Face his fists of justice!
In 2030, the world is threatened by the forces of Metal Command. Steve Hermann loses his hands in an accident, and gets them replaced with cyborg hands. He decides this is enough to take on this evil group and save the world.
Shatterhand is a side-scrolling action game in which the player not only has punching as the primary attack, but also robot drones as secondary attacks, with what kind of robot being decided by how you pick up certain power ups.
The game was developed by Natsume and released in 1991 for NES. It is also notable by being redone as a Licensed Game in Japan, of Tokkyuu Shirei Solbrain, even though Shatterhand started out as an original game.
Provides examples of the following:
- All There in the Manual: Why Steve is fighting these robots, why he has his nickname, or that he even has robotic hands.
- Artificial Limbs: Cybernetic hands, hence the name of the game.
- Artificial Limbs Are Stronger: Steve lost his hands when taking on two robots. With his new hands, he can punch away armies of them.
- Attack Drone: The robots use their special attacks every time Steve throws a punch.
- Boss Rush: The final level involves periodic fights with past bosses.
- Bullet Catch: Steve can punch bullets out of the air thanks to his cybernetic arms.
- Checkpoint Starvation: Both played straight and averted in the final level. It's a long gauntlet of four difficult sections with boss re-fights after the first three,
Infernon being one of them, and you get zero checkpoints during any of it (although there are a few healing pads if you have the cash for them). And then, bizarrely enough, you get a permanent checkpoint when you get to the final section after the re-fight with Gravitus, the Area E boss. Yes, you restart there even if you game over, and on top of that the final section even has six letter boxes so you can always take a suit with you into the final boss fight. - Conspicuous Electric Obstacle: Final area has blue and red obviously glowing electrical conduits that damage the player upon contact.
- Cool Shades: Steve wears a pair on the opening cutscene.
- Cyborg: Steve's hands are robotic.
- Dolled-Up Installment: The Japanese version is made into a licensed game for Tokkyuu Shirei Solbrain.
- Dual Boss: The bosses in the oil refinery level.
- Energy Weapon: The laser bot's weapon is lasers.
- Evil Counterpart: The final boss has an Evil Bot, complete with an Evil Super Mode.
- Extremity Extremist: Since only his hands are super powered.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Just with bionic fists.
- Gravity Screw: The anti-gravity center level.
- Ground-Shattering Landing: The final boss can do this, setting the floor on fire in the process. The Flame Ninja boss can do a smaller version, though that doesn't make it any less dangerous.
- Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: Some jumps are made harder by having conveyor belts moving the players.
- Invulnerable Knuckles: Literally, Steve can punch bullets away. Then again, he has cybernetic hands, so this is more logical than most examples. Also averted by the cover art, where the punches have torn away the artificial skin on his knuckles.
- Killer Yo-Yo: The Yobobot uses an energy ball that spins around it.
- Kill It with Fire: The pyrobot uses a flamethrower.
- Marathon Level: The final level. It's basically 4 mini levels with 3 boss re-fights sandwiched between them, with no checkpoints at all until after the third re-fight.
- Motion Parallax: The first part of area B boasts no less than four layers of parallax scrolling; which makes the backgrounds and other visual effects look very dynamic.
- 1-Up: Can be bought with enough money at select sections.
- Palette Swap: Steve's jacket turns from green to red when you buy the double attack Power-Up.
- Pinball Projectile: The "bounce" bot fires projectiles that rebound off walls.
- Post-Defeat Explosion Chain: Major enemies, and some objects, are shaken by several small explosions before finally shattering.
- Rated M for Manly: A game about a guy punching robots, with loads of explosions.
- Rule of Three: Three alpha or beta powerups need to be collected to activate a robot.
- Steam Vent Obstacle: In this game, steam vents are to be avoided. Though in area A, steam vents are rather common.
- Super Mode: When two sets of the same powerups are collected in a row, Steve temporarily turns into a robot with Nigh-Invulnerability. Instead of damage, every hit reduces the time the mode lasts.
- Super Not-Drowning Skills: Steve has no problem moving around in water for a long period of time.
- Take Over the World: What Metal Command is seeking to do.
- Under the Sea: Part of the filtration plant level takes place underwater.
- We Can Rebuild Him: Steve getting his new hands.
