🍰 Received: March 5th, 2020 🍰 Written: November 21st-24th, 2022 🍰
Year: 1992 | Developed by: Sting | Published by: SOFEL | [ ⬤ ]
Hello, gamers and readers alike, welcome to my blog, and thank you for taking the time to tune in today, I really appreciate it, and I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. 😃 Here is a quirky one for today.
Image from MobyGames
Sting (sometimes stylized as "St!ng") is a Tokyo-based Japanese video game developer that was founded on February 7th, 1989, which is known for creating the Baroque and Dept. Heaven RPG franchises. They got their start with NEC PC Engine shoot'em ups Psycho Chaser and Override (which got a Sharp X68000 conversion as Last Battalion) as well as the baseball simulator Naxat Stadium, and on the same format they would make a port for Toaplan's Tatsujin. For a good while, too, until 1997's Solid Runner, Sting found themselves at home helping develop games for Nintendo's Super Famicom console, of which only three of them* saw a North American SNES release.* Their inaugural 1991 Super Famicom game Hakunetsu Pro Yakyuu Ganba League as Extra Innings (localized by Sony Imagesoft), Kentou-Ou World Champion as TKO Super Championship Boxing (localized by SOFEL), and the Taito-released licensed SNES game The Jetsons: Invasion of the Planet Pirates which got reprogrammed and edited for the Super Famicom a year later as Yōkai Buster: Ruka no Daibōken at the request of Kadokawa Shoten after creating the mascot character Yōkai Buster Ruka for the Marukatsu Super Famicom magazine
Image from GameFAQs
On December 18th, 1992, SOFEL released Sting's fourth Super Famicom effort Flying Hero: Bugyuru no Daibōken (with the subtitle roughly translating to "Bugyuru's Great Adventure") which was planned by Kazunari Yonemitsu, programmed by Shinichi Abe and Satoru Koshu, directed by Teiji Izawa (who also directed Kentou-Ou World Champion that year), with assistant direction by Masanori Iwamoto and Hiroshi Matsuzawa. This game was released exclusively in Japan.
Japanese gamers got to experience the mad genius of Pierre Adane and Philippe Dessoly with Mr. Nutz for the first time, for the last time
Outside of their own fare they have published games developed by other companies, such as the American version of Salio's Game Boy game Uoozu, Fish Dude, Cyclone System's Chitei Senkō Bazolder on the Famicom, and their penultimate release comprised of the Super Famicom publication of Ocean Software's cult classic Mr. Nutz. SOFEL is technically still active, but they have not released any new game in the past twenty-eight years.
Screengrabbed (and cropped) while on Google Translate
For this review I've gone through the effort of translating the kanji for the opening and ending cutscenes, difficulty settings, and staff (スタッフ) via Google Translate thanks to the scribble option, being very careful to accurately match it piece by piece in order to get the information I needed since I noticed that it was scarce elsewhere. I feel happy and accomplished for doing this, but I will say it was quite a bit of work (even though Flying Hero is not all that story-oriented). 😄The following is based on my translation effort (with very minimal improvisation):
Bugyuru and Pao-chan were good friends.
But we fought sometimes.
I got into a fight that day too.
Bugyuru: (I'm sorry, I wonder if I was wrong...)
Demon King: "Noyuhohohohohoho"
Pao-chan: "Help me!!"
Bugyuru: "Pao-chan!!"
Left: The arduous quest to rescue Pao-chan begins now | Right: Glider monkeys
In the vertical scrolling cute'em up Flying Hero: Bugyuru no Daibōken you take control of Bugyuru, a white ball creature with wings adorned with an aviator pilot's helmet and tennis shoes whom you can move around and maneuver around in every inch and corner of the screen. By holding down the B button you can shoot an unlimited array of firepower towards your foes, in one of four different directions:
Left: Taking down crows | Right: Taking down a swarm of bats
straight ahead by simply holding B, diagonally to the left as you hold the B and left shoulder buttons simultaneously, to the right diagonally by holding the B and right shoulder buttons at the same time, and by holding down both the shoulder buttons and the B button together you'll allow Bugyuru to shoot right behind him (which is ideal in the event that there are enemies sneaking up on you).
Left: Giant bat | Right: Dispose of those beehives before the bees get a chance to buzz toward you
By pressing the Y button you can lob a bomb to easily take out a crowd of enemies or to amass a good deal of damage to a boss battle but be mindful of the number of times you can use them for you have a limited number (which will always reset itself to three after each time you lose a life). And finally with the Select button you can change from one of three speed settings: the default initial speed has Bugyuru fly at his slowest rate, the second speed (and the one that's recommended) has him fly around at a medium rate, and with the third flight setting he'll move around really fast.
Left: More glider monkeys and stag beetles | Right: First witch battle
Occasionally there will be balloons that contain powerups that will aid Bugyuru once you shoot at said balloon and touch the icons, and among its contents you will find a pastry to not only increase the potency of your weapon but also augment the number of bombs at your disposal by one after collecting three of them, homing bugs which will unleash the bugs acting as missiles that home in on any enemies around you, and alternate weapons such as lightning bolts, snowballs, and normal projectiles.
Left: Gratuitous Mode 7 (not that I'm complaining) | Right: Sending the homing bugs in the cave
With the augmented powerups also come health supplements, so Bugyuru can withstand more than one bit of damage should an enemy or its projectile come into contact with him, but the drawback to that happening is that the powerups will reduce their effectiveness by one, and fortunately you can take a hit until you're at your lowest. Should you be at your lowest level and you sustain a hit then, you will lose a life and resume from the spot, but if you lose your last life and use up a continue you will begin the current act from the beginning.
Left: Flexible noodle-bodied monkey impeding your path | Right: Attemped ambush by crows and cloaked minions
Flying Hero's visuals by character designer Koji Ushiku, Motoyoshi Kodo, Yoshihisa Tomita, and Akira Yamagata are abundantly colorful with a good degree of detail and lighthearted flair about them, which make these eight areas pleasing for the eyes to look at. The first act has got a glorious amount of green from both the foliage of the trees and the pasture of the grass as you're initially greeted by a number of birds flying the opposite direction you are, the third act has got a nice brief glimpse of the sandy shoreline of the beach as you largely fly over the blue water with occasional glimpses of palm tree-inhabited islands,
Left: *GASP* It's a weird-looking cat guardian! 🙀 | Right: Take out those projectile-spewing seagulls, they're not as harmless as they appear
the fourth act is absolutely soothing as it all takes place underwater with absorbing and wavy color layering effects shrouding the entire coral reef as Bugyuru flies (or swims, rather, despite flapping his wings) over underwater temples and is my favorite area of the whole game visually, the fifth act is toy-themed with building blocks abound with the occasional view of the sky below due to the floor window, and the penultimate act takes place in the star-studded space where in the background you'll see a crescent moon sleeping with a night cap partially covered by a blanket, et al.
Left: "Abandon ship!" | Right: And now you must face the wrath of the pirate penguin for sinking down his crew, ARRRGH! 🐧🏴☠️
The eponymous flying hero Bugyuru, designed by Shūichirō Nakamura, has got a simple yet adorably lighthearted charm to him, even if on the surface level he makes me think of Opa-Opa from Sega's Fantasy Zone, another winged character with feet but no hands. I like how expressive he is during the cutscenes and whenever you clear an act (even after losing a life as his eyes bug out and twitches his wing and foot as he falls to the bottom of the screen), and his in-game animation is solid across the board with his wings flapping at different speeds depending on which flight setting you set for Bugyuru. His tennis shoes are inconsistently colored compared to the cover and title design, but that's just a minor nitpick.
Left: The scorching sun breathes fire towards you | Right: The sun looks very relieved despite being defeated as it sinks below the watery depths
Among the enemy roster that Bugyuru must contend with are monkeys with wide leaves serving as their gliders (whose expressions change from menacing smiles to upset pouts upon being taken out), bats, crows, cloaked minions, seagulls that spit out projectiles, jellyfish, toy choppers and wind-up tanks, green pterosaurs and red dragonflies, and singular eyeballs shielded by a circling barrier of meteorites, and they are all drawn decently. The bosses you combat against are all largely sized and are interestingly designed, like a giant bat, a cat with only two long legs, a penguin with an eyepatch with a hook on one wing and a sword in another, a large sun appropriately surrounded by flames, a quillback rockfish, a mermaid, and a recurring witch who with each battle will try to attack you in a different manner, and much more.
Left: Bugyuru must have a special set of wings for them to not get all soggy despite being submerged underwater, hurray for convenience! 😃 | Right: Slowly approaching a temple made to worship sea monkeys of the literal variety 🐵
Flying Hero features an abundant amount of Mode 7 rotating and scaling effects, all of which are well-executed: during chunks of the opening cutscene, in the act clear screen as Bugyuru soars closer and closer to the screen until it fades to black, during the first witch battle as she uses an astral projection to lend her more power, the rocky humanoid-like midboss who rotates and ricochets off the side and falls to the abyss upon experiencing defeat, the mermaid's final form as she transforms into a pufferfish whose upper half is its weak spot, and during a couple midboss battles in the penultimate act.
Left: Quillback rockfish sprouting quills from behind | Right: Watch out for the undersea volcanoes along the way
The soundtrack to Flying Hero was done by Mitsuhito Tanaka, who initially worked for Seta with Twin Eagle: Revenge Joe's Brother as well as Tecmo with Gekitō Pro Wrestling!! Tōkon Densetsu/Tecmo World Wrestling and Strato Fighter before lending his music composing services to Sting with Kentou-Ou World Champion, Melfand Stories, Yōkai Buster: Ruka no Daibōken, Treasure Hunter G, and Solid Runner and whose last known video game credit was working on the publicity for Sting's Sega Saturn venue Baroque. For certain titles he was credited as either "M. Tanaka" or as "John Pee", the latter of which I personally think is the worst pseudonym anyone could be stuck with. 😖
Left: "You thought you were finished with me last time, weren't you? Well, you were wrong!" | Right: Remember to fire at the enemies sneaking up behind you (unlike me until after I took this screenshot and only remembered it after the fact 😓)
Outside of that last embarrassing tidbit of information, Tanaka's soundtrack is bouncily energetic, catchy, and adds so much to this game's lighthearted tone and sense of atmosphere. 😃 The first act theme kicks off Bugyuru's adventure with a bang as it sets the tone for the rest of the cute'em up, the second act theme is fun-sounding with the deep bass, the third act theme has got a nice summer beach vibe to it given the island and ocean setting, the fourth act theme is one of my favorite themes from Flying Hero as its slow melody gels perfectly with the underwater current, the fifth act theme has got a great beat,
Left: Going up against a mermaid 🧜♀️ | Right: Only the upper half of her pufferfish form is exposed
the seventh act theme is lightheartedly foreboding as you near your journey's end, the normal boss theme is hectic as is the secondary boss theme, the final boss theme is menacingly fast-paced, and the ending theme is an appropriate bookend to Bugyuru's adventure. The sound design is decent and quirky (especially when played on repeat), like the fluttering of Bugyuru's wings after witnessing Pao-chan being kidnapped, the cat and penguin bosses who meow and squawk upon sustaining damage, the loud explosive sound of defeated enemies and bosses, the fireworks-like sounds of the bomb you lobbed going off, the flamethrowing sound of the sun boss breathing fire towards you, the deflating helium noise as the pufferfish goes out like a deflated balloon, and the sound of the dimension shattering like glass as the witch engages you in round three for a final match, et al.
Left: Don't flash your bones at us! 🦴 | Right: Hmmm, would this fall under the category of brain picking since it's using pieces from it as projectiles against you? 🤔 Treat your brain well, folks, because mental health matters 🧠
Flying Hero: Bugyuru no Daibōken was given generally mixed to positive reviews by gaming magazines upon release: Famitsu awarded it a 25 out of 40 (one point higher than they gave Nova Games' Xandra no Daibōken: Valkyrie to no Deai/Whirlo the same year), Gamepro previewed it remarking it as a "toy store gone mad" and brought up its high difficulty despite its colorful and lighthearted presentation, Games Master criticized it for being hard to take seriously due its setting and characters and dubbed it as "run of the mill" giving it a 68% despite thinking it was a "vertical blast of fun", Super Play also gave it a 68% and regarded it as average fare but hardly a must buy
Left: No one is safe from toy choppers 🚁 | Right: And toy wind-up tanks, too
for they only recommended it to those who truly enjoy the cute'em up genre, Super Pro gave it a 65% saying it was "all in all fairly playable", on the other hand GameFan praised Flying Hero and recommended it as an import as they figured it would never become localized officially (and they were right) saying it was "perfect for children as they can get a game that's fun without excessive violence" but warned readers of its "intermediately difficult" status and it was well received by the Italian and French Game Power and Joypad magazines and awarded it an 82% and an 81% respectively.
* The exception being Moero TwinBee: Cinnamon Hakase o Sukue!/Stinger as it alternated between horizontal gameplay and vertical gameplay like in Konami's seriously toned shoot'em ups Salamander/Life Force and Axelay, but only up to a point
There are three difficulty settings: Easy (イージー), Normal (ノーマル), and Hard (ハード)
What separates Sting's cute'em up from Konami's, however, is its sheer difficulty. Reviewers were right to bring up the difficulty when talking about it, for a game of this ilk it can be intensely hard even on the easiest of the three difficulty settings. There is a way to alleviate some of the pressure, however: from the title access the options with the Select button, then with the controller on the second slot press and hold Start and Select simultaneously to bring up a secret option screen where (with the controller in the first slot again) you can adjust your number of lives and continues as high up as 99*. This doesn't take away the difficulty necessarily, but you will have at least a chance at getting through the game.* Be forewarned that should you set your life count to 99 and have enough points to garner a new life past that number, the count will reset to 0 and doesn't act like you have a high number of lives, so I recommend setting it to something a little lower than that
Left: Beware the toy Kappa midboss | Right: Be prepared for the Mecha toy boss' missiles and plethora of offensive maneuvers
I first learned of Flying Hero years ago when I stumbled across a brief gameplay video of its first act on YouTube, and from what I saw it looked interesting and looked like it was fun to play; it helped that by this point I enjoyed the cute'em up genre between Inter State and Kaneko's Star Parodier on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console, Konami's TwinBee games, and Success' Märchen Adventure Cotton 100% due to their approachable pick up and play quality while still offering a good amount of challenge, and eventually on February 2020 I decided to order a copy of the game on eBay (which I found at a reasonable price of $40) which arrived that early March.
Left: Pterosaur alert, unfortunately unlike Konami's TwinBee shooting at a cloud won't make a bell pop out from it | Right: Flying over a group of whirlpools
Flying Hero is a largely enjoyable and wildly imaginative game with its plethora of colorful locations with simple yet intuitive gameplay and plenty of lighthearted charm to boot, and it's nice that there is a way to fire diagonally and behind you as opposed to just in front of you. It knows not to take itself seriously and it's clear that Sting had fun with it delighting in its bouts of randomness:
Left: Bugyuru taken down | Right: I imagine that firing from behind, useful though it may be, has got the negative side effect of lending itself to unfortunate joke opportunities 😔
here is a game where you'll face off with a giant bat who sends out smaller bats against you from inside its mouth, where you'll contend with a two-legged giant cat, where the remaining two of the pirate crew aboard the sinking ship combine forces to become a giant pirate penguin, where a sun will emerge from the depths of the ocean to fight you and whose teeth are so sparkling white that said sparkles will veer in the current position Bugyuru is situated in, where a mermaid becomes a pufferfish with her upper half exposing its weak spot, where the first of the toy midbosses is designed in a manner resembling an exposed brain with it grabbing a piece from it with its arm and lobbing it towards you where you think it only took one but actually took three in a spreadshot maneuver
Left: Fire at the real witch | Right: Meteor shower
(and freaking out incredulously upon running out of its ammunition therefore becoming a sitting duck flailing its arms wildly), where a Mecha toy boss will attack you even if it's reduced to just a head, and where just after defeating the penultimate boss in the clouds the center of the screen begins to crack until the dimension shatters therefore commencing the final battle with the witch, and so forth. The random charm even comes from the small background details like the random white creatures who idly remain in position, the exaggerated expressions of the tree in the first act and the undersea volcano in the fourth act as well as the aforementioned sleeping moon in the penultimate act, and I like the way many of the bosses react incredulously upon receiving damage and being defeated.
Left: A perfectly formed right triangle | Right: Good night, Moon 💤🌙
I am still shocked at how difficult this game can get for a cute'em up, it's got the kind of difficulty one is accustomed to from a space shoot'em up. It is manageable up until sometime in the fifth act where at that point the game starts to truly test your limits, and even if you did learn to master the controls and overcome many of its obstacles (like the pirate penguin's tri-hook shot and thunder sword attacks and maneuvering around the toy blocks to not lose your attack potency should you rub against them in flight), the Demon King will still cost you a lot of lives in the end due to hard to dodge attacks. On Easy mode the enemies aren't as aggressive with their firepower and don't require too much of your attacks to defeat the bosses, whereas on the Normal and Hard modes things get much more challenging with much more resilient and lengthier boss battles and is the only way to view the credits upon completing the game. Sting obviously knew what they were doing, having had prior experience in the shoot'em up genre with Psycho Chaser and Override/Last Battalion.
Left: Shooting at the star making boss 🌟 | Right: "That's too bad!! Pao-chan has already been eaten!! Noyuhohohohohoho"
Despite the high level of challenge for a game of its kind, Flying Hero: Bugyuru no Daibōken is still enjoyable to play in the roughly forty minutes that it takes to play through while it lasts. It's unabashedly quirky and lighthearted and has got no qualms about that fact whatsoever, though I can see how the sheer difficulty curve might be a turn off for some (with or without the code that augments your life count). If you're into the cute'em up genre like I am I do recommend checking out this game if you own a Super Famicom and are able to afford it, but if you're eager to play something that is more forgiving you might be better off with Konami's TwinBee franchise or even Inter State and Kaneko's Star Parodier, but if you want to play a game that revels in how random it is, then look no further than Bugyuru's adventure. It's weird but in a way that Sting found a way to make it endearingly so.
Bugyuru: "Pao-chan!!"
Pao-chan: "Bugyuru!! Thank you. It was dark and scary inside. I cried a lot."
(For ambience, let's have "We'll Be Together" from Grease 2 playing in the background)
Pao-chan: "Yes, we can fight again, just maybe. Then again, let's get along."
Bugyuru: "Yes!!"
My Personal Score: 7.5/10
d(^-^)bTO EACH THEIR OWNd(^-^)b
● I'm so happy I translated this game by myself through Google Translate! 😄 The possibilities, I can't wait to try it with another kanji-heavy Japanese game I own someday.
● Irrelevant to video games, but this past weekend I caught up with Patricia Birch's Grease 2 on YouTube while it was free to watch, which I'm glad about because Paramount+ acts like it doesn't exist* due to its underperformance at the box office. My thoughts on the movie, just judging it on its own terms and not comparing it to Randal Kleiser's predecessor like most would, were that it's okay, I thought it was decently watchable. Now, some moments I thought were a bit insufferable (mainly I grew annoyed by the T-Birds' antics) or there were certain jokes that I felt fell flat, but having said that I liked the occasionally striking cinematography (like when Stephanie rides with the Cool Rider during the sunset) and the fun choreography onscreen, it was nice to see Didi Conn's Frenchy again, I liked Michelle Pfeiffer so much as the leading lady (and fashion icon, her Christmas tree costume~) in her breakout role, I thought she and Maxwell Caulfield had decent enough chemistry with one another, the story was alright, and the new songs were a real bop--"Cool Rider", "Who's That Guy?", "Charades", "(Love Will) Turn Back the Hands of Time", and "We'll Be Together". I wouldn't be averse to giving it another watch, while still being aware of its problems, maybe my thoughts might increase on a rewatch. We'll see. I'm not terribly picky when it comes to certain '70s and '80s movie sequels.
* 12/1/22 Update: Back when I watched it on YouTube there wasn't a "Watch with Paramount Plus" option suggesting it was available on that streaming service as well, but looking up Grease 2 on YouTube (no longer free to watch) at the start of the month and seeing that option pop up there this time must mean that it's on Paramount+ now; if so, better late than never
● RIP Jason David Frank, Power Rangers will not be the same without you. 😔
Happy 30th Anniversary, Flying Hero,
you earned it!!!! 🥳
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