"Why am I the only one that played this game?" - Obscure games thread

[Zero Kirby]

Phantom 2040 is one of those Super Nintendo gems that I feel kinda flew under the radar. Probably because it's a licensed game based off an only mildly successful cartoon show that was basically like Batman Beyond for The Phantom, except way before Batman Beyond was a thing!

Uh anyway even though I've never seen the show this game kicks all of the ass forever. It's got a bit of a Mega Man mixed with Metroid feel to it. Most of your weapons consume energy, though you can always use your fists (and you can even grab dudes to use as a human shield while shooting, which is awesome), and you have a grapple that can connect to pretty much anything, which you can use to scale walls and swing across gaps. You play through a variety of levels, collecting upgrades (including increasing the length of your grapple!) and new weapons, and can use them to revisit old areas and reach new places, but what's really cool is that there's actually a number of branching paths throughout the game, including in the very first level! You can either go left into the burning building, and rescue someone in order to get a keycard that lets you reach an otherwise inaccessible area in the next level, or you can go right, fight a boss, and earn a new weapon way early. The game even has multiple endings!

And if you've never seen the show like I haven't, the Phantom's lair actually has a database full of information on characters and the setting that you can read up on at just about any time. Top it all off with a cool artstyle and some awesome music and it's a damn fine game.