Run Saber
| Run Saber | |
|---|---|
 North American cover art | |
| Developer(s) | Hori Electric |
| Publisher(s) | Atlus |
| Composer(s) | Hikoshi Hashimoto |
| Platform(s) | SNES |
| Genre(s) | Action, Side-scroller |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
Run Saber is an action game developed by Hori Electric and published by Atlus in 1993. The game features side-scrolling fighting as the two main heroes, Allen and Sheena, the Run Sabers, fight to save the planet. The gameplay is very similar to Strider.
Gameplay
After choosing either the male character, Allen, or the female character, Sheena, the player is sent to five different levels around a fantastical Earth. Sheena has an ice affinity, while Allen has a lightning one. A third Saber, Kurtz, is aligned with fire, and is an enemy the player must fight several times. The player can use a slash attack (the standard attack) which Allen does forward and Sheena upward, use a mid-air kick, or use the Hyper Bomb (special pick up item). The player can climb up and down walls and hang on to the ceiling also while doing a jump if you press up they will do a power jump until they begin to fall (very similar to the Screw Attack of Super Metroid).
In each of the five levels (Taj Base, Tong City, Jodvalley, Grey Fac, and Bruford), there are multiple minor bosses and one final boss at the end of each level. These battles are noted when an alert message appears on the screen. In between each boss, the player must fight hordes of enemies and collect health pickups and weapon enhancers.
Story
Years into the future after the earth has been overly polluted and resources are running low, a scientist quickly comes up with a solution: A new chemical that will reverse the effects of pollution. As colonists settle in space to avoid the Earth's pollution, the new found chemical is quickly launched in a missile into the atmosphere where it explodes and releases the chemical. However, the chemical begins to mutate any and all humans infected with the chemical horribly; the scientist knew the effects of his chemical and uses the mutated people as his soldiers to rule the Earth. Now mankind's only hope is a new weapon known as Project Saber, three human cyborgs that are genetically enhanced to a super natural level. Kurtz, the first Saber, malfunctions and escapes to Earth before the project is complete. The remaining Sabers, Allen and Sheena, are dispatched to eliminate the scientist and his militant mutant threat, and neutralize Kurtz if possible.
Reception
"Run Saber" received very good reviews, most players claim that the game is way too easy (for finding many live spheres and good amount of continues) and short but appraise the quality of gameplay, graphics, music and the cooperative mode rarely seen in this kind of game.
Censorship
Originally, the boss at the end of the Tong City level was a woman lying on her side. Apparently, Nintendo felt that this violated their content guidelines that banned a game sold on their system to depict or reference violence against women, so the woman was changed into a dead woman and was approved [VideoGames and Computer Entertainment "Could It Be...?" Vol v. Issue 8. 1993 pg. 13].