The Toys Are Running Wild
The peaceful toy kingdom Is suddenly thrown into chaos when a dark mechanical force invades and steals the Magic Pendulum. Without it, the world begins to malfunction. Bright lands fade, friendly toys turn hostile, and entire regions collapse into mechanical madness. As one of the kingdom’s last defenders, Inguz rises to action, determined to recover the artifact and restore order. Sound Crazy?! Welcome to the arcades in the 1990’s.
Biomechanical Toys is a fast-paced action scrolling run and gun arcade game from 1995. Originally created by Zeus Software and published by Galeco and released in the arcades. As you play the main character, Inguz, you run and shoot your way through colorful landscapes filled with evil toys of every shape and size. This was a very typical arcade experience in the 1990’s. As you continue your journey further into the worlds you will face some interesting bosses in your mission to rescue the Magic Pendulum to restore the world thus saving all the toys of humanity!
MSRP: $9.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $7.99
As someone who grew up in the era of arcades and malls, this in not one of the games that I can remember, but still feels like it definitely belonged in that time period and I could envision that somewhere in the dark recesses of a smelly arcade, sat this gem, waiting on someone to plunk down a few quarters and immerse themselves into this game. Ahh, nostalgia with a hint of fragrance. Part of me misses those days… and part of me (my nose) doesn’t. It was pretty rare that someone would play an arcade game to completion mainly due to a lack of game saves and a further lack of quarters. But is never failed that a lot of arcade classics had deep stories hidden in the gameplay. Though usually arcade games were never really long games, they oftentimes would never get completed. It this is mainly because if games got completed quickly then the games popularity would die off and the game wouldn’t make as much money. They had to ramp up the difficulty in order to keep someone tossing in quarters trying to get further. Biomechanical Toy is no exception to this.
This version of Biomechanical Toy has been remade by QUByte Interactive, which is know for its love of classic NES, SNES, and arcade games. They port a lot of obscure games as well as make a few of their games, mostly smaller indie titles. As I began playing this title I was amused by the art style of the game. The characters and enemies were very colorful and the landscapes were very busy. This was a tactic of arcade games to distract the players from the game. And it worked. Pretty soon I was staring at the normal count down continue screen that plagued my childhood arcade days. Except this time all I had to do was hit the start button to continue. I didn’t have to dig for more quarters or run to the token machine before the countdown ended. And again, I was back in the action of the game. But to no surprise, it didn’t take long before the dreaded continue screen reappeared.
So how was I supposed to review this game? Well, that is where this differs from the days of yore. The creators at QUByte Interactives have a solution. They give you lots of options to tailor your playthrough. Options like infinite lives, infinite extra lives, infinite ammo, infinite bombs and an infinite way to play this game. Oh, and did I mention invincibility? So, after trying to play the game the way it was originally intended, I started experimenting with the different options. And cheating or not I was able to see the credits roll. My biggest take away from this game is that it is cheesy, goofy, and weird all at the same time. But also, a fun experience. While the controls feel stiff, I feel like that is the way they would have felt playing on an arcade cabinet with a stick and arcade buttons. There was just enough input lag to get you into trouble but not enough to break the game.
The creators also included a bunch of different filters to play with to make the game look and feel more or less modern. Even though it looks like an arcade game you could apply a CRT filter to make it look worse. Or add scan lines or widen the screen. There were multiple options. I messed around with those for a short time but ultimately ended going back to the way is looks when you boot it up. As far as the gameplay, the game plays like every other run and gun out there. The nice thing about this game is the check points. They are fairly regular so if you did happen to die, you didn’t have to start all the way back at the beginning of the level. Unfortunately, there is no level save points like modern console games. So, if you start the game and don’t make it to the end, the next time you boot it up you will be starting over at the beginning which is to be expected with most arcade games. There also isn’t much replay value once you have beaten the game.
Biomechanical Toy is a unique and whimsical game that harkens back to the mid 1990’s and is a colorful romp through some intriguing landscapes to defeat the evil toys. It is a fun reminder of what arcades used to be like in the 90’s with the ridiculous stories and repetitive musical scores. I couldn’t help but smile at this game dripping with nostalgia. So, if you have fond memories of this game or are just in the mood for an arcade experience, then this might be worth checking out. The price tag of $9.99 might be a tad high, but it is not a bad experience overall.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.