You might not have thought about the 1986 space western anime Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs for a couple of decades. But if you did watch it, it’s time to reignite your fandom as it’s now being turned into a videogame.
It’s being headed by former Nintendo employee Chris Strauss who is currently hoping to raise enough funds on Kickstarter to bring it to PC and Nintendo 3DS. The idea is to turn the anime into a 2D 16-Bit style run’n’gun shoot-’em-up.
There will be 12 missions, four playable characters (Saber Rider, Fireball, April, and Colt), “Challenge Phase” mecha battles, voices provided by the original actors, and a new soundtrack based on the TV show’s music.
The 3DS version will have Play Coin support and full stereoscopic 3D. While the PC version will have a scanline filter for that retro TV show effect.
As well as his own studio, Strauss has the support of IP owner World Events Productions as well as the anime show’s original animation producer Studio Pierrot. In fact, Straus and his team are using the original sketches, animation cels, and design sheets courtesy of Studio Pierrot as reference.
As it stands, $75,000 is the crowdfunding target, but should that be exceeded it might be possible to bring the game to more platforms.
