Hong Kong 97 is a 1995 bootleg for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), developed by Japanese studio HappySoft. The purpose of Hong Kong 97 was to satirise the gaming industry by making the “worst game ever.”
Hong Kong 97 centres around the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China in 1997. Fearing a dramatic increase in the crime rate due to immigration from mainland China, the Hong Kong government hires a relative of Bruce Lee named Chin to kill every single person in China.
Hong Kong 97 is infamous for how absurd the gameplay is, and how offensive the content is, and for several years, the game’s creator Yoshihisa “Kowloon” Kurosawa seemed content to forget it ever happened.
The Return of Chin
However, 30 years later, HappySoft and Kurosawa are preparing to release a sequel. Hong Kong 2097 sees the return of Chin, this time to take down the nation of ‘Amurikka’ (thanks, Automaton).
The Steam description of the upcoming game reads, “A twinstick shooter in which nothing is sacred. Fight your way through 5 stages of mind-numbing mayhem and establish a utopia for future generations.”
The Story of Kamikuishiki Village, another game by HappySoft, makes light of the Aum Shinrikyo cult and the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack. The game uses real-life footage and a modern conspiracy theory suggests the game was created by Aum Shinrikyo himself.
The inspiration behind Hong Kong 2097 appears to be the recent uptick in censorship we’ve been seeing in the gaming industry. The store page reads, “In a world of encroaching censorship and social media algorithms crushing our freedom of thought, Hong Kong 2097 and its disrespect for all that is sacred is a breath of fresh air.”
Hong Kong 2097’s screenshots show various absurd backgrounds, such as George Washington preparing to kiss another man, what appears to be the heads of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce in tacos and the well-known Vince McMahon meme.
It’s unknown how long Hong Kong 2097 has been in development, but it is expected to release this December. You can imagine how topical the game might be with that kind of turnaround.
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Brand
Nintendo
Original Release Date
August 23, 1991
Original MSRP (USD)
$199
Weight
2.12 lbs
AloJapan.com