 That's strong. Phantom 2040 was an animated series that lasted for only about 35 episodes back in the mid-90s, based loosely off of the Phantom comic book created by Lee Falk back in the 1930s. The show spawned a video game for Sega Genesis, Game Gear, and the Super Nintendo, and believe it or not, this is easily one of the best licensed games on the system. Okay, it might not be as good as something like Turtles in Time, but it's certainly up there with the likes of Adventures of Batman and Robin, or True Lies. The closest comparison to Phantom 2040 is probably Super Metroid, with the obvious difference being that the setting, presentation, atmosphere, and music are all light-years better in Super Metroid. But the gameplay in Phantom 2040, however, is pretty similar. You come equipped with a grappling hook of sorts that allows you to explore these huge levels, looking for extra weapons, key cards, bosses, hidden areas, and eventually, the end of the level. There's also tons upon tons of additional weapons and power-ups here, everything from invincibility to additional armor to flash bombs to boomerangs, and plus you can operate vehicles, so the game gives you a lot to work with and a ton of space to use it all. With exploration comes a lot of platforming, which is perfectly manageable in most cases. Again, it's not in the same league as Super Metroid, but your character operates in a similar fashion with a similar jump range. There's split paths you can take, although the path comes together at the beginning of the next level anyway, but the choices you have here can potentially change the ending you get when you finish the game. There's up to 20 different endings, so yeah, there's some replay value here. The story takes place in a huge city named Metropia in the year 2040, duh. The Earth's resources have been ravaged by the wealthy, leaving many homeless and destitute. One wealthy person in particular, Rebecca Madison, is head of a robot manufacturing plant and is mad with revenge because she believes our hero, Phantom, killed her husband. So naturally, she wants to build a robot army to kill off Phantom, and as a bonus, push off the Earth for good, so the wealthy folk can finally be rid of those pesky poor and homeless people. Geez, what is this, a fan fiction written by Sean Hannity? Anyway, Madison wants to find this black panther thing that will somehow magically revive her dead husband. However, in a weird twist, some other guy shows up to take it, so it's a race between Phantom and Madison to take it. And even then, once Phantom recovers the black panther, he's got a choice to make on whether or not to keep it just so Madison can't get it, or to trade it for information so he can find his missing friend. Whew, yeah, there's a lot of story here, and that's just getting started. It goes to show the depths this game has, both in the gameplay and the story. I have to say though, it can be pretty confusing at times, trying to figure out what to do next. So there may be extended stretches here and there where you're just kind of wandering around aimlessly, trying different stuff to see what works and what doesn't. And that involves quite a bit of backtracking. That kind of gets annoying after a while. I mean, I guess it has to be expected in exploration games of this nature, but the game isn't too cryptic most of the time. There is a pretty big flaw though, and that's the enemy respawn rate. It gets really old killing the same stuff over and over. Also, there is a password system. No battery saved. Ugh, just the frickin' worst. Still, Phantom 2040 is a revelation, a very surprising out-of-nowhere game with a lot of depth and a ton of replay value, who would have ever thought? And it only gets better. The cartridge goes for an average of $8 on eBay, I dare you to find a better deal than that right now. So yeah, while Phantom 2040 may not be a classic, it's still a very good game, and if you enjoyed Super Metroid, you gotta check this one out.