In the future, man and machine will have to unite if they want to bring back peace and justice to our world. That was the main premise behind the story of Slave Zero, the shooting mecha action title developed by Accolade at the end of the Nineties. It took place in a dystopian world, 500 years in the future, a megacity dominated by the tyrannical Sovereign Khan. The rebellion against him will be brought by our protagonist by stealing the most sophisticated robot machine ever created. The title would go on to be released on PC first and was followed by a version for Sega’s Dreamcast. A small, dedicated fanbase has kept interest in the cult game alive, which might explain why – 25 years later – the game is getting a prequel, in the form of Slave Zero X.
The original was developed by a small internal team of around 25-30 people at Accolade. Right from the get-go, it was being designed as a third-person action title, even though first-person was definitely more fashionable at the time. Ken Capelli, lead artist on , remembers that their team was a conglomeration of several other teams at Accolade following an internal restructuring. “Back then, the company was mostly known for driving games and sport games. I believe, overall, that was a way quite a fun experience.
