In true Japanese fashion, the act of cyberdiving is abbreviated to cyving, which doesn’t have the same ring to it in English. The hackers in this universe are called cyberdivers and they jack in to the network via their cranial nerve. The state has bankrupted and society is governed by huge enterprises who control the cyberspace. The series is set in a 22nd century world where the human brain has become immortal after technology has advanced so far that the mind can be digitized and stored in a large cyber network called “Down Load”. The same goes for searching for information on Japanese webpages, since the Japanese spelling of the series title (ダウンロード) is also the Japanese word used to prompt a file download.ĭownload: Namu Amidabutsu wa ai no uta (VHS & LaserDisc) Although Download might have been a cool name back in 1990, time has not been gentle on this title: it is very inconvenient to try to search the internet for “Download PC Engine”, or, even worse, “Download anime”. Another reason for its continued obscurity today is probably the in-retrospect unfortunate choice of name. The games seem to have gotten average reviews at the time, which would have made it even harder to establish the franchise. characters’ looks and traits change considerably over the course of the series), but it is also this motley implementation that makes the series interesting and charming today. One reason why the series never caught on might be the stylistic incoherencies between the different entries (e.g. None of the entries were released outside of Japan, which is too bad, since there are quite a few aspects here that are unique and well-executed enough to create a compelling cyberpunk series. However, as time would tell, the series was not strong enough to develop into a larger franchise, and was never continued after the anime. Within two years, publisher NEC Avenue and partners produced two PC Engine games, one light novel and one direct-to-video anime. One of the most fascinating aspects of the Download series is that it was an unsuccessful attempt at establishing a new multimedia franchise – or as the Japanese call it: a media mix (メディアミックス) – based around a new shoot-em’-up video game. The games also set themselves apart from its peers by its dense story and high amount of cutscenes, which was unusual for the genre at the time. Unlike the ships and aircrafts of most other shooters, this series has you piloting a red motorcycle that also acts as a network terminal to jack in your brain to the cyberspace - two of the most iconic parts of the aforementioned works.
The games were released just a few years after the 1988 Akira movie and the impact of that film along with William Gibson’s Neuromancer novel from 1984 have left clear traces on these games. Nothing exists in a vacuum, and the cyberpunk-themed PC Engine shoot-em’-ups of the Download series are indeed children of its time.
0 kommentar(er)
