Ah! Shatterhand * is an apogee of the NES platforming, cult classic that left more praised hits far behind. A game which has everything done right. I think that my PJ buddies Shiru** and Cast Out*** would say the same thing.
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*Or rather Tokkyu Shirei Solbrain which was more common in Russia - but let's face it - controlling metal hero robot was a lot cooler than to play the games with a guy in shades (oh no!).
**Traces of Solbrain/Shatterhand can be seen in some of Shiru's works. Also he written a lot about the game on russian retrogaming forums.
***Cast Out lended me the cartridge in nineties and seldom seen it again.

The information that Solbrain came out second comes from the interview with Solbrain's composer Hiroyuki Iwatsuki*, which myself and Kommander conducted in 2005. Sadly this interview never saw release in russian as intended, only japanese version was published on Kommander's site here:
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hzk/kommander/natstaff.html
(You can see explanation of A.B. thing on the bottom of the page)
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*One of two who worked on Solbrain - Iku Mizutani composed all tracks for Shatterhand, Hiroyuki Iwatsuki done all sound effects and composed music for those parts in Solbrain which differed from Shatterhand: intro and Amusement Park level.


Anyway, I played Solbrain/Shatterhand for the first time in 1996, and feel inspired by it ever since. Most obvious one is in the piece To The Stars:



I never thoroughly analysed the style of Solbrain, though. These two threads shurely will be a catalyst. _{Should visit Pixelation more frequently...}