Bio Hazard Battle Review

Lately I've found myself addicted to shmups, usually of the horizontal scrolling space craft variety, but there's one in particular from my childhood that I keep returning to time and time again. There's certainly a feeling of nostalgia that lends itself to this title for me, but it has a lot going for it otherwise, particularly the sci fi, almost horror atmosphere this game creates. So tonight I want to share a little more about why I love Bio Hazard Battle for the Sega Genesis.

Bio Hazard Battle takes place on the fictional world of Avaron which has been overrun by horrendously mutated flora and fauna as a result of a planet wide "bio-war" that happened some time ago. It is your job to pilot one of four available "bio-ships" down to the surface to search for a suitable place for mankind to recolonize.

The game begins with you being dropped through the upper atmosphere from the colony ship. It becomes rapidly apparent that your stay on Avaron will not be a hospitable one. It's clear that the planet hasn't been able to repair itself from the aftermath of the bio-war as I'm pretty sure giant flying squid, centipedes and bees in the upper atmosphere couldn't be normal. The only option left then is to begin hunting the source of the mutations.

That's the story in a nutshell, which is delivered entirely by the game's manual and brief synopsis on the back of the box. There are no narratives or cutscenes during the game itself, so if you have a loose cartridge or your download didn't include a manual then you won't have much to go on. If you've played a lot of shmups though, you'll know that the story usually takes a back seat to the action anyway.

Gameplay wise, BHB ends up being exactly what you'd expect in any shmup. In the beginning you choose from a selection of 4 different bio-ships. Unfortunately there's no way of telling the differences between each ship from the selection screen, you'll have to rely on trial and error to decide which one you like best. After experimenting you'll find that the ships move at different speeds and have different sub weapons based on the colored seeds you collect. The differences aren't dramatic enough for one ship to be better than another, but so you can find the movement speed and sub weapon load out that best suits your play style.

If you're a veteran to the genre then BHB probably won't surprise you very much. The game doesn't really throw anything at you that you haven't already dealt with in other shooters. I feel like the game's favorite gimmicks are brief spurts of bullet hell while much larger enemies try to crowd the screen from either side.

Success comes much easier the better you are at controlling the external pod that fires your sub weapon, which rotates the ship opposite of your d-pad input. So in other words, if you move the ship backwards, it will swing to the front. It can be awkward at first but after a few plays you should get the hang of it. The pod is indestructible and absorbs enemy fire, so learning to use it as a shield becomes crucial in later stages. Each ship has its own charge blast, which is just about guaranteed to destroy any of the larger beasts that wander into the screen. The down side is that it takes roughly the same amount of time to charge the blast as it does a mega buster in a Mega Man game, but during this time neither your ship or your pod can fire. Even though it only takes a little over a second to charge you must be aware of your surroundings and enemy fire before doing so, which can make it a bit of a gamble towards the end of the game.

If any of that doesn't sound like your thing, I must at least recommend that you play the game for the music. BHB has some of the most amazing and chilling tracks in the Genesis library. They all do well to drive home the intended sci-fi horror atmosphere of a planet infested with grotesque flying worms and other entomophobic nightmare fuel. I'd like to note that the boss music is one of my all time favorite boss themes.

The sound effects are nicely done too, especially from defeating the larger enemies. They have this nice mixture of explosion-splatter that makes it really satisfying to take them down.

The graphics themselves are sort of hit and miss. While the bio-ships and enemies are beautifully drawn and nicely animated, the backgrounds can be a bit bland. Some do stand out though, such as the jungle and under-sea missions. The bosses are nice to look at but don't offer any sort of challenge. Other than the nice sprite work they can come off a bit disappointing in practice.

If you're a hard core shmup enthusiast, this game may be a bit of a mediocre experience for you. However, I do feel like the difficulty is at a comfortable enough level for me to recommend it to someone who may just be getting into the genre. As I said above, I do recommend that anyone give the game a try to at least experience the music and the atmosphere it creates. I feel like that's what really pulls me back to this game time and time again.

Pros:

-Awesome music and sound effects.
-Controls are precise and live up to the standards of any great shmup.
-2 player simultaneous co-op.
-Great animation and creature art.

Cons:

-Might be considered too easy or mediocre if you're a shmup enthusiast.
-No in game ship statistics or listings of sub weapons.
-No in game narrative. The ending may be a bit of a let down too.
-Backgrounds are a little bland.

Note: The version I reviewed was my original Sega Genesis cartridge but the game is available for download on the Nintendo e-shop and on the Steam network. I have not played those versions, but I've heard from other sources that they are pretty much perfect ports.