It is the year 2040, all environmental disasters and the economic Resource Wars of the early twenty-first century have had catastrophic effects upon the Earth's ecological balance.

The Earth's population continues to rise, but without the resources to support them or the jobs to sustain them, they are cast onto the streets of the over-urbanised mega-cities.

Maximum's mass production of biots and its influence upon the world's corrupted leaders has allowed it to shape Metropia into a cold and metallic urban center, where technologically advanced buildings and transport systems have replaced any natural plant or animal life.

Rebecca Madison seeks to find the fabled Black Panther, the last of its kind, to use its blood in an infusion that will allow her to trap her dead husband's captured brainwaves inside a living body.

Meanwhile, Maximum is secretly harvesting rare Ghost Jungle plants with photosynthetic properties for use in particle laser technologies.

The Phantom must find a way to stop both Sean One's deadly particle beam cannon and Rebecca's use of the Panther in restoring her husband's brainwaves, but there are multiple other threads to deal with in the process, including: The game ignores several important plot "twists" revealed in the cartoon.

Additionally, Maxwell Madison Sr, who is revealed late in the series to have been good friends with the 23rd Phantom up until his death, remains antagonistic in the game's last chapter.

They were critical of the walking animation for the title character but assessed the graphics in general to be very good, and also praised the game's cinematics and non-linear quest.

[7] He reviewed the Genesis version with equal enthusiasm, commenting that "if you hunger for a 16-bit challenge, Phantom 2040 is a feast made even more satisfying by lengthy replay value.