A suspicion about Abadox

[Skyknight]

No kidding about long time ago; I did a search for "Andorogynous" just to make sure...No results. Must have been before the old board-wipe.

[Ed Oscuro]

But guess what does show up in one of our relevant search results? Abadox, again.

[Skyknight]

No wonder that didn't come up; I specifically searched for the "ando" spelling.

While looking again at the Andorogynous playthrough on YouTube, the one who posted the videos noted that they didn't really like Telenet as publisher, because their games in general were somewhat passionless in design. Could have sworn Gley Lancer was otherwise...

EDIT: Never mind, got Telenet and NCS mixed up. Which one did Gynoug, again?

[BIL]

Masaya. You can tell by the massive dickmonster. ^_~

[Skyknight]

{sweatdrop} I meant between NCS and Telenet...(You do know, by the way, that that enemy's official name is Jouou--"Queen"? They didn't call that stage the Demon Womb for nothing...)

[BIL]

I know, Masaya is/was the entertainment software division of NCS.



Queen or not, that is one impressive dong.

[Captain]

Is that a cigar lol

[BIL]

Yes. Even demons need time to unwind before whipping out their monster dongs for another credit of Gynoug!

[JBC]

I first played that game because of my interest in Legendary Wings. I saw the angel dude with a gun & thought, "Well this might be cool". Not only was it a better game than Legendary Wings, but it also featured angry dickie man. Probs one of my fav shmups on Genesis. I'd place it somewhere above Steele Empire, but below Thunder Force IV.

[ACSeraph]

My game came in the mail. Beautiful graphics, but the ridiculously underpowered weapons, unbelievably low shot limit, and hellish recovery ruins this game. It would have been spectacular were it not for those unfortunate oldschool traditions.

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Been playing more, it's starting to grow on me. Seems like you have to view this like Darius II: 1 life and that's it. Actually when you get homing missiles the game isn't all that hard, though the shot limit still feels bad to me. Hopefully I'll nab the 1cc quickly. Despite its imperfections this game seems really good for an NES shmup. Great atmosphere. I'd kill to play something in this vein with modern 3D graphics, but these days they'd have to make Maria the pilot or no one would buy it

[BIL]

Exactly my first impressions of the game. You start out feeling severely underpowered, but by around stage 2 when you're packing missiles, lasers, shields and options it's all good. No continues either, bahaha!

Try out their Final Mission too, it's a lot more liberal with the shot limit. Feels quite Contra-ish.

I think the best bio-horror the genre ever saw in more modern times was R-Type Delta, specifically the fifth stage's pricelessly malevolent abyss, and the sixth's overrun human base turned hellish Bydo breeding ground.

[Captain]

It isn't bio horror as much as its just plain horror in R-type Delta.

X-multiply is a bio horror staple, and Master of weapon has those wacky bosses too.

[BIL]

It isn't bio horror as much as its just plain horror in R-type Delta.

Tell that to the R13's pilot It wasn't properly codified until Final, but Delta is full of implications that the Bydo isn't a distinct entity so much as a plague that subverts other organisms and machines to its own ends.

X-Multiply is certainly as literal as biological horror shooting gets, taking place within an infested human body. Abadox seems to expand this to an entire space outpost. Master of Weapon is all about mutation (THE LIVING THINGS CHANGE / AND HUMAN IS NO EXCEPTION), so yeah. "Biological horror" about covers all of these. Only Delta had the benefit of relatively modern presentation, though. (and Final's art design was weak, tbh... not enough grime)

[Captain]

The "plague" is exactly what I'm talking about.

Technically it is bio horror, but we don't really get to see any horrible deformities, grotesque as hell aliens or outright gore. (there is a bit though, but not enough).

It's just plain ol' horror with a biological background/theme.

Simplified example:

Bio Horror: There's this horrible deformed bloody exploding mutated pulsing convulsing spewing guy after us now, because aliens got him.

Delta: There's this uncanny guy after us now, because aliens got him.

[BIL]

Oh right. I should've said I consider Delta to run on suggestion more than anything. After st2's sewer full of assimilated wildlife, the horrific state of stage 6's former human base has some dark implications.

edit: Your examples bring to mind the distinction between horror and outright terror.

[Captain]

Can we really call it terror?

[BIL]

Ya definitely!

Horror = Delta = "my god, these alien beings appear to have assimilated human DNA..."

Terror = Gynoug = "dear lord, this monster man is jizzing acid at us with his gigantic cock!"

edit 2017 - was talking out of my ass here, it's the exact opposite. >_>

[Captain]

Terror = Gynoug = "dear lord, this monster man is jizzing acid at us with his gigantic cock!"

With hyper-realistic blood.

[ACSeraph]

Sweet just got my 1CC Stage 6 is a bitch, fuck those hitodama seriously. Those scooby doo ghosts at the end and the Japanese manual explicitly calling out Abadon have pushed me into the definitely occult themed camp. Nice sci-fi horror vibe ala Event Horizon. In the long run I liked Abadox a lot, despite the bad first impressions. It definitely felt a lot less cheesy than Life Force.

[Austin]

I really dig Abadox, I think it's one of the better shmups on the NES. Part of this is because the environments are cool, but another is that it still has some challenge to it (unlike some other NES shmups.. *cough* Life Force *cough*). I think it holds up pretty well despite how old it is.

[Domino]

This game has the usual 80s stereotype: Once you are killed just reset the system.

[Austin]

This game has the usual 80s stereotype: Once you are killed just reset the system.

Or get better and learn how to recover from your mistakes. Abadox can be a pain but it's hardly arcade Gradius III brutal. I can attest that such recovering in this game is totally doable.

[Captain]

This game has the usual 80s stereotype: Once you are killed just reset the system.

You forgot the other one: Once you kill everything just reset the system.

[ACSeraph]

I can attest that such recovering in this game is totally doable.

This is definitely true, as I was able to beat the final stage powerup free when I was practicing, but it's just barely doable. You have to follow really strict routes that are discovered via trial and error. It's not really that you can just dodge everything and keep shooting like you were before, you have to look for explotable points in the game's design. Doable? Yes. But still bad design and one of the bad points of shmups from this era.

[FRO]

Iunno, but good theory! I love that game & wish someone would acquire the rights. I can only image how wicked a nasty guts-planet would look in current gen graphics.

EDIT - Ah! Developed by Natsume. I thought it was just some bizarre experiment conducted by Milton Bradley but they were only the publisher.

Yeah, a remake of Abadox with modern graphics, or a current-gen shmup with gore galore would be an interesting thing. I was always taken aback by the amount of gore in Abadox as well, though admittedly one had to use their imagination a bit more in those days, since red and pink hues and vaguely designed sprites depicting internal organs weren't quite as sickening on screen as such things would become 3 or 4 console generations later. But it is still a bit intriguing that Milton Bradley decided to publish the game in North America, especially given its position as a top company offering family-friendly board games. Perhaps they took a chance, looking to diversify a bit? I'm glad they did, because Abadox remains one of my fav NES shooters. I remember renting it as a kid with some friends, and not getting to play it much because I couldn't spend that much time at his house on the weekend, and then learning that he nearly beat the game by Sunday afternoon before he had to return it. I haven't put enough time into it to really progress beyond Stage 3, but hope to eventually crack that nut wide open and finally play through the entire game.

Actually, Andorogynous (note the extra o) is the name of an MSX2 vertical-scrolling--more specifically, downward-scrolling--shmup, published by Telenet. I wasn't impressed by the plays I saw of it on YouTube (two loops, I think each one takes about an hour, only difference I noticed for loop 2 was the addition of a True Final Stage).

Because of the downward scrolling (although your character shoots horizontally) and similar biological theme, I actually thought at first there might be some developers shared between it and Abadox. Proved not to be true.

Andorogynous sounds a bit like Venture, then. I might have to check that out, I always enjoyed playing Venture on the 2600 as a kid. I need to find a cart copy of that game for my collection...

[BIL]

Anyone else always hear a tiny bit of Darius II's "War Oh!" (Drio Sawm BGM) in Abadox's stage 1 BGM? Well you do now. ;3

@ 6 seconds

@ 12 seconds

Naw for real that always sticks in my mind.

Abadox stage 3 BGM is masterful btw. So plaintive and hard-hitting.

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bump n' jump: was digging about for FC stuff, and noticed the game's original Japanese title is commonly translated as "Abadox: Jigoku no Inner War." Thought it was worth adding, given this thread's suspicions.

Jigoku/地獄 usually translates to "Hell" if I understand correctly? I don't think I've ever seen it translated to "Deadly," though "Abadox: The Hellish Inner War" obviously might've raised eyebrows on the family-friendly NES. ^_~ Not that intrepid Bionic Commando players couldn't still see ol' Adolf Hitler's skull exploding in pornographic detail!