Policenauts: Hideo Kojima’s Sci-Fi Classic
30 years ago, Konami released Policenauts, a game that continued the fusion of movies and video games pioneered by Hideo Kojima. As an LA detective named Jonathan Ingram—a former astronaut in cryosleep for 24 years—the game combines visual novel elements with action-based scenes to create one of Kojima’s most memorable stories. However, despite its brilliance, Policenauts was never officially localised into English and has remained relatively unknown outside Japan due to the lack of official translations. Fan translations do exist, however.
Wasted Potential and Future Releases
As Hideo Kojima’s career took him from Policenauts to iconic works like Metal Gear Solid, fans have often speculated about the potential of a second Policenauts game. Unfortunately, despite Kojima’s plans, this sequel never came to fruition, leaving many wishing that the game could have reached its full potential.
Do you believe Policenauts should be given an official English release? Why or why not?
They’re both good, but they’re also… you know, visual novels.
Which, weirdly, makes them more accessible today than they were at the time, and especially than during the big Metal Gear Solid years where that really wasn’t the expectation. If Konami and Kojima weren’t engaged in a blood feud it would be a good time to re-release them together.