Shatterhand (Nes) Playthrough / New hands can overcome all the challenges our hero faces.

Shatterhand (1991) by Natsume is a sci-fi platform game reminiscent of another superhero game released two years earlier for the same system. Of course, we are talking about Sunsoft's Batman, which is undoubtedly very similar to Shatterhand in terms of both gameplay and presentation. On the one hand, this is good, but on the other hand, it is bad because there is nothing to complain about in terms of gameplay, but the presentation itself is a different matter for 1991.

But before we get to that, let's shed some light on the plot outline.
In the game, we play as police officer Hermann, who lost both his hands during a skirmish with a military group of renegades called “Metal Command” who want to conquer the world by building an army of cyborgs. After the incident, he is implanted with new cybernetic hands, giving him new abilities to fight the dangerous organization. Once again, he is recruited into the special services under the code name “Shatterhand” to fight the dangerous organization with the help of new technology. You could say that Hermann is like JAX Briggs From Mortal Kombat, only four years earlier and more advanced.

The main feature that distinguishes Shatterhand from Batman is the system of summoning cybernetic helpers. There are 8 types of them, and we summon them using a combination of 3 characters that we arrange in a sequence. There are only two characters and 3 fields to fill, and we get them from boxes scattered throughout the levels. Some summons are better than others, but I liked the combination of Alpha, Beta, Beta, which summons Ricobot, who shoots diagonally downward and his shots bounce off the walls, allowing us to ricochet and pull opponents out of hard-to-reach places. There is also a robot with a sword, flamethrower, laser, etc., but I liked the one with ricocheting bullets the most.
If we manage to collect the same combination of characters twice while our robot is still active, we get super armor that gives us a 15-second attack boost and protects us from all damage. However, if we take damage in this form, those 15 seconds will be reduced by one second with each hit.
Along the way, we also collect coins, which are more important than points in the game and are actually helpful. They serve as currency in “upgrade” points, where we can purchase damage upgrades, which are visible when our hero's vest changes color from green to red. The damage dealt by hand is then much greater than in its normal form. Unfortunately, we must remember that after receiving 3 hits, this buff is taken away from us, so if we are careful and do not get hit, we can keep it from the beginning of the game to the very end, as it carries over between levels.

Graphically, Shatterhand, to be honest, looks a little worse than what we saw in Batman two years earlier. Although it is not an ugly game, in 1991 it should have looked much better. The sound effects and music are of a really high standard, so no one should complain about the poor soundtrack.

I would forget that we also get the opportunity to lift our flying helper, after which we can throw it at an opponent located in a straight line to our character. However, this ability is slow and rather dangerous, so it is not worth using it, and it is better to simply beat the opponent with our cybernetic hands.

If Shatterhand had been released a year or two earlier, it could have been a really great game, but as it is, it's just an average game compared to what the NES console showed in 1991. Personally, I really liked the game because it offers interesting solutions and quite varied gameplay, as each map has its own characteristics that we have to get used to. It is definitely not an easy game, and we will often be forced to repeat each level from the beginning, but I must admit that it is extremely fair and enjoyable, so we will return to it many times.

Personally, I recommend Shatterhand because even though it seems a bit outdated, it's still a lot of fun and challenging. You could say it's a diamond in the rough, and actually one of the most interesting action platformers on the system.

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"Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio"