JOURNEY TO SILIUS

GAME INFO: Journey to Silius is a side-scrolling action game that was originally developed as a video game version of the 1984 science fiction film The Terminator, but was changed into an entirely original narrative when Sunsoft could not acquire licensing rights. Players control Jay McCray as he attempts to thwart a terrorist group that had caused the death of his father by destroying Space Colony #428 in the Silius Solar System. Jay's father had evidently foreseen such an attack, and prepared instructions to rebuild the colony for his son to discover on a floppy disk should the terrorists prove successful.

SETTING: The game takes place in a dystopian future where the overpopulation of planet Earth forced humanity to live on artificial colonies in outer space, establishing an entirely new calendar that sets the game in the year 375. Players navigate ruined urban landscapes, enormous tunnels that were presumably concourses for large-scale transit, and eventually board a spaceship in-flight, fighting robotic sentries along the way.

FUNERARY IMAGERY: The game's opening cinematic establishes the destruction of Space Colony #428 and Jay's discovery that his father had indeed perished in the attack. In one cutscene, Jay is seen standing over his father's tombstone, silhouetted against cemetery fence backlit by a fiery sunset. The tombstone is a trapezoidal stone topped with a crucifix, and rests upon a wide plinth. Presumably, the epitaph of Jay's father is engraved into the angled surface that Jay faces.

ANALYSIS: The death of Jay's father provides a strong emotional thrust to the events of Journey to Silius, and the scene depicting Jay commemorating his father in a cemetery is an effective example of semi-cinematic storytelling that characterized several early games on the Nintendo Entertainment System, which lacked the technology to depict complex animations. Although the tombstone itself is unusual in appearance, it is nonetheless recognizable as a Western grave courtesy of the crucifix on top of the stone, as well as the suggestion of fencing that resembles wrought-iron cemetery gates in the background. If nothing else, the accompanying text that describes Jay visiting the cemetery further emphasizes the setting as a gravesite should visual information fail to provide that association on its own.

Gallery

Jay pays respects to his father at his gravesite