Received: November 13th, 2012 / Written: January 16th-24th, 2019
Year: 1993 | Developed by: Athena | Published by: Activision
Hello everyone, StarBoy91 here; passionate about video games, big retrophile, and here to talk about Athena.
Image from MobyGames
Formed up in the late '80s, Athena is a largely Japan-only company, though plenty of their games have seen Western distribution. Some of the games they worked on comprise of those pertaining to the snake game genre (Wit's on the arcade and Famicom), the sports genre (World Bowling and World Ice Hockey on the Game Boy), the action-platforming genre (Dragon Unit/Castle of Dragon and Sword Master for the Famicom/NES), and the puzzler genre (De-Block on the Famicom); they also acted as publisher in Japan for certain other companies' games (as opposed to just their own) such as Another's Championship Bowling for the Famicom/NES, Visco Corporation's Famiconversion of SETA's coin-op Family Block/Thunder & Lightning, KID Corp.'s Famicom-exclusive Dezaemon, and also KID Corp.'s Super Bowling for the SFC/SNES console, et al.
One other genre that Athena was directly involved in on more than one occasion was the shoot'em up genre beginning with Strike Gunner S.T.G. which originally was released by Tecmo in Japanese arcades in 1991 before being converted to the Nintendo 16-bit console in 1992 (in Japan by Athena, in North America by NTVIC, and would see a European release by Activision but under the name Super Strike Gunner). One other shoot'em up they developed was a game called BioMetal--executive produced by Sakae Nakamura and programmed by Kenichi Kunikyō who also served as one of two game designers--which Athena released for the Super Famicom in Japan on March 1993 but wouldn't see a Western SNES conversion until November 1993 in North America and at a later unspecified date that year in Europe.
Image from Wikipedia
It's funny I bring Activision up, though, as they were also responsible for the Western releases for today's game, on both counts this time as opposed to just Europe like the aforementioned title--there were some... negative ramifications because of this happening, but more on that later.
It is the Galaxy Century year 232 (G.C. 232), and the space war that had long divided the Milky Way had finally ended. But because of the war their resources have been exhausted, forcing the Galactic Council to send a special fleet to Planet "UP457" on a mission to find resources. During the mission the special fleet was attacked and destroyed by an unknown corps of half machine and half-animals which the Galactic Council dubbed Code Name "BioMetal".
A computer analysis showed that the BioMetals were increasing in number, and unless their planet is destroyed within 32 hours the Milky Way will fall into the BioMetals' hands, so they must be stopped. Only one fleet, "Wasp", who's testing new weapons, is capable of reaching Planet "UP457" and engage in action. The Galactic Council sent orders to use "G.A.M." (a living weapon that is currently being tested) to be launched from Halbard carriers.
So to ensure that the Milky Way be saved from being ruled by the BioMetals they send out the Galaxy Allied Force Multi Fighter MF-92GX "Halbard" to fight against them and nuke their planet.
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| Dark clouds |
Bio-Metal is a horizontally scrolling shoot'em up where you take control of the Halbard which you can move and maneuver around in any of the eight directions as the screen scrolls automatically. The default controls are shooting by holding down the B button, pressing the Y button will summon G.A.M. which will shield you by having four orbs circle around you which you can disengage by pressing the same button again thereby leaving you vulnerable, and while the G.A.M. is in effect you can either expand the four orbs by pressing the A button or you could charge it in the opposite way of the direction button you're currently holding until it comes right back at you by pressing the right shoulder button (you could even do both at once if you wanted to).
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| BioMetals in sight |
When it comes to using the G.A.M., however, you must be mindful of its gauge as it gradually depletes itself the longer you use it and when it becomes empty it'll forcibly disengage the G.A.M. which you'll only be able to reactivate if there's at least a small amount in the gauge which gradually fills itself up when not in use. Occasionally you'll find a couple carriers that you'll need to shoot at to reveal one of two power-ups: one for the main attack that gradually changes from V to L to W and rinses and repeats in that order until you fly towards it and get the power-up of the letter it landed on and one pertaining to your unlimited array of missiles that changes from S to B to H and rinses and repeats in that order until you fly towards that and get the power-up of the letter that one landed on.
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| Intensifying battle |
The V power-up icon gives you the spread shot ability, the L power-up icon gives you the laser ability that phases through solid objects, and the W power-up icon gives you the wave attack ability, and the more you obtain the same icon the more powerful your weapon becomes due the expansion; regarding the missile power-ups the S icon enables them to fly straight toward the enemy, the B icon enables them to go at an angle above and below you, and the H icon enables them to home in on any enemy in vicinity. Losing a life will restart you at the spot, but at the expense of your current power-up being one level lower, and if you lose all your lives and use up one of your limited number of continues then you'll start from the beginning of the current stage you lost your last life in. Contending with the BioMetal enemies throughout in each stage will culminate in a boss fight in the end, where you'll be able to progress to the subsequent stage once you defeat it.
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| Incoming looming armada |
The visuals are solid in terms of quality as each stage takes place in diverse location settings to keep things fresh. The first stage transpires within dark clouds (some of which are color layering) where there's also white thunder from time to time, the second stage takes place in a hot arid desert setting with the warm color scheme which feature a couple planets and/or moons that gradually loom in the distance the further along you progress and below there's the parallax scrolling desert sand at the bottom which imbues a sense of visual depth, and the third stage is heavily coated by spider webs and pollination in the top and bottom portions of the stage to name a few examples.
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Attempts of the BioMetal to circle around you
have backfired thanks to Halbard's G.A.M.
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There's a little bit of Mode 7 in this game, not much but it is there; like the entrance and defeat of the first boss which stretches and skews itself and the clouds in the background skewing left and right, when the second boss has been defeated its small arms begin to bloat and grow thanks to the scaling effects, and the fifth stage's entire background is comprised of stretching and skewing Mode 7 for it almost looks brain like. The MF-92GX Halbard is designed decently and animates well when flying up and down, and during the last part of the intro you get to see a well-designed close-up of it including its vector-like schematics.
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| Bullet spray |
The most noteworthy aspect comes from the titular BioMetals themselves as they take inspiration from the trademark stylings of the late Hans Ruedi Giger with their beautifully grotesque metallic designs for there are many variants that in one way or another are based on the xenomorphs of the Alien movie franchise. A telling sign of this is the shape of some of the larger BioMetals' elongated heads and how shiny and waxy they are (some of them even have xenomorph-like teeth), but on the other hand you have a band of hopping xenomorphs in the third stage and in the second stage there's a moment when you must deal with ones clad in red armor holding guns (both of which are uncharacteristically ridiculous of them, but is so silly I love it), and during the final stage before facing off against the final boss you must contend with a barrage of rotating facehuggers (and if I didn't know any better I would say some of the xenomorphs might be blending into the dark backdrop). It's clear that BioMetal's graphic designers Masaki Ohno (who also worked on the game design) and Yasuo Yamaguchi, or for that matter the entirety of Athena, were big admirers of H.R. Giger's craft and weren't afraid to show it.
Image from Wikipedia; great documentary, by the way
It's amusing in the case of the second stage, though, because the desert setting makes me think of Dune (there's even a worm-like enemy, not like a sandworm, but still worm-like) which incidentally enough was to incorporate H.R. Giger's designs back when Alejandro Jodorowsky attempted to adapt Frank Herbert's novel before his take sadly got cancelled.
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| Yes, those are armored xenomorphs |
There are three different difficulty settings in this game (easy, normal, and hard) and they all vary in terms of how many enemies you must face, how much bullet fire you have to evade, or both at once, and even how much damage the end stage boss must sustain in order for it to be defeated. Literally half of the stages comprise of obstacles that are just the BioMetals with no wall or ceiling or floor obstacle to worry about (because it's instant death if you touch any of those, and when you use up a life you only have at best one or two seconds of invincibility time before remaining solid) while the other half will entail all those elements instead of just the enemy.
Nowadays BioMetal is a pretty obscure shoot'em up, which you wouldn't think would be the case with the overt H.R. Giger influence (as well as... the other reason behind it, but I'll get to that), but apparently in native Japan it did well enough for Athena to warrant a sequel for the Sega Saturn on October 1997 with BioMetal Gust.
Image from GameFAQs
But because it didn't arrive in a package exclusively dedicated to it the sequel was only featured as a playable content in Athena's Dezaemon 2. BioMetal Gust never left Japan, which on one hand is unfortunate, but on the other hand it's a good thing it didn't because of what Activision did when localizing its predecessor four years prior.
Image from GameFAQs
The original Super Famicom version had a mesmerizingly eerie yet simultaneously breathtaking cover which frankly speaking is absolutely amazing to look at,
Image from GameFAQs on the left
whereas the American cover, despite the otherwise accurate Halbard and BioMetal designs, was generic by comparison--which coincidentally doubles as a lazily put together title screen (only made darker). Activision also changed the title font design for some reason, but that is not the only thing they changed as they also replaced an entire existing soundtrack!
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Replace it with a brain with an eyeball, and you've
got the first boss in Konami's Salamander/Life Force
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BioMetal's original soundtrack in the Super Famicom original was composed by Yoshio Nagashima whose prior audio credits consisted of UPL properties Gomola Speed, Uchū Senkan Gomorrah/Bio-Ship Paladin, Atomic Robo-Kid Special, and the original arcade edition of Acrobat Mission, and the music the first time around is of the darkly atmospheric variety. The Western versions' soundtrack, on the other hand, is provided by none other than 2 Unlimited. -_-
Founded in 1991 in Amsterdam by Belgian producers Jean-Paul De Coster and Phil Wilde, 2 Unlimited was a dance act responsible for numbers such as "Get Ready For This" and "Twilight Zone" fronted at the time by Dutch rapper Ray Slijngaard and Dutch vocalist Anita Doth who worked under the Byte Records and Radikal Records among other ones.
Image screengrabbed from watching Replay Burners' DEMO video on YouTube on the left
Checking the footage of the Super Famicom version on YouTube I found that the story and English text in the intro and ending are the same as the American version, with the exception of the Halbard's pilot and biologist who had their names changed from David Onizuka and Cynthia Matthews to Kid Ray and Anita respectively, which is essentially stroking 2 Unlimited's ego at this point.
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| Destroy the BioMetal flies and their berth |
It's always comforting knowledge when an American distributor genuinely cares about their audience when they resort to pandering to their perceived "interests" by replacing an entire soundtrack on account of it sounding "too foreign"... >_> The American version of BioMetal was produced by Kelly Walker Rogers whose resumé at that point comprised of quality assurance credits, with the music production done by Ubik Musik Productions alongside John Rodriguez and Ali Lexa, the latter of whom also secured the license to use 2 Unlimited's remixes from their "Get Ready" album aided by Stephanie Shepherd and Brian Kelly. Lexa would strike again on behalf of Activision when she would actively replace the music for the Western version of the Fupac and Wings-developed Super Famicom title Sword Maniac in the form of X-Kaliber 2097, which means Activision didn't learn their lesson the first time around.
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| Confronting an army of hopping xenomorphs |
Someone at Activision must've been under the impression that 2 Unlimited would be the sort of music that American gamers would've been into when the reality was that the publisher was very sorely mistaken. When I think of 2 Unlimited I think of games of basketball or basketball montages rather (sometimes of the cheesy variety), neither of which I want to think of when playing a shoot'em up as the music Activision opted for in the American version is distracting... not to mention dated. There is a sound test in the options screen, but no trace of the Japanese music is there since it got replaced in America. During the credits they actually left Yoshio Nagashima's name intact despite it largely being absent here,...
with the exception of the very brief warning cue that precedes each and every boss fight; though if that doesn't count then leaving Nagashima's name in the credits would be very dishonest of Activision to do due to the soundtrack replacement. The only sounds left intact were for the sound effects provided by Kouichi Ishibashi (credited here as "K. 'Red' Ishibashi"), and those are decently selected for the most part.
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| H.R. Giger would be proud, I'm sure |
But really, the soundtrack change would not have been a glaring issue and gotten so much notoriety had it actually matched the given six Planet "UP457" location settings in the game. When listening to the Japanese tracks and listening to them while watching gameplay videos of BioMetal's Super Famicom version on YouTube it complements the scenery well but when you replace the music with 2 Unlimited on the SNES version with the same scenery there is a complete disconnect as it fails to engage you in the action and atmosphere, so because I only own the SNES version I feel the need to mute my TV when playing this game so as to preserve my sanity from listening to the music replacement as it feels like the equivalent of audio diarrhea, at least when used in the context of a horizontal scrolling shoot'em up such as this one.
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| G.A.M. power |
It's especially telling when the original Japanese soundtrack was longer than the American one as the latter comprises of some of the same tracks used over and over, during boss fights even, while the former had a huge selection of music including one for the intro and ending credits, a proper title theme, actual boss themes, a cue that plays after each boss has been defeated, and a diverse track for each stage (the first one's theme being the most incredible track of the bunch). What I'm trying to say of course is that the Japanese music was more effective than the one by 2 Unlimited. No thought was given at all in regards to the atmosphere when Activision decided to replace its soundtrack, was there? I feel so sorry for Yoshio Nagashima getting shafted like that for the Western version, he deserved better than to be treated like that (and on his one and only contribution to the Nintendo 16-bit, no less). =(
Images from GameFAQs
And poor Yasuo Yamaguchi too. He may not have been involved in the audio department, but he had not one but two games he worked on in 1993 where the soundtrack got changed in America with Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog CD being the second of the two (where he served as animation producer for that game). At least in the case of that one it would receive a Retro Engine-based remastered version (with the ability to choose between the Japanese and American music accompanied by widescreen support) by Christian Whitehead eighteen years later.
Awwwwwwwww...
Activision thinks it has fans... <=) That's adorable!
Awwwwwwwwww!!
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| Watch out for those bomber aliens |
But in all seriousness though if Activision did have fans during the day I'm pretty sure they stopped being fans upon finding out about the soundtrack switch, not aided by the questionable decision-making the company would end up making over the past twenty or so years. I don't care if they released some of the better known third party games on the Atari 2600 console; I don't care if they kickstarted one of their most famous franchises during the '80s (Pitfall); I don't care that they distributed the Western version of Matrix Software's Alundra 2: A New Legend Begins (a game I personally like, by the way, even though it's got naught to do with the original game story- and tone-wise and how much it makes me wish it wasn't in 3D);...
The inner six to seven year old in me is screaming in pure delight and joy at these beautiful HD remasters of the trilogy I loved playing on the PlayStation One way back when
and I don't care if Activision published Vicarious Visions' HD remaster of Naughty Dog's original Crash Bandicoot trilogy in Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy (which I'm liking a lot since I downloaded it on the Nintendo Switch, and hey, I'm a sucker for a good throwback title)--what Activision did in regards to Athena's BioMetal was wrong. As publisher they should've simply released it, and that's it; nothing more.
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| Evading enemy bullet fire |
But even if this game didn't undergo the inane soundtrack change because the publisher felt the need to act out of hubris, it doesn't affect the overall gameplay. I remember hearing about this game less than a decade ago and how they brought up the 2 Unlimited score and the strong H.R. Giger flavor throughout, and back in November 2012 I found the SNES cart at the store 3D Games which I bought out of curiosity alongside the SNES conversion of the Eric Chahi-created Delphine Software cinematic platformer Out of this World (the American name equivalent of the original European title Another World), despite the fact that shoot'em ups aren't exactly my strong suit. I do recall there also being the SNES port of A.I's arcade shoot'em up BlaZeon available at 3D Games, which I never picked up neither there nor on eBay... though in hindsight I do wonder if I would've enjoyed that one more (guess I'll find out whenever I get around to importing it).
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| Elongated BioMetal boss |
Ever since I found out about the Japanese version's soundtrack and listened to its themes on YouTube I had been wanting to get the original Super Famicom version of BioMetal, simply so I could play it with the superior soundtrack included as 2 Unlimited does absolutely nothing to aid its atmosphere. However, a quick eBay search showed that the Japanese version sells for a really high cost; the Super Famicart by itself goes for slightly over $100, which is insane for a game made for this genre... though I do wonder if that awesome cover art has got anything to do with it? Sadly, its expensive price tag is what keeps me at bay, so I'm stuck with the American version whose music I feel the need to mute when I play it out of respect for the original composer. =(
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| Not available on Steam |
The thing about shoot'em ups is that you have to coordinate and maneuver yourself through obstacles, and in several instances those obstacles will comprise of countless bullets that you have to avoid and sometimes they might come at you fast and in most cases simultaneously, meaning you have to pay attention to everything that is happening because if you don't then you'll be losing a ship, and paying attention to everything that is happening at once is really difficult to accomplish without pausing. There is a system I came up with years ago when it came to this genre, though, and that's the pause-unpause trick by pausing and unpausing anytime things look too difficult--admittedly it's at the expense of flow, but you'll get a clear idea of how to evade bullet and deadly fire by knowing which direction to fly towards, and it's a largely foolproof tactic when it comes to shoot'em ups if you're largely inept at them like I am... provided the reaction time for each pause is quick enough... which is not the case here...
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Awww, those chibified Chozo statue lookalikes
are cute, I feel bad that I have to destroy them
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The first two stages are manageable enough... ish, but after that things start to amp up especially as the enemies will either come at you too quick and/or fire way too fast at you, occasionally from offscreen which means you have to react quickly. BioMetal has a frenetic pace to it with nary a moment of slowdown (save of course for the final battle when the G.A.M. is activated), which considering the Nintendo 16-bit console's slow processing skills is impressive, but honestly I found Taito's Darius Twin from two years prior to be more impressive technologically speaking (four months after the Super Famicom debuted in November 1990) as no matter how fast you went and no matter how hectic things got there was not an instance of slowdown to be found.
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| They've come to bring the heavy artillery |
But there is a code that makes the proceedings, not necessarily easier, but more manageable even though it's still challenging: during any time in the game be sure to hold the up, left, B, and A buttons together as you reset it and if you did it right then you can skip to the next stage by holding Select while pressing the right shoulder button or go back a stage by holding Select while pressing the left shoulder button (not while paused, obviously). Yes, technically you can skip to the final stage by going backwards from the first stage (which is amazing), and if you want to be at your most powerful then obtain some power-ups, go back or forward a stage, obtain more of the same power-ups, rinse and repeat. It'll make the front and middle portion of the sixth stage literally passable. If you're wondering if there's any other code that will alleviate any struggle or make you invulnerable, that one code was the only one I found on GameFAQs, which means if you want to beat the game you'll have to rough it with the final boss.
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Hey, it's better than Alien: Covenant!
Anything's better than Alien: Covenant, stupid 2017 prequel
destroying the lore, mystique, and suspense of the 1979 sci-fi
horror masterpiece simply by existing!
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And as final bosses in horizontal scrolling shoot'em ups go, I felt the final boss here took short of forever to defeat (and took many tries to defeat). Once you go through the hordes of facehuggers you meet up with the boss who is one of those bosses whose foundation is stuck to a wall, where first you must shoot at its face enough times until it gets destroyed, then you must shoot at its body until it gets to the point where it flashes in red with each shot and once you get in enough shots the final BioMetal begins to explode. The problem is that you must also be mindful of its bubble-like projectiles ricocheting up and down on the way to the left, and while it might seem that the top of its head serves as a safe spot it soon becomes apparent that it isn't when you take into account its long flailing and gestating projectile spewing tail. So it's a battle of trying to stay alive and taking advantage of open windows anytime you can afford it, all of which prolongs the battle (and even then you might lose some lives).
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| The longest battle against a BioMetal |
If you do like 2 Unlimited's discography as a whole, more power to you, but don't listen to it emanating from this game, please! If you are to listen to their music, then do it from watching aforementioned basketball games and/or montages or from anything that befits it appropriately. Those who are more into the shoot'em up genre will get more mileage out of Athena's BioMetal, but if you want to play a game that is sprinkled in H.R. Giger flavor, provided you like his trademark style to begin with, there is intrigue value in it (as without it, the game would be forgettable and very derivative I'm sorry to say). If you're looking for a high quality game from this genre on the Nintendo 16-bit, there are alternatives that are superior (Taito's Darius Twin and Darius Force/Super Nova, Capcom's Area 88/U.N. Squadron, Jaleco's Super Earth Defense Force, and even though I find it overhyped and overrated I think Konami's Axelay is a better-made shmup that is at least good fun in its own right),
however if you're simply looking for an okay if not decent shoot'em up to play that lasts roughly twenty-five to thirty minutes (if you play it properly and are more experienced at the genre, that is), then you might enjoy BioMetal. It might not be a great game, but it's safe to say that you could do a lot worse than this.
My Personal Score: 6.0/10
d(^-^)bTO EACH THEIR OWNd(^-^)b
P.S. And no, Athena, I will not refer to the BioMetals as BMs, because those letters used in that exact order are really embarrassing once you know what they truly stand for! Mayhaps the team behind it weren't aware of the embarrassing connotations behind those letters in English-speaking countries when they made that intro...
P.S. 2 In other news, I caught up with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in theatres recently, and it was really great and enjoyable; I loved it a lot, it felt like a comic book come to life. =)
Thank you for reading my review, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think (neither spam nor NSFW are allowed); hope you have a great day, take care!
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Athena may have been blatant in the H.R. Giger inspiration here, but Irem had beat them to it with their R-Type franchise, and some of the ex-employees of Irem would go on to form the company Produce, who woul-----oh, sorry, not sure why I'm bringing that up
Speaking of games that had their reputation tarnished by the American version because of arrogant arseholes, mixed in that case with incompetence and contempt...
but I'm sure that won't come into play for anything.
=| ……………………………………………… =)
