror and with some realistic grittiness mixed in. Hex Girls would become a murder mystery, firmly at TV-PG, and would air alongside Lyte and Darke on the network's late night block. The script re-writes necessitated that the show be pushed back to the fall of 2019, but it would end up being worth the wait, as the show would take the entire Scooby Doo IP in a direction it had never been. Cartoon Network had initially intended to push a more serious Scooby Doo show, which would be rated TV-Y10 and would introduce some scarier, more cynical elements to the series, but the project had ultimately been shelved in favor of producing more superhero shows, while the only Scooby Doo related project of the 2010s would be a celebrity-themed show titled Scooby Doo Meets You Know Who!, which would be a more lighthearted show in the vein of the hour-long Scooby Doo Movies of the 1970s. Hex Girls, however, would change everything, reintroducing the world to characters who first appeared in the 1999 film Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost, which would be canon to Hex Girls, taking place in the year before.
Hex Girls would see the fictional goth band on their "gap year", forgoing college for a year in order to tour the United States. Thorn, Luna, and Dusk, who would be voiced by Jennifer Hale, Kimberly Brooks, and Jane Wiedlin, all reprising their roles from previous appearances of the characters, would play concerts and see the country before splitting up to head off to college. While their impending split would give the show somewhat of an angsty feel that would permeate the relationship between the characters, what would ultimately drive the show would be the complexity of its central mystery: the murder of a missing young woman who had died while hunting for ghosts in a decrepit mansion in California. The Hex Girls' cross country trip from Massachusetts to California would see them solving a number of small mysteries, meeting new people and playing their music all the while, but the big mystery would lay at the heart of it all, as they sought out clues about the woman in order to catch her killer. The show would also delve into the supernatural, with Thorn's healing powers slowly developed as the series progressed, and would also delve into Wiccan lore in a much more accurate and true to life way than the original Witch's Ghost film did (the show's writers would consult with actual history experts and Wicca practitioners to develop the band's spiritual philosophies). For this reason, along with the presence of some scenes of violence and mild language, Hex Girls would prove controversial, especially with some parents expecting a lighthearted Scooby Doo series and instead getting a young adult mystery interlaced with pagan spirituality. The show would also explore LGBT themes extensively, with both Thorn and Dusk confirmed as bisexual and Luna being a lesbian, and all three characters would show attraction to other women at multiple points in the series, with Luna and Dusk even entering into a relationship. Of course, with Steven Universe, Hero Quest, Acrotopia, and Lyte and Darke all featuring LGBT themes previously, as well as some of the DC and anime shows Cartoon Network had aired in the past, this particular element proved to be less controversial than initially expected.
The show would feature several new songs performed by the Hex Girls, and would give each of the three main characters solo performances throughout the series, though Thorn remained leader of the band and ended up doing the most singing. The show would include both songs performed at concerts and songs that could be heard in the background, with the first season featuring eight lyrical songs spread across its 13 half-hour episodes (not including the show's theme, a "dark remix" version of the original "Hex Girl" song from Witch's Ghost). While the series featured music, it would never become a "musical" series with characters bursting into song as had been the case for Steven Universe, save for one musical episode in the show's third season. The music always served to fit the mood of an individual scene and had context in the wider show itself, and tended to fit the "rock" and "metal" genres, though some slower, more romantic or emotional songs also appeared at times. Despite Hex Girls not being a strictly musical series, the show was heavily themed around music, and songs tended to be released to streaming services the day after an episode aired. The show's voice cast was of course anchored by the main three, who would each get roughly the same amount of lines and scenes, though Thorn, as the leader of the band and most popular amongst the three, would be featured slightly more than the other two. Hale, Brooks, and Wiedlin were all widely praised for their performances throughout the series, getting to explore the three characters in ways that never would have been possible in the original films and shows, where the characters made only cameo appearances. Other voice actors who would have prominent roles in the show included Frank Welker, Mary Kay Bergman, Natalie Palamides, and Matthew Lillard (who voiced Freddy and Scooby, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy respectively, all of whom made occasional cameo appearances, but who would also voice other characters in the show from time to time), as well as Ray Chase, Valorie Curry, Anna Akana, Clancy Brown, Maurice LaMarche, Vivica A. Fox, Christian Lanz, and Troy Baker, who would play some of the show's recurring major characters, as well as numerous guest stars including each of Jane Wiedlin's former bandmates in the Go-Go's: Belinda Carlisle, Charlotte Caffey, Kathy Valentine, and Gina Schock.
Hex Girls would ultimately last for four seasons, with the first airing in the fall of 2019, the second airing in early 2021, the third airing in 2022, and the fourth airing between 2022 and 2023. Each season featured 13 episodes and its own self-contained mystery, though the show would also have its own ongoing "myth arc" that would be hinted at in seasons one and two before forming the bulk of the plot for seasons three and four. The show would focus mostly on real criminals, who would rarely (if ever) disguise themselves in masks: usually when a ghost or a monster showed up, it was real, though these situations would be used sparingly. Ultimately, the Hex Girls would find themselves entangled in a mystery surrounding the ancient witch Sarah Ravencroft, who was defeated in Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost, but who has used her dark magical influence to taint magic, causing those with its gift, including Thorn, to be affected by her influence. Sarah is attempting to return to the living in the body of Thorn, who she ends up possessing at the end of season three, forcing Luna and Dusk to take over as the protagonists of the show (teaming up with a young woman named Bess, who temporarily becomes the lead singer of the Hex Girls as they work to cure Thorn). Thorn is freed of Sarah's possession but not of her influence, and must learn to come to terms with the darkness within herself as she and her bandmates and allies find themselves on the front lines of a war between two factions of magic that threatens the entire world. However, in a subversion of the classic "good vs. evil wizards" battles seen in such properties as Harry Potter, it's Thorn's healing magic that becomes key to saving everyone, as the main villain of the show isn't Sarah Ravencroft (who is defeated about midway through season four) but instead is a deeply emotionally scared ghost witch who was brutally killed in the Salem Witch Trials and whose psychic empathic energies are corrupting other witches. It's only when Thorn is able to heal the wound left in her soul that she's able to pass on to the next world, and the magical war is ended peacefully. The Hex Girls return to their normal lives, with Thorn continuing to attend college on her own, while Luna and Dusk (who end up together at the series' conclusion) go to a separate college together but stay in touch with her, and plan to get back together to hang out and play music as much as they can. Thorn herself doesn't end up with a canon love interest, though the series drops hints at numerous characters, both male and female (with one of Thorn's potential female love interests being Velma, who showed up in a season three episode and had some notable chemistry with Thorn, and who makes a cameo appearance in season four with the rest of the Scooby gang).
While Hex Girls never became as big a success as Lyte and Darke, and indeed, found itself on the ratings borderline for most of its lifespan, barely managing to get its full four seasons, its fanbase was incredibly enthusiastic and loyal, and the show did set the tone for Scooby-Doo properties in the 2020s tending to be somewhat darker and even exploring some more mature themes. Though the show fell a bit short of being a true mainstream success, its legacy to the franchise itself can't be overstated, and it cemented the Hex Girls as an iconic part of animation history.
-from a Hex Girls retrospective article, posted on a Rootalk's /ScoobyDoo/ forum on January 16, 2028
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The September 2019 Nintendo Direct was fairly short on big announcements, and was fairly short in general, only lasting about 30 minutes in total, half of which were devoted to the announcement of next year's 35th Anniversary Super Mario celebration. Nintendo will be releasing a series of new products to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the original Super Mario Bros., including toys and collectibles, but most notably, games. Most notably, we'll be getting two different game compilations celebrating some of the plumber's most significant adventures in full HD. Super Mario 3D All-Stars will be bringing the original Super Mario Dimensions, Super Mario Ranger, and Super Mario Shades to the Nintendo Reality in HD for the first time ever, and though it's possible to purchase each game digitally already, the originals are definitely showing their age graphically. These new games have spruced up visuals and will even introduce a VR mode similar to the one found in Super Mario Adventure, letting players run through these classic games as if they were truly Mario himself. We're also getting a Super Mario All-Stars Zero collection, and it's expected to bring three classics to the Zero for the first time, though the games for that will be announced at a future date. We'll also be getting a battle royale game, Super Mario Bros. 35, in which 35 players can compete in a race through the original Super Mario Bros. game, with only one person left standing. These games will all be coming in 2020, as part of the 35th anniversary celebration, and we can expect to see them early next year. We also got some announcements pertaining to the Super Nintendo World parks, which will host celebrations centered on Mario, as well as tournaments and competitions in which players will be able to compete in both Super Mario games and Super Mario Kart for unique prizes pertaining to the Mario series. Apart from all the Mario-related announcements, the Direct was fairly sparse. A Selene Trilogy collection will be coming next year to the Game Boy Zero, allowing those games to be played on the go for the first time ever, and we also got some new footage of the upcoming Project Gonzo 2 and the Secret Of Mana remake, which are coming in October and November respectively. We got some indie game announcements, including a charming game called Untitled Cat Game in which you can go around as a cat, knocking things off shelves and generally being a nuisance, that's coming out next month. We also got more footage of Mega Man Destiny, and the announcement of a new game called Mega Man NX, a brand new sidescrolling title that will play much like the Mega Man X games, but featuring a brand new model and gorgeous new graphics. The Direct ended with a full gameplay and story trailer for Kingdom Quest V, showing off a ton of the game's new features and further pushing its Calypso-focused storyline. We got a look at this game already back at E3, but we learned a lot more about it here, and it gave the Direct something nice to end on, though we really wish we'd have seen more besides third party games and a bunch of Mario remakes. A disappointing Direct overall, though it will be nice to play the Selene games on the go.
-from a September 26, 2019 post on Super Nintendo CD Chalmers' Nintendo blog
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Game Spotlight: Control
OTL's adventure title focused on supernatural phenomena and the organization seeking to keep them under wraps appears ITTL as a Google Stadia/Steam exclusive co-developed by Sam Lake's Studio River (basically OTL's Remedy, but with somewhat different writers/devs) and Pyramid Games. ITTL, as IOTL, the SCP Foundation website is still created, and though most of the stories that appear ITTL are different due to butterflies, the website's basic design philosophy, chronicling an organization that identifies, catalogues, and contains supernatural phenomena, remains intact, and, as IOTL, inspires a variety of games and books, including Control, which gets made ITTL as a Stadia console exclusive. Whereas OTL's Control drew additional inspiration from Alan Wake, TTL's Control follows in the footsteps of 2010's Owl Creek and the Terror Trip games, which, like IOTL, form a shared universe with Control. Control, in contrast with Terror Trip, is more action oriented, and also a significantly more serious game. Like OTL's Control, it's a more non-linear title, with elements of Metroidvania games, allowing players to explore more of the map as they collect more powers and uncover more of the mystery. The game's plotline differs significantly from OTL's title: instead of being focused on the organization's director, it's focused on a lower-ranking operative, a young woman named Sofia Gail, who must gradually earn the trust of others in the organization, and who works under a senior operative, Lenore McClenden, who serves as Sofia's mentor early on in the game but who later takes on a more antagonistic role as she's gradually overtaken by the supernatural phenomena working its way through the building, in which people are influenced by past memories of another life, said to be the residents of another dimension slowly leaking into the real world. Sofia must find several artifacts throughout the building that have been imprinted upon by these residents from the other dimension, and using the information and power she gathers from them, must rid the building of the dark energies slowly permeating it, while also battling against members of the organization who have been corrupted by the strange energy. As the player progresses through the game, they'll encounter numerous other members of the organization, and will have to carefully deduce who they can trust, sometimes by engaging in dialogue with them or by having them interact with the artifacts Sofia finds along the way. They'll also have to contend with the fact that Sofia herself may be coming under the influence of these mysterious entities as she seeks to uncover the mystery behind everything. TTL's Control was produced in collaboration with Pyramid Games, but since most of Pyramid's resources were focused on The Boiling Isles, Pyramid devs served mostly in a supporting/auxiliary/consulting role. While Alex Hirsch mostly worked as one of the producers/directors on The Boiling Isles, Ariel worked on TTL's Control in a writing capacity, mostly working on various characters while also serving to tie the events of Control to the wider Pyramid universe by working with Sam Lake to connect the worlds of Terror Trip and Control together, and also serving as somewhat of an inspiration for the character of Sofia, who we later learn was one of Claudia's college professors before transferring to the bureau. For the most part though, Control is Sam Lake's game, much as it was IOTL, with the games sharing many mechanical and thematic similarities across the two timelines, and only diverging in terms of character and plot details. Sofia's mission is somewhat less personal than OTL Jesse's, without a kidnapped brother to pursue, and without the storyline element of the main character becoming the director of the organization, we instead get more elaboration on Sofia's relationships to her fellow members of the bureau. It's a more interpersonal game, slightly more focused around character development, and for that reason, we get a lot of comparisons to the Snatcher remake, which features similar (if slightly more linear) gameplay.
Released on September 10, 2019, as a Stadia console exclusive but also on the Steam platform for PCs, Control is considered a groundbreaking game both graphically and in terms of its gameplay and storyline, much as OTL's game was. In fact, its reviews ITTL would be somewhat better than the OTL game's, owing to the Stadia allowing for the game to have a better budget and make better use of the platform's capabilities, and also owing to the slightly tighter writing and gameplay, which delve extensively into Sofia's character and her relationship to the other members of the bureau. It would become one of the Stadia's most successful titles of the year, with more than ten million premium Stadia subscribers playing the game in the first few months after release, and millions of non-premium Stadia subscribers deciding to purchase the title. It becomes a Game of the Year contender, earning a number of positive comparisons to The Last Gift, another of the year's outstanding narrative-driven action titles. Pyramid's involvement in the game would also help to drive hype for The Boiling Isles, set for release in a few short months. As IOTL, Control remains one of the best received and most impactful titles of its generation, and as a Stadia exclusive, helps to drive even more people to the service, just a month after the release of another huge exclusive, Nephilim II.
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Other Significant Titles For September 2019:
Days Gone: OTL's massive PS4 exclusive makes its way to the Reality around the same time ITTL, and is mostly the same game with a bit more narrative and gameplay polish owing to a slightly longer development cycle. As IOTL, it focuses on a post-apocalyptic world centered on a protagonist who drives a motorcycle around an open-world landscape, battling hostile humans and mutated zombie-like creatures all the while. Like many other big Reality games, it features VR, giving the player the option for first person visuals and control, or allowing them to explore in a third person view with a VR camera positioned just behind the protagonist. The game is a success, though not a massive one, instead ending up right around the same sales total as IOTL, with slightly better reviews averaging around an 8/10. The game gets some comparisons to Squaresoft's motorcycle-themed title Gestalt, which critics consider to be the superior game, and which sells better in Japan.
Daemon x Machina: Another OTL game that also appears ITTL, this serves as more of a technical showcase for the Game Boy Zero than anything else, and isn't all that much improved from OTL's game. It's still a third person shooter focusing on mech combat, though it has some more RPG elements than OTL, drawing inspiration from Squaresoft's Mechatos series. Sales are slightly improved from OTL, owing to the popularity of the Game Boy Zero, and likely would've been even better if the Zero was easier to find.
Steven Universe: Connie's Quest: This turn-based RPG comes to the iPhone G, and is similar in terms of gameplay to the OTL Steven Universe RPG games, featuring a combat system much like the Mario RPG titles, with timed hits and the like. It's centered around Steven's friend/love interest Connie, and allows the player to experience some of the events of the show from her perspective, which the show (which always focused on Steven) never allowed fans to properly do. She teams up with some of her classmates, who are fleshed out and given their own distinct personalities in this game, to save Beach City from some meddling government agents and a few hostile gem creatures and mutants, while also featuring a storyline that takes place alongside the events of the Steven Universe movie, which comes to theaters around this time. It's a well received game critically, though it doesn't sell all that well, owing to the niche nature of the game's source material.
(Authors' Note: The following game idea was given to us by the reader HonestAbe1809!)
Rage Rabbit: A 3-D platforming animal mascot game developed by an indie studio as a parody of such games as Sonic the Hedgehog, this game centers around an animal mascot video game character who gets tired of being a video game character and goes to give the studio who made his game a piece of his mind, only to learn that it's been bought out by a big studio who wants to make him into a gritty, edgy character. He not only has to battle evil studio execs, but also has to battle the gritty mascot version of himself, while staying true to his heart of being a nice and friendly guy who just wants to help his friends. The gameplay itself is fairly cookie-cutter, but the game does get good marks for the writing and satire, some of the best ever written about the game industry (the game was developed by a former Electronic Arts employee who is taking out all his old grievances on the studio in this game's script). Released for pretty much every current console, Rage Rabbit ends up selling a decent amount and becoming somewhat of a cult classic.
Destined 4: The latest in Acclaim's megahit superhero series encompassing not just games, but comics, a TV show, and even direct to streaming animated films, Destined 4 introduces a brand new group of heroes with all new powers, and some cameo appearances from the old characters. This game earns LOTS of comparisons to Thrillseekers: Generation Z (it's the fourth game in its respective series, it features a new slate of protagonists, it's a AAA game and part of a mega popular IP), but despite the comparisons reminding players of the somewhat repetitive nature of modern AAA-gaming, it IS a very good game and ends up selling quite well, continuing the IP's high popularity as one of Acclaim's most important properties.
