is a 1994 Japan-exclusive video game that was released to the Super Famicom

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...

. It is based on the manga of the same title

Patlabor

Patlabor also known as , is an anime and manga franchise created by Headgear, a group consisting of director Mamoru Oshii, writer Kazunori Itō, mecha designer Yutaka Izubuchi, character designer Akemi Takada, and manga artist Masami Yūki.The popular franchise included a manga, a TV series, two OVA...

.

Summary

The Labors were robot

Robot

A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...

s created by the big industries

Industry

Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...

 and was used in construction

Construction

In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...

 and public work. However, however many people used the Labors for criminal purposes

Crime

Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...

. The Tokyo Police Department

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department serves as the police force for the entire Tokyo metropolis. Founded in 1874, it is headed by a superintendent general, who is appointed by the National Public Safety Commission and approved by the prime minister.The Metropolitan Police, with a staff of more...

 decided that Labor were to patrol the zones of Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

 and combat crime. This is the way this way the Patlabor Special Mobile Police

Police

The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

 began.

As the game progresses, the player's Labors can learn new attacks. Rogue Labors can even be convinced to back down from their criminal activity - sometimes a necessity as a robotic police officer. This game is full of kanji

Kanji

Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...

 that is confusing to someone who can't read the Japanese language

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

. The game is essentially a text-based video game with a sparse amount of graphics.

See also

• List of Patlabor video games
• List of video games based on anime or manga