is a role-playing video game produced by

Square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90- degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...

that was released exclusively in Japan in 1989 for the

Family Computer The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit Third generation of video game consoles, third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redes ...

(the Japanese version of the Nintendo Entertainment System). The game is directly based on Mark Twain's renowned 1876 novel, ''

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' is an 1876 novel by Mark Twain about a boy growing up along the Mississippi River. It is set in the 1840s in the town of St. Petersburg, which is based on Hannibal, Missouri, where Twain lived as a boy. In the no ...

'', and was developed in the role-playing video game niche that made Square famous with its acclaimed ''

Final Fantasy is a Japanese video game, Japanese science fantasy anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and ...

'' series of video games.

Gameplay

Players control Tom Sawyer and his friends as they join the party, such as Jim and Huck, and they each have RPG game statistics such as health, power, and speed. Characters can equip no weapons, and fight with their fists, but there are a large number of collectible items.

Key card A lock is a mechanical or electronic fastening device that is released by a physical object (such as a key, keycard, fingerprint, RFID card, security token or coin), by supplying secret information (such as a number or letter permutation or pas ...

s and

black magic Black magic, also known as dark magic, has traditionally referred to the use of supernatural powers or magic for evil and selfish purposes, specifically the seven magical arts prohibited by canon law, as expounded by Johannes Hartlieb in 14 ...

are also present in the game. The game features an enemy that triggers the reset button on a players controller bringing them back to the title screen.

Plot and setting

''Square's Tom Sawyer'' is based on Mark Twain’s 19th century book “

” and features many characters from that book. The plot takes place in 1855 on the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

in the fictional town of St. Petersburg,

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

. The game begins with

Tom Sawyer Thomas Sawyer () is the titular character of the Mark Twain novel ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' (1876). He appears in three other novels by Twain: '' Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' (1884), '' Tom Sawyer Abroad'' (1894), and '' Tom Sawyer, ...

having a dream saying that in a southern location a pirate treasure is buried.

Aunt Polly Mark Twain's series of books featuring the fictional characters Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn include: #''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' (1876) #''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' (1884) #''Tom Sawyer Abroad'' (1894) #'' Tom Sawyer, Detective'' ...

wakes Tom the next morning, and Tom sets out to find the treasure.

Development

''Square's Tom Sawyer'' was scored by famed ''Final Fantasy'' composer

Nobuo Uematsu is a Japanese composer and keyboardist best known for his contributions to the ''Final Fantasy'' video game series by Square Enix. A self-taught musician, he began playing the piano at the age of twelve, with English singer-songwriter Elton ...

, who is described as taking a more "scenic" approach to the game than his previous works. Artist Katsutoshi Fujioka worked on the game title as well. Around the time that Sakaguchi was writing scenarios for what would become the original ''Final Fantasy'', Hiromichi Tanaka decided to make a game based on “Tom Sawyer” at the same time and formed a team to make it. Takashi Tokita developed some of the graphics, and designed Tom Sawyer as well, but working on the game was difficult for Square to do as teams struggled to finish both games at once, and help was given by the different teams to complete the titles. Being released between ''Final Fantasy II'' and ''Final Fantasy III'', the game was similar to ''Final Fantasy II'' in that there was no experience point system. Many of the gameplay systems were later seen in an evolved form in the '' SaGa'' series. Goto Komori, a detective writer, created the games scenarios. The game had the name “Square” added to the front as another video game about Tom Sawyer came out earlier the same year. Tom hunting for buried treasure is a plot point taken from the original story. According to

, the game was not immediately released after it was completed, and came out a long time after in order to avoid big game releases by Square or their rivals.

Reception and legacy

The game was never localized outside Japan, and was noted by ''

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

'' as an example of

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...

in video games. In 2010, ''

UGO Ugo is the Italian form of Hugh, a widely used name of Germanic origin. Its diminutive form is Ugolino. It is also a Nigerian Igbo first name. It may refer to: People * Vgo (stonemason), medieval stonemason * Ugo Bassi, a Roman Catholic prie ...

'' ranked it as the #4 most racist video game in history. The portrayal of black people as blackfaced caricatures with huge lips has been noted about the game. In '' GameSpys retrospective overview of the Famicom, Benjamin Turner and Christian Nutt's Square column concludes that "one of the most amusing Square games that didn't come o the U.S.was ''Square's Tom Sawyer'', an RPG starring the happy-go-lucky boy wonder that featured a...racially insensitive...character." Artist

Takashi Tokita (born 24 January 1965) is a Japanese video game developer working for Square Enix. He has worked there since 1985, and has worked as the lead designer for ''Final Fantasy IV'' as well as the director of '' Parasite Eve'' and ''Chrono Trigger''. ...

explained in 2018 that when the game was made, there was not a “standards and practices” department to ensure that games did not contain materials that would be offensive in other cultures.

References

External links

Square Enix ''Square's Tom Sawyer'' Page
{{The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 1989 video games Works based on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Japan-exclusive video games Nintendo Entertainment System games Nintendo Entertainment System-only games Role-playing video games Square (video game company) games Video games based on novels Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Nobuo Uematsu Video games set in the 19th century Video games set in Missouri Video game controversies Obscenity controversies in video games African-American-related controversies Race-related controversies in video games