Biohazard Battle
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| Biohazard Battle | |
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| Developer(s) | Sega |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Release date(s) | 1992 (Sega Mega Drive/Genesis) |
| Genre(s) | Scrolling shooter |
| Mode(s) | One or two player |
| Rating(s) | VRC: GA |
| Platform(s) | Mega Drive/Genesis |
Biohazard Battle, titled Crying in Japan, is a 1992 2D side-scrolling shoot 'em up sharing similar gameplay to the cult-classic Zero Wing, also released for the Mega Drive/Genesis. Following suit with other shoot 'em ups, it followed the loosest of plots. Generally set in dilapidated and run down cities or infested jungles, one could only infer from the title, enemies and scenery that the player was supposed to be battling some sort of mutant, alien or bio-weapon outcome. Even this barely holds up, because the four "ships" that the player could choose looked just like the rest of the enemies, very organic and seeming to be crosses of several Earth-like creatures.
[edit] Gameplay
The game features a 2D side-scrolling shoot 'em up style of gameplay and the character chosen by the player can be moved in 8 directions by the D-Pad. The player can move, shoot, dodge, and block by using the main weapon battery as a shield. There are various weapons that can be swapped by collecting various colored bubbles. These "swapable" weapons are fired from the main weapon battery, which can be rotated around the character by the player. There are four colors of bubbles: Green, red, blue, and yellow. Of these, red, blue and yellow represent two different weapon systems depending on the craft chosen (there are seven main weapon systems in the game). Green remains the same on all crafts. Every main weapon system fired from the battery has three levels of power. Level one is weak, and has a small area of effect, with the exception of one of the blue weapons (which always has the same area of effect). Power level two and three are more powerful, respectively. Aside from four different main battery weapons, each character has a slightly different forward weapon system, that fires in a straight line in front of them. Each of the characters also has the ability to charge up a very powerful blast, but in doing so leaves themself vulnerable while charging (as no other weapons are being fired). Each of the four characters has slightly different maneuvering abilities and arsenal.
The game also features strong usage of deep, bass-heavy music tracks, creative and colorful artwork and foreground and background elements. Despite the many obstacles in the scenery and landscape, the player cannot be harmed or die by bumping into anything other than an enemy or enemy fire. The player travels through eight levels, each one increasing in difficulty, with the last three only being available on the harder diffuculties. The game ends showing all four characters flying back into the mothership. A short paragraph explains that the planet Avaron has, for the moment, been saved. "A moment of peace, but who is to say a similar crises will not occur in the future?"
Like so many 16-bit classics, it went widely unrecognized and fell to the wayside becoming increasingly rare shortly after its 1992 release and, similar to other 16-bit era games, features credits only when the final boss has been defeated. The "Sega" logo on startup and "Copyright 1992 Sega" always appear on the title screen.
[edit] Trivia
- Despite the jet fighter clearly displayed on both the box and the cartridge, no such vehicle makes any appearance in the game. All creatures, player controlled and otherwise, are completely organic and appear to be mutated versions of cross-bred Earth creatures. The snake, however, does appear as the boss of Level 3.
