Cyborg 009 is a side-scrolling platformer/shoot'em up game for the Sega Mega CD add-on of the Sega Mega Drive. It was published by RIOT and Telenet Japan and released on July 30, 1993.
Overview[]
The storyline of the game takes various bits of the manga and mixes them together. It is a merger of "Assassins", "Mythos", and "The Underground Empire of Yomi".
The art style of the FMV cutscenes mostly references the character designs as seen from the film Cyborg 009 The Movie: Legend of the Super Galaxy (save for 001 having white hair from the manga), with the voice cast from the film reprising key roles. However, the soundtrack in the game is sourced from the 1960s animated works (particularly Cyborg 009 Monster Wars), except for one track from the 1979 series in the climax.
The game ultimately ends with the original intended stop point of the manga; 009 and 002 burn up in re-entering the atmosphere, and two children see them as a shooting star, with the older sister wishing for world peace.
Gameplay[]
Unlike the Super Famicom game, players can only use Joe Shimamura throughout the game.
Controls[]
The game's disc
Start Button... Pauses Game
A Button... Shoot
B Button... Jump
C Button... Acceleration System
B + C Buttons... Super Jump
Characters appearing in the game[]
- Cyborgs 001 through 009 (005 through 008 in non-speaking cameos)
- Dr. Gilmore
- Helena
Level Bosses[]
- Cyborg 0012: In a unique twist on the franchise, Cyborg 0012 has a physical body inside the house that takes the form of a demon. The player must dodge her attacks and shoot the torso and head of the demon to defeat her.
- Cyborgs 0010+ and 0010-
- Lion Man
- Achilles
- Poseidon
- Apollo: The Player is unable to use the Super Gun in this fight, as in cutscene, Joe tossed his weapon aside to fight Apollo hand to hand. Instead, Joe can use a flying kick or punches to defeat Apollo
- Atlas
- Van Vogt
- Cyborg 0011
- Skull
Misc. characters[]
- Helena's two sisters
- A boy named Kazu, and his older sister
Production Staff[]
- Original Story by: Shotaro Ishinomori (as serialized in Akita Shoten)
- Production and Planning: Shinobu Ogawa
- Screenplay, Character Designs, Continuity, Animation Supervision, Art Direction: Yoshitaka Maki
- Supervisors: Satoshi Osano (for IshimoriPro), Satoshi Shinohara (for Toei), Michio Otomo (for Nihon Telenet)
- Game Directors: Tsunayoshi Orihara, Junichi Yoshizawa
- Main Program: Hiroaki Sano
- Visual Program: Yasuhisa Tanaka, Satoshi Otake
- Game Character Sprites: Yoshihisa Shimizu, Hiroyuki Hara, Kimiaki Saito, Hiroshi Sawamura
- Game Maps: Eiji Kikuchi, Toshiya Sasaki
- Key Animation: Kazuhiro Soeta, Hiroshi Shimizu, Hiroyuki Horuichi, Jun Kamiya, Mitsunori Murata, Yoshitaka Maki
- Animation: Yoko Akasaka, Junko Masubuchi, Ritsuko Shiina, Keiko Watanabe
- Visual Graphics: Kazuya Tsukazaki, Ikuko Takahashi, Takaki Iwata, Kohei Magome, Kosuke Musaka, Tomoko Hakoda, Yoshinori Tsukamoto, Yoshitaka Maki
- Sound Effects: Kenichi Mori, Vaincre Co. Ltd.
- Recording: Tavca Co. Ltd.
- Theme Song and Original Music: Taichiro Kosugi (for Nippon Columbia)
- Visual Music: Minoru Yuasa
- Game Music: Go Takano, Hiroaki Kai
- Casting Director: Toshio Furuichi (for Aoni Production)
Voice Cast[]
- 009: Kazuhiko Inoue
- 001, Helena: Fuyumi Shiraishi
- 002: Keiichi Noda
- 003: Kazuko Sugiyama
- 004: Keaton Yamada
- Dr. Gilmore: Jouji Yanami
- Apollo: Masashi Hironaka
- Van Vogt: Hirohiko Kakegawa
- Skull: Yoku Shioya
- Demon Statue: Hiroyuki Sato
- Older Sister: Akiko Sekine
- Kazu: Junko Hagimori
Notes[]
- As mentioned in the villain section, this became the first piece of media to give Cyborg 0012 a physical form outside of her mansion. A piece of promotional artwork done for the VHS tapes of the Cyborg 009: The Cyborg Soldier series would pay possible homage to the demonic 0012, showing their design of her with a more vampiric appearance compared to how she appeared in the series.
- For simplification of the design, as well the idea of flaming hair probably not working with the limited animation, Apollo's hair is depicted as simply blond and spiked out.
- Following the Monster Wars film, Helena merges the stories of the manga Helena and Helen characters. However, the game leaves some aspects of her story vague, such as whether she is a human or cyborg. Her possible connection (or lack of) to Apollo is never given any sort of detail, and the nature of her two sisters is also unsaid, though they are clearly inspired by the Pu'Awak princesses.
- Prior to the 2001 anime utilizing the character, Poseidon is shown among the minor bosses, perhaps being a holdover from the character originally being planned for a Mythos adaptation in the 1979 series (expanding from his one-panel cameo in the manga).
- Players of the game get to see a rendition of Van Vogt's eyes underneath his sunglasses, although they are visibly robotic and bring the reminder that he's a cyborg.
- Compared to the 2001 anime series having the Black Ghost brains speak in the voices of a man, woman, and child, the brains in this game speak in unison and in the same masculine voice.
- The 0010 twins' color schemes are primarily orange (for Plus) and blue (for Minus), as their counterparts in Monster Wars had been, except for the game's twin sprites being closer to the manga and both having light skin, while their hair and clothing are in their theme color. However, the game booklet showing Yoshitaki Maki's designs depict them with entirely monochromatic bodies, suggesting that Plus is entirely orange-skinned and bodied, and that Minus has blue skin.
- While the manga version of the Yomi arc had the team temporarily staying at Joe's house (before its destruction), and the 2001 anime had them at a beach cabin owned by Dr. Gilmore, the game utilizes the cliffside mansion made popular by the 1979 series.