| Journey to Silius | |
|---|---|
North American front cover of Journey to Silius. |
|
| Developer(s) | Tokai Engineering Sunsoft |
| Publisher(s) | Sunsoft |
| Composer(s) | Nobuyuki Hara Naoki Kodaka About SS Marumo Mabochan |
| Platform(s) | NES |
| Release date(s) | |
| Genre(s) | Run and gun |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Media/distribution | 2-megabit cartridge |
Journey to Silius, released in Japan as Rough World (ラフワールド, spelled [rʌf] WORLD in the logo and often misinterpreted as "Raf World")[1], is a side-scrolling action shooting game co-developed by Sunsoft and Tokai Engineering that was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990.
Contents |
In the year 0373 of the new space age calendar, overpopulation of Earth has led to increased demand for emigration to space colonies. Jay McCray, the son of a scientist responsible for development of space colony #428 in the Silius Solar System (SSS), prepares to move there in order to follow in his father's footsteps. However, the space station is obliterated in an explosion, killing the entire research team and destroying all data onboard.
In his father's home, Jay discovers a floppy disk containing not only the complete SSS colony plans but a personal message from his father asking that he complete the projects should terrorists succeed in destroying the colony. To protect the colony plans and to avenge his father's death, Jay sets out to fight the terrorists responsible for the space colony's destruction.[2]
The player controls Jay McCray, as he goes on a mission to defeat the terrorist group responsible for his father's death. There are five stages, consisting of the ruins of a space colony, an underground concourse, the enemy's hideout, a flying spaceship, and a factory. The player must fight his way through an assortment of robotic enemies and security systems in order to reach the end of each stage and fight the stage's boss. The controls follows the standards conventions of other side-scrolling action games for the NES. The character can lie down, but he can only aim his gun left or right. In addition to the default handgun weapon, the player can switch to one of five additional weapons that can be procured throughout the course of the game (a shotgun, a machine gun, a homing gun, a laser rifle, and a grenade launcher). Each of these special weapons consumes the player's Gun Energy gauge and once it runs out, the player will automatically revert back to the default handgun. The player can replenish Jay's health and ammo by retrieving energy capsules dropped by defeated enemies.
The player only has a limited amount of lives and three continues to complete the game. After the fifth and final stage is completed and the ending is shown, the player will restart the game on the first stage.
Journey to Silius was originally conceived as a game based on the 1984 film The Terminator.[3] However, Sunsoft lost the license during the development of the game, as a result the game's plot and graphics were altered before release. Although, the American version of Journey to Silius was released a month following its Japanese counterpart Rough World, the player character's sprite is actually from an earlier build of the game simply titled Rough. The European version of Journey to Silius uses the updated sprite design from Rough World.
Rough World was re-released in Japan in a two-in-one compilation for the PlayStation titled Memorial Series: Sunsoft Vol. 4, which also included Hebereke (the Japanese version of Ufouria).