Before It Was Shatterhand, It Was Solbrain: The Famicom Tie-In That Shipped First

To NES collectors, Shatterhand is a Jaleco cartridge from December 1991, an action game developed by Natsume. What far fewer of them know is that the same game had already been on sale in Japan for two months by then — under another name, with another hero, as a licensed tie-in to a Toei superhero series that was on Japanese television that year. On the Famicom it is 特救指令ソルブレイン, Tokkyuu Shirei Solbrain, and the Shatterhand you are hunting shipped in Japan first, wearing someone else’s armour.

That matters more this month than usual. City Connection has announced SHATTERHAND for Nintendo Switch in September 2026 — and what it is releasing is the overseas version. The Japanese Solbrain version, with its own opening, its own stage and its own cast, is still something you can only own on the original cartridge. This guide covers what changed between the two, what the sources actually say about which one is “the original”, and how to find the Famicom cart when the catalog has no product code to give you.

• Japanese title: 特救指令ソルブレイン (Tokkyuu Shirei Solbrain), a tie-in to Toei’s 1991 Metal Hero series of the same name, known in English as Super Rescue Solbrain
• Platform and date: Famicom, 26 October 1991 (Japan)
• Publisher and developer: Angel, a Bandai label · developed by Natsume
• Product code: none on record — the catalog row carries no code, so you search by the Japanese title
• Overseas release: Shatterhand on the NES, published by Jaleco — North America in December 1991, Europe in November 1992
• New this month: the NES Shatterhand is coming to Nintendo Switch in September 2026 as a digital release. It is not the Famicom version, and it is not a cartridge

What is Tokkyuu Shirei Solbrain?

Tokkyuu Shirei Solbrain was the 1991 entry in Toei’s Metal Hero tokusatsu series, and the Famicom game was its licensed video game. The catalog records it as row M878606: a cartridge released on 26 October 1991 by エンジェル (Angel), priced 6,000円 before tax, with the copyright line (c)1991 TV ASAHI・TOEI・ASATSU(c)ANGEL 1991.

Angel was one of Bandai’s publishing labels, and the game was developed by Natsume. According to the English Wikipedia article, the Famicom version “follows the same storyline as the Solbrain TV series and features a different opening sequence” from the one Western players know.

Which came first, Solbrain or Shatterhand?

On release dates, there is no argument. Tokkyuu Shirei Solbrain went on sale in Japan on 26 October 1991. Shatterhand followed in North America in December 1991 and in Europe on 19 November 1992. Japan got the game first.

On which one is the original design, the sources disagree, and it is worth being precise about who says what. The English Wikipedia article and the Metal Heroes Wiki both treat the Famicom game as the starting point. Wikipedia says Shatterhand “was originally released by Angel (Bandai) in Japan in 1991 as a licensed game”; the Metal Heroes Wiki says the Famicom game “was later modified into Shatterhand”. GameSpark’s August 2026 report on the Switch release reads the same way: the Japanese version was made as a character game for the show, and the overseas release changed part of its content.

A Japanese Famicom blog, イマダファミコンboom, tells it the other way round. It says the overseas Shatterhand is the original, and that the Japanese release had characters swapped and arrangements added to fit the Solbrain series then on air — adding that it might have sold better if it had come out unchanged. We found no source that says who asked for the change, and no statement from Natsume, Angel or Jaleco either way. So this article does not settle it. What it can say is that the version most Western collectors think of as the default was, in the order of release, the second one.

What changed between the two versions?

Underneath, it is the same game by the same developer. What the sources describe as different:

• Characters, items and story. Wikipedia notes that “the graphics for most of the characters and items were changed”; the Metal Heroes Wiki calls the differences “mainly cosmetic (changing graphics and plot)”. The Famicom version follows the TV show’s storyline
• The opening. The Famicom version has a different opening sequence (Wikipedia)
• Area C. The biggest single change. In Solbrain, Area C is a carnival stage; in Shatterhand it is “an entirely different submarine level” (Wikipedia). The Metal Heroes Wiki describes the same swap as a theme-park stage replaced by a nuclear-submarine stage
• Boss placement. The Metal Heroes Wiki lists “which boss appeared in which area” among the substantial changes

The fan community treats the two versions as halves of one game. Romhacking.net hosts a hack called Tokkyuu Shirei – Solbrain – Complete that “adds Submarine level from US ‘Shatterhand’ to JAP ‘Solbrain’”, and another, Shatterhand in Solbrain, that puts the Shatterhand protagonist into the Japanese game. Neither version, on its own, has everything.

Is the new Switch release the Famicom version?

No. GameSpark reported on 7 August 2026 that City Connection will release SHATTERHAND for Nintendo Switch in September as the second “special edition” title in its ジャレコレ ファミコン編 (Jaleco Collection, Famicom edition) line. The headline names both games, but the release is the overseas SHATTERHAND; the report gives no price.

That makes the Switch release a good way to play the game and a poor substitute for the Japanese version. If what you want is the Solbrain opening, the carnival stage and the Toei cast, the only way to get it is the 1991 Famicom cartridge. And a Famicom cartridge needs a Famicom: it is a 60-pin board that does not fit an NES without an adapter.

How do you find the Famicom cartridge without a product code?

Most buying guides on this site start from the code printed on the label. This one cannot. Catalog row M878606 has no product code and no barcode on record, so there is nothing to paste into a shop’s code search. The Japanese title is the query, and it works well — with two things to watch.

Stay in the games category. 特救指令ソルブレイン is also the name of the TV show, so a shop-wide search returns the show’s DVDs, Bandai toys and theme-song CDs. At Suruga-ya on 11 September 2026, the all-categories search returned 38 listings, and exactly one of them was the game. Restricted to games, the same search returned only the game. The link below is already restricted.

Expect thin stock. On the day we checked, Suruga-ya had one copy in stock — a cartridge without its outer box, listed at ¥9,900–¥59,400. With sold-out listings included, the same search shows seven entries: loose carts, damaged boxes, a manual on its own, a box on its own. Suruga-ya hides sold-out items by default, so if the link shows zero results, the game is out of stock that day, not missing from the shop.

Japanese auctions carry more copies — read the titles. Through the proxy service Buyee, a search for 特救指令ソルブレイン ファミリーコンピュータ (the title plus “Family Computer”) returned 11 listings on 11 September 2026. Nine were the Famicom Solbrain cartridge — cartridge-only copies, one with its manual but no box, two listed as unused. The other two were not: one was listed as a North American NES Shatterhand, one as a cartridge-only 海外版 (overseas version). Check the listing title for 北米版 or 海外版 before you bid. The hardware word matters here too: the title on its own returned 259 listings, most of them show merchandise, and Solbrain returned four, none of them the game.

On eBay, the Western name finds the Japanese cart. You might expect a search for Shatterhand to return NES copies. It does not, as long as you add the hardware: searching Shatterhand famicom (measured 11 September 2026, from Japan) returned two exact matches, and both were the Famicom Solbrain cartridge; one seller had put both names in the listing title. No NES copies came up. For a wider net, Solbrain famicom returned sixteen exact matches, most of them the Famicom cart.

On Kataban, either name works. Search Shatterhand or 特救指令ソルブレイン and you land on the same catalog entry, with the release date, the publisher, and the kana to look under on a Japanese shelf (ト, in the た row). One catch: Solbrain on its own returns nothing, because the catalog stores the reading as a single run-together word.

Tokkyuu Shirei Solbrain (Shatterhand in the West) · 特救指令ソルブレイン · Famicom · 1991 · Angel (エンジェル) · no product code on record

Where to buy: Suruga-ya.jp (by Japanese title — stock varies) · Buyee · eBay
Search for this on Kataban →

Two months, two names, one cartridge slot that only the Japanese hardware has. The Switch release will bring Shatterhand to a new audience this month, and some of them will go looking for the original. When they do, the thing to search for is the name on the Famicom label.