The game is based on the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997. People from mainland China began to immigrate to Hong Kong and significantly increased crime rates. As a countermeasure, Chin ( Jackie Chan in the image from the movie Diner on Wheels ), an unidentified relative of Bruce Lee and a drug addict ^{[4] [5]} , was hired by the Hong Kong government (represented by Chris Patten) to kill all 1.2 billion people in China . But at the same time, studies were conducted in China to bring the dead Tong Shau Ping ( Deng Xiaoping ) back to life as an "ultimate weapon."

When the game was released in 1995, Deng Xiaoping, who was dead in the game, was still alive. However, he died in 1997, when the plot of the game actually takes place ^[6] .

Immediately after the introduction of the plot (which follows some advertisements and the title screen), the game begins. The player controls Chin, whose goal is to shoot and dodge the Chinese population and police moving down from the top of the screen. When fired, enemies explode in a nuclear mushroom , leaving behind a sparkling corpse and objects for instant death or temporary invincibility. After some time, cars begin to appear from the sides, moving horizontally on the screen as obstacles. After the player has defeated thirty enemies, the last boss appears, the ultimate weapon Tong Shau Ping (pictured as Deng Xiaoping's incorporeal, disproportionately giant head). Once he is defeated, the game repeats. As a background, the game displays static photos that alternate between images of Maoism propaganda, Guilin , Asia Television Limited logo, Chinese Coca-Cola logo or Mao Zedong in a monochrome palette.

If something other than the subject of invulnerability falls into the Chin, the game immediately ends (if the Chin is not in a state of invulnerability) and the “ game over ” screen is displayed, which shows a fixed frame of a human corpse with bullet holes. The words “CHIN IS DEAD!” In English and in grammatically incorrect Chinese “Chén sǐ wáng” ( 陳 陳 死亡 ) can be interpreted as “Chin is dead” or, as a proper name, “Dead Chin” - superimposed on top of the screen “game over. " Then the game goes to the credits (including the Canadian Embassy in Japan in the list of cooperation partners), and then returns to the title screen and repeats again.

After turning on the game, you can hear the first two lines of the cheerful song “I Love Beijing Tiananmen”, which are endlessly repeated throughout the game. The game can be played in English, Japanese or traditional Chinese.

In January 2018, Yoshihisa "Kowloon" Kurosawa, responsible for Hong Kong 97, finally broke the silence about the development of the game for the South China Morning Post ^[7] . He stated that his goal was to make the worst game as a mockery of the gaming industry. Since Kurosawa had no special programming skills, he was assisted by an Enix employee, and the game was done in two days. Kurosawa took the music from a used LaserDisc , which he bought on Shanghai Street, and the main character’s sprite was taken from the movie’s poster ^{[8] [9]} .

After completing the game, Kurosawa used a Game backup device that could copy Super Famicom games to floppy disks; devices were sold at Sham Shui Po computer centers. He made several products through articles written under pseudonyms for clandestine gaming magazines, and organized a mail service for selling games on floppy disks and cartridges ^[10] . After selling these copies for several months, he forgot about his bootleg. Later, in the late 2000s, he found out that Hong Kong 97 received general attention. In the end, fans of Hong Kong 97 found his Facebook account, and since then he has been repeatedly asked questions related to the game ^[11] .

In retrospective reviews, Hong Kong 97 was overwhelmingly negative, and some called it one of the worst video games ever made ^{[12] [13] [14] [15] [16]} . Journalists noted racism in the game ^{[17] [18]} .