Journey to Silius

Journey to Silius
North American NES box art
Developer(s)	Tokai Engineering^[1]
Publisher(s)	^EUSunsoft ^AUSMattel ^JPSunsoft ^NASunsoft
Composer(s)	Naoki Kodaka
Platform(s)	NES, PlayStation
Release date(s)	^EU1990^[1] ^AUS1990^[1] ^JPAugust 10, 1990^[1] ^NASeptember 1990^[1]
Genre(s)	Run and gun
Mode(s)	Single-player
Distribution	2-megabit cartridge

Journey to Silius, known in Japan as [rʌf] World (ラフワールド, Rafu Wārudo),^[2] is a 1990 side-scrolling run and gun video game developed by Tokai Engineering and published by Sunsoft and Mattel for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was released in Europe and Australia in 1990, in Japan on August 10, 1990 and in North America in September of 1990.

Journey to Silius was originally based on the 1984 film The Terminator, but the licensing rights to the film were lost during development.^[3] As a result, the graphics and storyline were altered to accommodate this change, but remnants of the earlier version still remain in the game. For example, the final boss has a striking resemblance to the titular terminator in the film.

Gameplay

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 follow the standard 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 to the default handgun. The player can replenish Jay's health and ammo by retrieving energy capsules dropped by defeated enemies.

After the fifth and final stage is completed and the ending is shown, the player will restart the game on the first stage.

Plot

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 on board.

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.^[4]

Development

Journey to Silius was originally conceived as a game based on the 1984 film The Terminator.^[3] However, Sunsoft lost the license during development and as a result the plot and graphics were altered before release.

The American version features a different design for the player character than the one used in the Japanese and European versions of the game (which depicted the main character in a futuristic armor and helmet, instead of having his head exposed). A pre-release build of the Japanese version, simply titled Rough, featured the same player character design used for the retail release of the American version.^[5]

One of the interesting details about the game was the music, composed by Naoki Kodaka (credited as "N. Kodaka"). Most commonly, NES composers would use the digital channel for sampled drums and the other channels for melodic content. For Journey to Silius, Kodaka, with the assistance of Nobuyuki Hara (credited as "Nobuyuki"), Shinichi Seya (credited as "About.SS"), Naohisa Morota (credited as "Marumo") and Takashi Tateishi (credited as "Mabochan"), used the digital channel for a sampled bassline, and the triangle channel for a kickdrum. This made the game soundtrack sound vastly different than other games.^[6]

Ports

[rʌf] World was re-released in Japan in a two-in-one compilation for the PlayStation titled Memorial Series: Sunsoft Vol. 5, which also included Hebereke.

Notes