SNES Longplay [200] Phantom 2040 (US)

Played by: Reinc Backstory: In the year 2040, environmental disasters and the economic Resource Wars of the early twenty-first century have had catastrophic effects upon the Earth’s ecological balance. Ever-increasing polarisation of wealth, along with the development of humanoid, robotic “biots“ (Biological Optical Transputer Systems), have resulted in a social demographic that leaves the majority of the world’s population scavenging in the undercity slums while a wealthy minority live luxurious lives in towering skyscrapers. The Earth’s population continues to rise, but without the resources to support them or the jobs to sustain them, they are cast onto the streets of the over-urbanised mega-cities. The megalopolis of Metropia, a reformed and renamed New York City, is the world’s most powerful city-state and within it are the headquarters of the world’s most powerful corporation, Maximum Inc. Maximum’s mass production of biots and its influence upon the world’s corrupted leaders has allowed it to shape Metropia into a cold and metallic urban center, where technologically advanced buildings and transport systems have replaced any natural plant or animal life. Maximum’s chairperson, Rebecca Madison, driven by the violent death of her husband Maxwell Madison Sr. and a desire for revenge against the Phantom who she believes killed him, has plans to construct an impenetrable fortress called Cyberville where the elite wealthy can retreat once Earth deteriorates beyond hope of restoration. Maximum’s hidden underground biot factories are illegally constructing Maximum’s personal biot army, which Rebecca will use to guarantee the world’s collapse so that she may take control of the world through Cyberville. In the Ghost Jungle (a gigantic, hidden stretch of jungle twisting through Metropia’s ruins and underground), Kit Walker discovers that he is the 24th Phantom, sworn to bring an end to piracy, greed, and violence, a role passed from father to son for 500 years. Kit’s father was killed with Maxwell Madison Sr. in a mysterious toxic train wreck, and now it’s up to the Phantom to stop Rebecca Madison’s plans of worldwide domination. Phantom 2040 is a side-scrolling action-adventure video game developed by Hearst Entertainment and published by Viacom New Media in 1995 for the Mega Drive, SNES and Game Gear. The game is directly based upon the animated television series Phantom 2040 but follows a plotline not strictly taken by the show. The show itself is loosely based on The Phantom newspaper comic strip series, Phantom being one of the first superheroes ever, preceding Superman by two years, and setting the “masked hero in a skintight costume“ trend. Phantom 2040 has a heavy emphasis on exploration. It is up to the player to locate the area’s objective or exit, and every area offers optional areas with restoration kits or weapon upgrades. Some areas are locked by numbered gates that must be opened by destroying the remote lock of the same number, located elsewhere in that area (additionally, some locks can only be accessed if the area is reached by a secret underground network of sewer systems). The area’s objective may include locating a keycard, dealing with a boss or simply finding access to the next area. The majority of areas can all be revisited at any time after they are unlocked. The game is divided into seven chapters. In the first six chapters, the player is presented with choices of action, which determine which areas of the game world become available, which cutscenes are shown, which bosses are fought, and what ending you receive. The storyline in Phantom 2040 is presented differently in the NTSC and PAL versions of the game. In the NTSC version of Phantom 2040 in the options menu the player has the choice of having the game’s story presented to them in cinematics between levels and dialog between characters, or in a summarized point-list of new and completed objectives. In the PAL version, only the summarized storyline is available, and the player may choose what language the game’s text is displayed in. This longplay uses the NTSC version to show complete storyline, and I show the Summarized option after playthroughs. In this longplay, I show all areas, all endings and all cutscenes and try to find all items, weapons and upgrades, although collecting absolutely everything in one playthrough is impossible due to mutually exclusive paths. So, In order to do this, I had to play through the game five times. The first playthrough shows the good ending, and the next one shows “Try Again“ ending, while also showing new content along the way. The three consecutive playthroughs were done off-record, because they do not have any new levels or items, with the only difference being the cutscenes, which I put at the end of the video. As usual, after all playthroughs and cutscenes are shown, I show deaths. Disclaimer: Most videos by World of Longplays use SaveStates!