[Playing…] SOS – Septentrion

Human Entertainment is a company that in the 16-bit era stood out for making some of the most original games of the moment. Good proof of this is the firefighter game The Firemen, the graphic horror adventure Clock Tower or the game that I will comment on below: S.O.S. (not to be confused with SOS Sink or Swim, also from Super Nintendo) a game apparently based on the novel and film The Poseidon Adventure.

S.O.S. (known in Japan as Northern) is one of the rarest games in the Super Nintendo catalog and at the same time, it is a game that would not have been possible on any of the consoles of the moment, except Nintendo's 16-bit one.

The reason for this is because one of the technical tricks of the Super Nintendo (known as Mode 7) was to use an image as a stage and rotate or modify it at will to give a sensation of depth and movement. With mode 7, maps, zooms, racing game circuits, giant enemies and various deformations were made on the title screens, among many other things.

In SOS mode 7 was not used for something secondary, but rather it was taken as inspiration and basis for the entire game, because the entire stage rotates as we play, something that today is not impressive at all, but in its day it was unique, as much as the game itself.

The story of this game is about a huge ship called Lady Crithania that due to strong waves it ends up sinking in the middle of the sea. From the terrible accident we take control of one of the four protagonists (a doctor, a sailor, an architect and a counselor or priest, depending on the version you play) who survive the moment in which the ship capsizes due to the waves, each of them having a different story and location within the ship at the time of the catastrophe.

The story of the characters would be secondary in any other game, but in this case it influences the development, since while we try to get out of the ship we find survivors, some of them more important than others for our protagonist (For example, it is not the same for a character to find his wife as for a stranger), thus modifying the end of the game depending on the number and importance of the people we have saved.

Every time we meet a character we can ignore him, talk to him or help him (in case you need help) some of them will follow us decisively, others will be dismayed by the event and will need more time, to this we must add that some of the people we find may be injured and they will therefore be slower and more fragile when it comes to following us in our escape. The game gives us total freedom when it comes to helping the characters or not secondary, although as I have already said, depending on what we have done we will see one ending or another.

Because the ship is upside down and continues to flood, as the game time passes we will see that the entire stage creaks and sways, so that an area of ​​the boat that may be inaccessible at first may become completely flat as the boat turns after a few minutes of play. This will also affect the flooded parts of the ship, which will modify the paths and fill it little by little. The actual departure time affects the movement of the ship, so we will have to be attentive to its turns and inclinations to be able to pass through seemingly inaccessible areas. in this game It is totally normal to crawl on a wall or ceiling, holding on to the bottom of a ladder or any situation that would otherwise defy gravity, because the boat does not stop moving from one side to the other as it sinks.

From the moment of the catastrophe until the game is over we will have 60 real minutes to try to get off the ship (solos o acompañados). Nuestro personaje no puede morir, pero cada vez que hagamos alguna locura (como caer desde mucha altura) quedará inconsciente y se nos restarán minutos de tiempo. Al cumplirse la hora, el Lady Crithania quedará totalmente hundido y tendremos solo unos pocos segundos para intentar bucear hacia la salida, de lo contrario acabaremos en el fondo del mar junto con el enorme barco.

As cada personaje empieza en una parte diferente del barco, recorreremos diferentes caminos dentro de él y encontraremos diferentes supervivientes con cada uno de ellos hasta llegar a las zonas comunes. Debido a que no tenemos ningún mapa del barco, habrá que usar los que están repartidos por el barco como guía,  lo cual dificulta algo la exploración, pero aumenta el realismo y la tensión de cada partida (que de por sí ya son bastante grandes gracias al tiempo límite y a la música catastrófica).

Nuestros personajes son personas normales y solo pueden saltar, abrir puertas y poco más, no hay súper poderes, no hay nada excesivamente exagerado y el juego en sí, pese a tener jugabilidad de un juego de plataformas, es bastante limitado en cuanto a saltos por parte de nuestros humanos protagonistas, que solo podrán hacer saltos exageradamente largos aprovechando la inclinación del barco a su favor.

No se puede decir que sea un juego fácil o accesible, ya que nos deja movernos libremente por el barco (teniendo en cuenta su movimiento y la zona en la cual estamos) y es posible que acabemos hartos de acabar en callejones cerrados y tengamos que perder el tiempo volviendo sobre nuestros pasos para buscar otro camino.

Debido a todo ello, S.O.S. no es un juego que se le pueda recomendar a todo el mundo, pero al mismo tiempo vale la pena ser probado solo por lo original de su propuesta y la seriedad con la cual está plasmada, algo no demasiado habitual en el mundo de los videojuegos.