Atomic Runner

For the unreleased Sega Saturn port, see Atomic Runner (Saturn).

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Atomic Runner

System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Virtual Console

Publisher:

Data East (Japan, US)

Sega (Europe)

Paon

Developer:

Data East

M2

Original system(s): Arcade boards

Genre: Action^[1]^[2]

Number of players: 1

Release	Date	RRP	Code
JP	1992-10-16^[2]	¥7,8007,800	T-13073
US	1992-07^[3]	$49.9549.95^[3]	T-13036
EU	1992		1144
PT	1992		MDJ1144
UK	1993-04^[4]	£39.9939.99^[5]	1144
SE (Rental)	199x
AU	199x
JP ▼	2007-09-11^[6]	600pts600^[7]
JP ▼	2010-02-09^[8]	¥880880	PON0001
JP ▼	2020-07-21^[9]	¥880880	PPD0004

Atomic Runner, known in Japan as Chelnov (チェルノブ), is a Sega Mega Drive action platform game developed and published by Data East. The game is a port of the company's 1988 arcade game Atomic Runner Chelnov but with significantly enhanced graphics and sound. It was first released in Japan, the United States, and Europe in late 1992, and has since been ported to the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console courtesy of developer M2 in September 2007.

Story

Introduction

While the original arcade version's plot took significant inspiration from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the home port's story was changed due to the minor controversy it caused in the contemporary Japanese game industry. Instead of a coal miner who developed superhuman abilities after getting caught in a Soviet nuclear failure who must fight an evil organization who wants to hire him for his advanced abilities, Chelnov is now a scientist living happily with his father and sister Chelmi. One night, he goes out for a jog only to hear an explosion at his house. Racing back home, he finds his father near-death at the hands of the "Deathtarians," a group claiming to be the original intelligent life — and consequently, the true owners — of planet Earth, predating humans.

Chelnov's father had been working to try to stop the Deathtarians, and now he leaves a suit which grants its wearer superhuman abilities and numerous weapons to Chelnov. Chelnov donned the suit to become the Atomic Runner and went on his way to save the world and rescue his now-kidnapped sister, but was overwhelmed by the Deathtarians's numbers. The Deathtarians captured, tortured, and attempted to brainwash the Atomic Runner, but eventually failed, leaving him with one last attempt to stop the Deathtarians.

Gameplay

The game is a forced side-scrolling action platformer. The screen continually scrolls to the left at a constant speed except during boss fights. Chelnov continues to run with the screen even if the player is not pressing forward. The player can run ahead faster with or stop with , though Chelnov starts moving again if he touches the edge of the screen. He also stops moving when he crouches with . He jumps with and somersaults with + or +. He shoots his weapon with , which has rapid-fire when the button is held down. Shots can be aimed with the D-pad; Chelnov can shoot at diagonal angles but not straight up. He can fire while jumping and while somersaulting. He can also attack enemies by jumping on them, which can be used to bounce off enemies to traverse gaps in the terrain. Chelnov changes the direction he is facing with + or +, which lets him shoot enemies behind him but does not change his direction of travel.

There are two alternative control schemes. The first scheme shoots with , jumps with , and changes direction with . It is not necessary to hold a direction to turn around since it toggles between forwards and backwards. The second scheme jumps with , shoots left with , and shoots right with .

Chelnov is initially equipped with a laser gun, but he can equip different weapons by finding items. He can upgrade his jump and his attack range, power, and speed by collecting power-ups as well. Chelnov dies with one hit. Touching enemies in any way besides jumping on top of them counts as a hit against Chelnov. He loses his upgrades and reverts to the laser gun upon death. He revives at certain checkpoints within the stages if the player has lives remaining. If the player runs out of lives, the game ends but can be continued. The player can set the starting lives and continues in the options before starting the game. Extra lives are rewarded at certain point thresholds.

Items

Items are found by shooting the aliens that carry them or sometimes by shooting torches.

Upgrades

	Jump
	Increases the Atomic Runner's jump height, up to two times.
	Yellow Up
	Increases shooting range and bullet speed, up to three times.
	Red Up
	Increases bullet size and destructive power, up to three times.
	Blue Up
	Increases attack speed, up to three times.
	Yen Coin
	Gives the player 2,000 bonus points.
	Dollar Coin
	Gives the player 5,000 bonus points.

Weapons

	Laser
	Initially equipped. Shoots a laser with long range and good power but small area of effect.
	Boomerang
	Throws boomerangs that return after being thrown. Long-ranged (though less than the full width of the screen) and very fast-firing.
	Light Ring
	Launches destructive bands of light. Large area of effect but relatively slow-firing.
	Spiked Balls
	Throws array of spiked balls forward. Tall area of effect and very strong but the shortest range of all the weapons.
	Morning Star
	Shoots iron spheres. Slow but long-ranged and tall area of effect.
	Homing Missile
	Sends out homing missiles that automatically target enemies. Good range and rapid-firing but relatively weak.