I’ll be honest, I really only had this on my backlog because I just wanted to play more shmups for the console. Its name just sounds so boring, BioMetal. I watched a video today about SNES shmups and saw it was rated pretty good so why the heck not, let me give it a try. This one was developed by Athena who made stuff like Strike Gunner S.T.G, Virtual Bowling, and the Dezaemon games. Let’s see how they did with this one.
So, this one is a horizontal shmup with 6 stages where you use a ship called the Halbard which made me think of the Halberd from Kirby. The ship can use up to three different weapons. The V pickup will shoot a bunch of small projectiles in front of you and while they have the most range of the three, they are the weakest shots. The L pickup will give you a laser that’s the most powerful but only shoots in front and has the least coverage, it can however pierce multiple enemies. The W pickup will let you shoot a wave beam in front and behind you which gives you good coverage for enemies on both sides and has good power but not as good as the laser. There’s also pickups for the missiles but I’ll be honest, I only ever got the ones where the missiles home in on the opponent though looking at a guide, the others were just having missiles go in a straight line or ones that go in an angle. The guide even said homing was the best since they all have the same power so that’s kind of lame. There’s also just no option to collect or even speedup which is pretty unusual for a shmup of this era.
One big mechanic of this game is this shield weapon you have where it can not only guard you from bullets but you can use it on the offense. You can press a button for them to spread in a farther circle to hit enemies or you can just throw the shield the opposite direction you last pressed. This is a really cool mechanic but you gotta keep in mind that it’s on a meter so make sure you press the same button you used to charge it because if it goes empty, you’ll have to wait for it to fully charge. It’s this nice risk vs reward mechanic and it’s easily one of the best things the game has going for it. If I had one complaint though, I wish the shield made you fully invincible to projectiles when you aren’t using it for offense. It’s still possible to die even with it close to you which kind of sucks. I don’t mind you still having to dodge when attacking with it but it should be only for that, you’re already using meter to use it for defense so I don’t see the problem with it being completely defensive.
The level design is…ugh how do I explain? It’s like nothing? I don’t know if the other people who have played this game felt this way but I swear a lot of the stages just feel like a bunch of empty space. The only stage I can remember being somewhat interesting was stage 5 but that’s just the typical tight spaces stage and it for some reason reminds me of R-Type. I feel like I get why they did this because this game loves to spam enemies that shoot a lot of projectiles. It’s like the developers were worried people wouldn’t find the shield mechanic fun so just force it on you in many moments. But with that all said, it feels fun when you succeed? Yes you will die a lot if you aren’t good with it but it can actually feel satisfying to just destroy so many machines with your shield, you feel like you can conquer anything and that management of the meter helps it from being not too broken. Still though I feel like it couldn’t have hurt the devs to make some more interesting setpieces instead of just section #12 of USE YOUR SHIELD NOW! The last stage especially feels unfinished with a short section of enemies trying to run into you with no interesting level design and then it’s just the final boss, why is it so short?
The bosses are some of the better parts of the game. They are big and have a good amount of variety from each other to be memorable. The only problem I really have with them is their difficulty is so inconsistent, you can have one that can be a bit tricky but then the next you can beat it without dying once. Maybe it just varies on the person. The final boss also just has too much health. It's insane. You’re not only forced to dodge projectiles as even the shield can’t guard you from it but it just never dies. Also why does this boss now remind me of something that I can’t remember. I swear there's a boss just like that final one in this game. Also they make you refight one of the earlier bosses and when it dies, for some reason the fire from its wacky inflatable arm flailing tube men lookin ass death can still kill you! Like that’s not fair, it didn’t do that before, what was it because it wasn’t the end of the stage this time? That’s dumb.
The game looks alright for the Super Famicom, I wasn’t really impressed with anything. The design of the enemies remind me of those Alien movies I’ve never watched and I’m sure it appeals to some people. The bosses have nice and big sprites for people to enjoy though the bosses are the one part when the game’s framerate gets really poor but it might be helpful for some. I also wanna address a complaint I got where that steam in stage 5 is deceiving, please tell me I wasn’t the only one thinking it would hurt me. The music has an interesting atmosphere to it that compliments the game but it’s nothing that wows me either, it’s decent. What’s weird is the western version changing the OST to use music from 2 Unlimited and it’s surely something. I personally think it kind of ruins the atmosphere of the game but idk maybe you’d like it more. I just don’t get why this game of all games.
BioMetal leaves me in a weird spot. It has some pretty good ideas and I think if given a sequel or spiritual successor, it could be great. The shield mechanic is really satisfying and it’s got a challenge that will probably motivate shmup fans to do a 1CC of this game but it’s just got some flaws that hurt from even being very good. I still get joy from playing this game and whether or not that shows how easy it is to please me is up to you. It’s good but man those flaws make me sad I can’t give it an 8/10. It’s a game worth at least trying if you like shmups but just be aware it’s far from perfect.
So, this one is a horizontal shmup with 6 stages where you use a ship called the Halbard which made me think of the Halberd from Kirby. The ship can use up to three different weapons. The V pickup will shoot a bunch of small projectiles in front of you and while they have the most range of the three, they are the weakest shots. The L pickup will give you a laser that’s the most powerful but only shoots in front and has the least coverage, it can however pierce multiple enemies. The W pickup will let you shoot a wave beam in front and behind you which gives you good coverage for enemies on both sides and has good power but not as good as the laser. There’s also pickups for the missiles but I’ll be honest, I only ever got the ones where the missiles home in on the opponent though looking at a guide, the others were just having missiles go in a straight line or ones that go in an angle. The guide even said homing was the best since they all have the same power so that’s kind of lame. There’s also just no option to collect or even speedup which is pretty unusual for a shmup of this era.
One big mechanic of this game is this shield weapon you have where it can not only guard you from bullets but you can use it on the offense. You can press a button for them to spread in a farther circle to hit enemies or you can just throw the shield the opposite direction you last pressed. This is a really cool mechanic but you gotta keep in mind that it’s on a meter so make sure you press the same button you used to charge it because if it goes empty, you’ll have to wait for it to fully charge. It’s this nice risk vs reward mechanic and it’s easily one of the best things the game has going for it. If I had one complaint though, I wish the shield made you fully invincible to projectiles when you aren’t using it for offense. It’s still possible to die even with it close to you which kind of sucks. I don’t mind you still having to dodge when attacking with it but it should be only for that, you’re already using meter to use it for defense so I don’t see the problem with it being completely defensive.
The level design is…ugh how do I explain? It’s like nothing? I don’t know if the other people who have played this game felt this way but I swear a lot of the stages just feel like a bunch of empty space. The only stage I can remember being somewhat interesting was stage 5 but that’s just the typical tight spaces stage and it for some reason reminds me of R-Type. I feel like I get why they did this because this game loves to spam enemies that shoot a lot of projectiles. It’s like the developers were worried people wouldn’t find the shield mechanic fun so just force it on you in many moments. But with that all said, it feels fun when you succeed? Yes you will die a lot if you aren’t good with it but it can actually feel satisfying to just destroy so many machines with your shield, you feel like you can conquer anything and that management of the meter helps it from being not too broken. Still though I feel like it couldn’t have hurt the devs to make some more interesting setpieces instead of just section #12 of USE YOUR SHIELD NOW! The last stage especially feels unfinished with a short section of enemies trying to run into you with no interesting level design and then it’s just the final boss, why is it so short?
The bosses are some of the better parts of the game. They are big and have a good amount of variety from each other to be memorable. The only problem I really have with them is their difficulty is so inconsistent, you can have one that can be a bit tricky but then the next you can beat it without dying once. Maybe it just varies on the person. The final boss also just has too much health. It's insane. You’re not only forced to dodge projectiles as even the shield can’t guard you from it but it just never dies. Also why does this boss now remind me of something that I can’t remember. I swear there's a boss just like that final one in this game. Also they make you refight one of the earlier bosses and when it dies, for some reason the fire from its wacky inflatable arm flailing tube men lookin ass death can still kill you! Like that’s not fair, it didn’t do that before, what was it because it wasn’t the end of the stage this time? That’s dumb.
The game looks alright for the Super Famicom, I wasn’t really impressed with anything. The design of the enemies remind me of those Alien movies I’ve never watched and I’m sure it appeals to some people. The bosses have nice and big sprites for people to enjoy though the bosses are the one part when the game’s framerate gets really poor but it might be helpful for some. I also wanna address a complaint I got where that steam in stage 5 is deceiving, please tell me I wasn’t the only one thinking it would hurt me. The music has an interesting atmosphere to it that compliments the game but it’s nothing that wows me either, it’s decent. What’s weird is the western version changing the OST to use music from 2 Unlimited and it’s surely something. I personally think it kind of ruins the atmosphere of the game but idk maybe you’d like it more. I just don’t get why this game of all games.
BioMetal leaves me in a weird spot. It has some pretty good ideas and I think if given a sequel or spiritual successor, it could be great. The shield mechanic is really satisfying and it’s got a challenge that will probably motivate shmup fans to do a 1CC of this game but it’s just got some flaws that hurt from even being very good. I still get joy from playing this game and whether or not that shows how easy it is to please me is up to you. It’s good but man those flaws make me sad I can’t give it an 8/10. It’s a game worth at least trying if you like shmups but just be aware it’s far from perfect.
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1 year ago