Kikou Keisatsu Metal Jack (1992). Play online

Summary

Armored Police Metal Jack (often just called Metal Jack) is a side‑scrolling action title that lets you pilot a trio of high‑tech police operators in cyber‑suits. It launched on the Super Famicom in 1992 and showcases tight platforming, projectile‑based combat, and colourful sprite work that still feels fresh.

A North American version was announced but never released; developers would have shifted the setting from Tokyo to Los Angeles and renamed the heroes – Ken Striker, Billy Crash and Jake Gonzales – alongside a renamed antagonistic group. These planned changes hint at how the game was meant to bridge Japanese design with Western expectations.

Even without the international release, the game’s mix of police‑driven mech action and varied levels (from neon cityscapes to underground labs) gives it a niche appeal that stands out among early ’90s SNES side‑scrollers.

Storyline

The setting is Tokyo City, a high‑tech futuristic metropolis where a surge of murders, terrorist attacks and cyber‑crimes overwhelms ordinary police work. Masanao Daigo of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is scouting candidates for his long‑planned “Metal Project.”
During a gala of the global Zaizen conglomerate, an army of Crime Mobiles—monster robots of the criminal syndicate Id—assaults the event and targets Jun Zaizen, the heir. Daigo is impressed by the desperate defense of detective Ken Kanzaki, F1 driver Ryō Aguri and wrestler Gō Gōda, who are gravely injured while trying to protect him. He revives them as cyborgs, outfits them with armored bodies and assigns them to the new unit called Metal Jack. The three become the core of the eponymous armored police force, a reward for their bravery in the face of death.
Metal Jack now patrols the streets, confronting every form of crime, while the shadowy organization Id continues to pull the strings from behind the scenes.