Destructoid Changelog - Bio Warrior Kickflip

Hi friends! As I’m writing this, I’m still waiting on the approaching The Game Awards. Since you’re reading this after they happened, you can assume I hated them and am just happy I don’t have to see Geoff Keighley again until Summer Game Fest. Hopefully, he doesn’t subscribe to this newsletter.

Been a weird week for me. The past couple of nights, I’ve been doing something I’ve sort of lost touch with and getting sucked into a single game from the end of the work day to when it’s time for bed. A couple of nights ago, it was Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic, the deepest and most unfriendly city builder that ever existed. I still suck at it. Really badly. Winter was rough. People missed playing sports so much that hundreds escaped the country. It was only after temperatures climbed back to Soccer weather that I realized I had completely missed all the indoor sports facilities I could have built. And that’s one of the more petty things I sucked at. I did far worse in more important areas.

Anyway, yesterday, I bought up copies of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2X, 3, and 4 on OG Xbox; games that I actually am good at. I felt like my skateboarding needed the extra beef of the era’s most powerful console. I played through all levels and goals of 2X, then through most of 3. 4 is the one I remember least about. I did play it back in the day but – and this might sound weird – I was Tony Hawked out when it was released. I think I still finished it because I remember the last level, but I remember being unenthused. Hopefully, that won’t be the case here because I’m itching to replay Tony Hawk’s Underground.

Before we move on, this is a reminder that you can get our monthly special edition newsletter by referring someone with the link you’ll find somewhere below. I know that telling someone to subscribe to a newsletter (with the link below) can be a weird conversation, but it’s worth it. Each month, I interview a developer so we can learn more about them. Featured so far have been TheCatamites, magicdweedoo, and Fever Dream Johnny. I’ll let you know when this month’s has been finalized.

You can also look back through past editions of the newsletter on this site over here because we need to learn from history so we don’t repeat it.

Bio Warrior Dan

I found out about City Connection’s Jalecolle collection not that long ago with the announcement that they’d be localizing games like Pizza Pop. Their latest release, at this time, is Bio Warrior Dan, a 1987 game by, well, Jaleco. It’s not a game that initially interested me, but I was curious about how City Connection was handling JALECOlle, since releasing simple emulated ROMs piecemeal is the coward’s way. Bio Warrior Dan had a launch discount, so I decided to educate myself.

I think this is about as good as you can do with an emulated version of one game. For starters, Bio Warrior Dan just barely missed a release in North America under the name Bashi Bazook: Morphoid Masher. A prototype of the game was later found fully translated, but that’s not what City Connection went with. Instead, it’s presented as the original Famicom release, but they put English subtitles up whenever there’s dialogue. The boxes for English text are fairly non-obtrusive, and they don’t show up over the original Japanese. Including the Bashi Bazook version would have been some extra-mile stuff, but I don’t feel it’s that important.

But this isn’t a simple emulated version. While I think the game itself is largely run in emulation and hasn’t been entirely source ported, City Connection took the M2 approach and surrounded the game in extra windows. This includes a window for achievements, one for enemy information, but also one that shows the music sequencer. It’s displayed as three keyboards depicting the two triangle and one square-wave channels, with the percussive “noise” channel shown as three dots. While playing, symbols appear on it, showing what note is being played at that time. Not a necessary inclusion by any stretch, but pretty cool all the same.

There are just a few too bads. I don’t think you can actually turn off all the stuff in the border of the game, which is something you can do with M2 releases. You can view the manual, but it isn’t translated and doesn’t have subtitles. Not a big deal, to me, at least.

The game itself, on the other hand, isn’t awesome. It’s okay leaning toward good. You play as Dan, who travels back in time to the unimaginably distant future of 1999 to try and save Earth from an alien invasion. Essentially, he’s trying to kill off the source before things get out of hand. You explore each of the five stages, check in background doors, and try to find secrets in order to amass weapons that will help you take down the area’s boss.

There’s a somewhat neat mechanic where the boss’s health ticks up as you play through the level. Sort of like the mold growing in the back of your fridge. The longer you take exploring, the stronger the boss will be, but if you don’t explore, you’ll miss out on weapons and power-ups, so it’s an interesting trade-off. On the other hand, it feels rather clunky, which isn’t unusual for a 1987 game. The level design is very basic, but there are a lot of nice touches, like staying at a classic Japanese inn or sumo wrestling. It’s pretty cool, just not spectacular.

The quality of the port, however, has made me interested in checking out the rest of the Jalecolle. They’re about to release Saiyuuki World in Japan (localized as Whomp ’Em over here) next week, but I’m not sure what the lead time is before they hit North America. I could probably look at previous releases and predict a rough time frame, but that sounds like too much work when I could just be patient instead.

Elsewhere on Destructoid

Cape Hideous betrays its name by being strangely captivating

Speaking of magicdweedoo (I did, it was in the intro reminder), the guy both published and did the soundtrack for Cape Hideous. But it’s a game by Jake Clover, and that’s pretty obvious since it’s more whimsical and less like dweede’s output of clever titles like Dryft City Kyngs. I played through it because it’s sort of my scene, and it’s an interesting concept.

It’s essentially a 2D walking sim, but the goal is not clear. It’s all about atmosphere in Cape Hideous, where the soundtrack is underscored by ambient sound effects of ship repairs and the ocean. It’s a strange game. It also only takes a smidge over a half-hour to play through. That makes it hard to fit into a formal review, so I did a basic write-up instead.

Itch.io back up after domain taken down by Funko anti-phishing claim

I love itch.io, and so should you. It’s an open marketplace with no set market share, so developers choose how much of their profits go to the company. This has allowed game jams to have a platform and experimental games of all lengths and compositions to find an audience. And porn. Lots of porn.

This week, the whole site got taken down for a while because “AI-Powered” anti-phishing software flagged it and reported it to their domain registrar, which then ignored itch.io’s messages and delisted the domain. And this may be somewhat incidental, but it was on behalf of Funko of Funko Pop fame. But saying it was “incidental” is maybe too generous. If an automated system can’t take responsibility, than the blame should fall on the ones who employed it, which is Funko Pop. So, thanks, jerks. At least itch.io got the domain back.

Priest Simulator: Vampire Show, which probably isn’t what you’re expecting, launches from Early Access

A long while back (2022), I got an email from a PR person about Priest Simulator. I would have initially skimmed by it because most games with “simulator” in the title are unspectacular at best and awful at worst. But I opened the email and saw that Priest Simulator isn’t anything like what you’d expect. You play as a demonic vampire who gets launched from Hell and into Poland. He’s then manipulated by the church to help them in exchange for internet fame. It’s put in the context of a documentary, and it’s absolutely bizarre, but weirdly full of pointed satire and great characters.

Anyway, it’s out of Early Access. It was already in a semi-complete state when it entered, and now… it’s still kind of just in a semi-complete state. The whole narrative is in place, and all the features the developers intended, but apparently, the developer lost interest in polishing it. So, it’s just as janky as I remember. Jank was unavoidable, but a lot of it is in Boiling Point territory.

Beyond Good & Evil 2 was delayed due to artistic clashes between its managers, according to the series’ creator

At this point, I’m not sure I know what Beyond Good & Evil 2 is anymore, and I don’t think I care. I liked the first game, and it ended on something of a cliffhanger, but that was a long time ago. For one thing, knowing Ubisoft, it’s going to be a soulless, overly safe, open-world game.

But there’s clearly some creativity behind the project, considering what was laid out by Michel Ancel in a recent interview. He speaks of terrible artistic clashes happening behind the scenes. He blames practically everyone on the project, including himself. However, he should probably be shouldering more of the blame, since he was the creative director. Which – and he’s not going to say this himself – he did. Staff has reported his management as haphazard and abusive. But, then, there are always three sides to every story: Mine, yours, and the truth.

Reviews for review this week

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered

My experience with Soul Reaver goes thusly: I got it when I first bought a Dreamcast around 2007. I played a very small bit of it. The end. So, I didn’t play the remaster.

Tiago Manuel did instead and has reported back with good things. As a fan of the series, he seemed to be impressed with the remaster. In particular, all the added asides, such as a look at the levels cut from the first game, are an appreciated high point.

Antonblast

It seems like a number of people thought I’d be responsible for the Antonblast review, but I took a pass on it. I never got into Pizza Tower, and while I know that Antonblast is a wholly separate entity, both have been compared to the Wario Land games. Come on. What Wario Land game? Because Wario Land 1 and 2 are completely different experiences. Wario Land 4 is its own thing, and Wario Land: Shake It is also mechanically separate. There wasn’t one Wario Land formula. The only thing they have in common is sidescrolling and a protagonist.

I assume they mean Wario Land 4, but Joseph Luster suggests its more like a Sega Genesis game; a vibe that is easier to recognize than just “Wario Land.” “It’s Treasure by way of Earthworm Jim,” gosh, this is speaking my language. I can dig it. It might just be some time before I reach for my shovel.

Path of Exile 2 Early Access

I’ll tell you, I know so little about Path of Exile 2 or, for that matter, Path of Exile that I don’t even know what to talk about here. Stephen “Burlyboy” Mills, on the other hand, is more familiar. So, if you’re wondering about whether or not you should get in on the Early Access, he has your answer.