Dreamcast Game #37: Slave Zero

スレーブゼロ

Today, we are taking 500 years in the future… and we’re going to kick some serious ass with Slave Zero! This Dreamcast game, initially released on Windows PCs, was developed and published by the now-closed Infogrames North America, and it was released in late 1999 in North America and early 2000 in Europe. The game does not have a release in Japan. Margaret Stohl is the game’s scenario writer, Sean Vesce is the game’s director, Matthew J. Powers is the game’s producer, Jeffrey Gregg, Mike Wikan, and Jason Weesner are the game’s designers, Ken Capelli is the game’s artist, and although the Dreamcast version doesn’t have any music during gameplay, Randy Atkins is the game’s composer. The game runs on a custom 3D engine called “Ecstasy Engine”, which was custom-built to allow the game to run on the SEGA Dreamcast, and to date is the only game to run on it.

In the game, you take the role of Slave Zero, as he rages war against the SovKhan’s forces throughout every part of Megacity S1–9 (a futuristic, fictionalized version of New York City and Tokyo). Unlike most console games with music during gameplay, Slave Zero does not have any in-game music in the Dreamcast version. I, my younger brother, and a friend played the hell out of this game, and during gameplay, you will see upgradable weapons, and when picked up, the player will see “UPGRADED”. On the game’s Germany release, all humans were replaced with robots due to Germany’s youth protection law.

Tommo purchased the game’s rights and digitally published it through its Retroism brand in 2015. Retroism re-released the game on GOG.com and, together with Night Dive Studios, to Steam. The rights to the Slave Zero IP changed hands to Ziggurat Interactive, as they announced a prequel titled Slave Zero X, which was released last month for the PlayStation 5, Xbox series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and the PC.