BioMetal is a side-scrolling shooter game. Their are two pairs, one for lasers and the other for missiles, of three upgrades for your weapons. The war that divided the galaxy and used all it's resources has ended. A fleet was sent on a mission to find more natural resources. They never returned. Their last transmission reveals that the enemy' created one last experiment. This experiment is a combination of the aggressive nature of animals combined with the efficiency of machines. These creatures were named BioMetal. The MF-92GX Halbard mothership has been assigned to destroy the threat before they can not be stopped. You are piloting the MF-92GX Halbard fighter that is equipped with the experimental Gel Analog Mutant weapon. The Gel is charged up on the ship and can be used to surround the ship as a protective shield or be thrown at the enemy forces.
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BioMetal is a solid, if unremarkable, side-scrolling shooter on the SNES. The defining feature is your ship's unique shield that can transform into different attack modes, adding a bit of strategy to the usual space combat. Graphics are decent for the era, but the music is forgettable and stages can feel repetitive. If you're desperate for a SNES shmup fix, it's worth a try, but don't expect a genre-defining classic.
Horizontal shooter. I played through the Japanese version which has an ok if unmemorable soundtrack (and story wise is apparently still in English), US release had terrible sounding dance tracks like Y'all Ready For This that were also too quiet compared to the other sound effects. You have a main shot that can be turned into a wider spread, laser, or wide shot in front and behind you and two missiles that can be set to straight, spread, or homing based on powerup. A fast charging bar allows you to activate a rotating and damage causing shield you can fire at enemies.
This is actually a fairly unique and interesting mechanic that needs to be taken advantage of both as a means of doing extra damage and to survive the fairly large number of fast moving shots enemies can fire at you. The quick recharge rate of the shield and the balance between keeping it on you and launching it at enemies gives some strategy but often doesn't leave you completely helpless. Some sections have walls or paths in the stages and with most enemy shots not going through objects this cover can also give you a chance to recharge. Death will also use up a life but will spawn you back where you died with the same upgrades as the game keeps going.
The problems with the game is that the enemies are fairly dull and most are repeated in each stage, there is nothing interesting about your main weapons, the bosses are pretty easy and don't do anything mechanically or visually interesting, it is on the shorter side, level have some ok backgrounds but don't do anything interesting, and for a 93 release the game is bland visually. And I would definitely not want to listen to the US versions terrible renditions of dance music.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1676873523753816066
This is actually a fairly unique and interesting mechanic that needs to be taken advantage of both as a means of doing extra damage and to survive the fairly large number of fast moving shots enemies can fire at you. The quick recharge rate of the shield and the balance between keeping it on you and launching it at enemies gives some strategy but often doesn't leave you completely helpless. Some sections have walls or paths in the stages and with most enemy shots not going through objects this cover can also give you a chance to recharge. Death will also use up a life but will spawn you back where you died with the same upgrades as the game keeps going.
The problems with the game is that the enemies are fairly dull and most are repeated in each stage, there is nothing interesting about your main weapons, the bosses are pretty easy and don't do anything mechanically or visually interesting, it is on the shorter side, level have some ok backgrounds but don't do anything interesting, and for a 93 release the game is bland visually. And I would definitely not want to listen to the US versions terrible renditions of dance music.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1676873523753816066
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.
I got the impression for the longest time this was an average, flavorless game that used the 2Unlimited licensed music to give itself notoriety. I was surprised that this game had a suite of unique systems and mechanics based around offensive shield control.
Doesn't really matter tho cause the game sucks and doesn't use its own ideas well at all. All the enemies shoot obscene bullet hell waves and you have to dodge it with a ship that has acceleration-based control (even amiga shmups understood not to do this). The tradeoff is that you get an energy shield you can activate - which blocks everything except a few specific shot types. So the game economy becomes a matter of just always spamming shield until you get to an enemy-less area where you can let it recharge. It's so drab and boring - maybe worse than if it were just unremarkable and low-budget.
I was shocked to discover the JP OST was... fine, and much more tonally fitting than the licensed music. The melodies are kinda stinky, but they're bassy and melancholy, which works for this R-Type-ish vibe better imo.
Doesn't really matter tho cause the game sucks and doesn't use its own ideas well at all. All the enemies shoot obscene bullet hell waves and you have to dodge it with a ship that has acceleration-based control (even amiga shmups understood not to do this). The tradeoff is that you get an energy shield you can activate - which blocks everything except a few specific shot types. So the game economy becomes a matter of just always spamming shield until you get to an enemy-less area where you can let it recharge. It's so drab and boring - maybe worse than if it were just unremarkable and low-budget.
I was shocked to discover the JP OST was... fine, and much more tonally fitting than the licensed music. The melodies are kinda stinky, but they're bassy and melancholy, which works for this R-Type-ish vibe better imo.