Lost Classics: Run Saber (SNES)

If you’re a regular visitor to Powet, then chances are, you know of my love of robot ninjas. It’s like putting together two different kinds of awesome. On two separate occasions, I featured games in this column featuring robot ninjas in all of their glory. The characters in this little known Super Nintendo game that was developed by Hori Electric and published by Atlus may not exactly be ninjas, but they’re close enough. In Run Saber, players take control of either Allen or Sheena (or both if playing a 2-player game) as they make their way across 5 levels battling robots and aliens in a bid to save Earth. It’s pretty much your typical mid-90s SNES platformer, with jumping and powerups. The way they climb on walls and move however, is quite similar to Capcom’s Strider. In fact, it wouldn’t be far fetched to say that is Strider had a 2-player co-op mode, it would look something like this. That’s not to say it’s a ripoff, just that as great minds think alike, so in particular do great game designers. The game manages to make an identity all on its own with its level layouts and boss encounters (including a giant witch whose face decomposes). Who knows when, or even if, Atlus will bring this game over to the Virtual Console, so it looks like this is one of those gens you have to hunt down for yourself. It might not be original, but it does what it does very well. Besides, you can never go wrong with games featuring robot ninjas.