Infinos 1 and 2 coming to Switch, Xbox, and Playstation

[Creamy Goodness]

Just realized these games existed. For $4.00 each they look to be worth picking up if for anything the music.

https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/produ ... dnVxn4oMSH
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/produ ... OniK9afxAS

[Sweatlord_STG]

Just realized these games existed. For $4.00 each they look to be worth picking up if for anything the music.

https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/produ ... dnVxn4oMSH
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/produ ... OniK9afxAS

Who made these games? Are they related to Infinos Gaiden? Are they only on Switch?

[Jonpachi]

Pixelheart is the publisher, but it's unclear if they also developed it. Do they have an internal team?

[hamfighterx]

Pixelheart is the publisher, but it's unclear if they also developed it. Do they have an internal team?

Picorrine Soft (the dev who did Infinos Gaiden and Andro Dunos 2) did originally develop Infinos 1 and 2 as doujin games. Not clear whether they had any role in the Switch ports here.

https://indietsushin.net/posts/2023-09- ... eries.html
https://www.daedalusmachine.com/intervi ... oft-part-1

[Creamy Goodness]

Just realized these games existed. For $4.00 each they look to be worth picking up if for anything the music.

https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/produ ... dnVxn4oMSH
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/produ ... OniK9afxAS

Who made these games? Are they related to Infinos Gaiden? Are they only on Switch?

All made by Piccorine, the same guys who did Andro Dunos 2. I think Gaiden is staying on Steam and 1 and 2 are Switch only.

[hamfighterx]

All of the Infinos games were developed for PC first. Picorrine Soft is a small doujin collective of what appears to just be two (maybe brothers?): RYO, who does the shooting games (Infinos series, Battle Crust, Andro Dunos 2), and SATTO who develops the Pokemon-like Disc Creatures series.

There are essentially three Infinos games, with some variants (plus Infinos-like Andro Dunos 2):

1) Infinos (2013): The original Infinos was a doujin Windows PC game, released as freeware and made using Shooting Game Builder. As far as I can tell, RYO did this as a one-man show, and he's credited for the graphics, BGM, and sound. There were two spin-off releases, also entirely by RYO:
* Infinos Extra Stage was released separately later in 2013. It's a bonus stage where one death = game over.
* Infinos 0 came along in 2014, and it's a "console" version of Infinos designed to feel more like a NES game, and with some changes to the stages. Difficulty is intentionally tuned lower than Infinos, so it's a more casual experience. Dev notes that it's recommended as an introduction to side-scrolling STGs.

WINDOWS VERSIONS OF ALL THREE OF THE ABOVE ARE STILL AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD FOR FREE, from Picorinne Soft's site: https://picorinnesoft.main.jp/game.html. I just downloaded and played them all today, so this is current as of this post. They all recognized my Xbox controller immediately too, yay.
(Note that Infinos EX did give me unsigned application error in Windows and a Google Chrome download alert; I don't believe it actually contains any malware, but downloader beware).

2) Infinos 2 (2015): True sequel to the original game, also done entirely by RYO. It seems to have been released only in physical format and sold at Japanese doujin events like Comiket. No Steam, no download links from Picorinne's site, but now coming to Switch.

3) Infinos Gaiden (2018): The most well known in the series due to its Steam release. First game in the series with another credited person, Tsukumo Hyakutaro who did the BGM and is co-credited with RYO on sound fx. Steam/PC only for now, but maybe to come to Switch.
* Gaiden got an arcade release on the EXA platform in 2019. Typical EXA approach of having some arcade exclusive modes/features (I'm not quite sure exactly what they are).

4) Andro Dunos 2 (???) (2022): Of course, Picorinne also made the very good Andro Dunos 2 sequel, released on basically everything including Dreamcast and Nintendo 3DS (to go with the more orthodox platforms of Windows/Switch/PS4/Xbox One). It has the Andro Dunos name, but basically feels like an Infinos game. As to the licensing, French publisher PixelHeart (formerly JoshProd) has licensed Visco's stuff for years, with multiple releases to their name (I even have a Neo Geo AES Breakers Revenge cart from them before they went by either name). Maybe worth mentioning that the Steam version is currently 90% off for another week ($1.79 in the US, easily worth it!)

Bonus:
Picorinne Soft also did one vertical shooter, Battle Crust. It's available on Steam, and got a Dreamcast release from Joshprod/Pixelheart (like Andro Dunos 2). This one is another RYO joint, with Tsukumo Hyakutaro composing the BGM, like Infinos Gaiden.

[xEbb1993x]

Weird, I tried to download the original Infinos, but the link is broken...

[hamfighterx]

The download links work fine for me. Here are direct links to the final download page for each, instead of the main Picorinne Soft page that will eventually lead you to the download pages on the "freem" download hosting site that they use.

Infinos: https://www.freem.ne.jp/dl/win/4585 (click the red "Download" button)
Infinos 0: https://www.freem.ne.jp/dl/win/7179 (click the red "Download" button)

Infinos Extra is downloaded directly from the Picorinne Soft page instead of the third party hosting service they used for the above two. That's probably why Extra is giving me "suspicious download" security messages for unsigned code. Like I mentioned before, I've downloaded it and taken a closer look at the files and I don't believe it contains anything suspect, but DL at your own risk.

[xEbb1993x]

Oh, thank you.

[Ms. Tea]

The AI-generated backgrounds in the Switch cover art doesn't give me a lot of confidence in Pixelheart's porting job.

[hamfighterx]

The AI-generated backgrounds in the Switch cover art doesn't give me a lot of confidence in Pixelheart's porting job.

1) How are you determining these are AI-generated backgrounds? Looks fairly on par with the art style of the Infinos Gaiden thumbnail key art on Steam (which has been there since January 2018): https://store.steampowered.com/app/7710 ... os_Gaiden/

2) What makes you think Pixelheart is doing any porting work at all? They usually act as just a publisher, not a dev - including for Picorinne Soft's last game (Andro Dunos 2). So to me, it feels just as likely (if not more likely) that Picorinne is doing the development work on the console ports and Pixelheart is just publishing. That seems supported by the Microsoft store page for the games explicitly listing "Developed by: Picorinne Soft" and "Published by: PIXELHEART".

And on that note, yeah, Infinos 1 and 2 both have pages up on for Xbox and Playstation in addition to Switch. No Steam page yet that I can see, but maybe that's coming.

Xbox (US):
https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/ ... 9ND5G/0017
https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/ ... ZB6LJ/0017

Playstation Store (US):
https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10009412
https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10008398

[hamfighterx]

Also LOL whoops I was consistently spelling the game name wrong this whole time. Went back and corrected to INFINOS, not the Infinios with an extra "i" that I had been using

[Creamy Goodness]

Also LOL whoops I was consistently spelling the game name wrong this whole time. Went back and corrected to INFINOS, not the Infinios with an extra "i" that I had been using

Yeah I want to call it Infinios also. I also updated the thread title for all of the consoles.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The Steam port of Infinos Gaiden looks awesome running a dedicated 4:3 based LCD monitor with this particular one: https://www.amazon.com/Wstirhy-Monitor- ... 9hdGY&th=1 It'll display IG in 4:3 aspect ratio at 640 x 480 as originally intended via HDMI input with a Steam Deck in "dock mode." The on-board OSD lists support for both 16:9 & 4:3 screen modes.

You can use the above listed 4:3 LCD monitor with a docked Switch setup as well.

This monitor stand has tate capability (in both 90 degree & 270 degree orientation) and is perfect with above listed 4:3 LCD monitor using M4 screws + washers to mount the monitor to a 75mm x 75mm Vesa monitor bracket setup: https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Free-St ... 9idGY&th=1

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Steven]

Last I checked, the Picorinne Soft guys don't know how to program, which is why they use STG Builder and stuff, so they only make PC versions using those dev tools and the console versions are done by someone else. Maybe it's changed and they can program now, but you'd have to ask Picorinne.

[hamfighterx]

I'm curious if there are any tools/middleware to help make porting from STG Builder to consoles easier. Or maybe even to Unity, which of course would also be relatively easily transferrable to consoles. We've seen a number of games made in STG Builder that ended up getting solid console releases. I'm sure there are probably more, but some that come to mind: Barrage Fantasia, Graze Counter, Mecha Ritz

There's also, of course, Andro Dunos II. Another Picorinne STG Builder game, and that one turned out quite well on Switch/PS4/Xbox (less so on 3DS, but that's obviously a much less powerful machine so it's more understandable). If PixelHeart has another dev team doing these ports, and they chose the same one that did a good job the last time they published a Picorinne game on consoles, I'm not exactly concerned! Hopefully the in-game credits will shed some light on this though.


EDIT: Ah, I pulled up The Electric Underground's 1CC guide/video for Andro Dunos 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxTpZ6QGEIo), which includes the console credits. Ryo (the mostly one-man crew Picorinne Soft guy) remains the Director. But a couple interesting things:
- They pulled in Allister Brimble (Amiga music royalty) for music.
- Two names listed for Console Porting Programmer: Julien Magnin and Jozsef Punk. Both have multiple credits on other Pixelheart games.

[Steven]

One of the Picorinne Soft guys (probably Ryo) said on Andro Dunos II's Steam forum that they had basically no control over the console versions of that game at all. I think they weren't even able to directly contact the console version dev team for some time, which is/was somewhat concerning, especially as people were sending bug reports for the console versions to Picorinne Soft, who had no way to send them directly to the console version devs.

[hamfighterx]

Oh wow, that's... not great.

I'm not really that concerned that these low spec releases are going to have big issues on console, and there's not much risk given the low price. But that's too bad about how the Andro Dunos console development went. Then again, also doesn't seem to have been THAT awful of an experience since Picorinne and PixelHeart are collaborating again here. And the Andro Dunos II current console ports are pretty good? I haven't had issues with what I've played on Switch and PS4, and I haven't read much about others having issues either (aside from 3DS performance being lacking).

[Steven]

I'm trying to forget that Dreamcast Andro Dunos II exists. The list of cool things about that version start and end with "it's on Dreamcast". I don't think it even supports 320x240 output despite that being both supported on Dreamcast and the PC version's native resolution. Might be wrong about that and maybe it does, and I hope I forgot and am wrong, but I somehow don't think so. I don't remember if the 3DS version is worse and don't want to remember, but I have that too in case I ever decide that I do want to remember.

As long as PixelHeart doesn't release these on something older than the PS4, you should probably be okay, but I'm sticking with the PC versions of all of Picorinne Soft's games. I do have Dreamcast Battle Crust as well, but I've never played it. It took so long for them to ship it to me (bought this together with Dreamcast Andro Dunos 1, which is also a horrible version of that game BTW, Dreamcast Andro Dunos II, and 3DS Andro Dunos II, so it took almost two years for them to ship these to me. That's a lot of money wasted on terrible versions of good games, sadly) that I bought it on PC and decided that I don't really like it that much anyway.

[hamfighterx]

Played a couple stages of the Switch Infinos 1 last night. It's a very accurate port of the PC release. Extremely barebones presentation, just like the PC original. On launch, there's just a PixelHeart logo splash then you hit the game title screen that is barely changed from the original - still says PICORINNE SOFT on the screen, no mention of PixelHeart or anyone else there, the only change is that the PC version says "PRESS "Z" KEY OR 1 BUTTON", and the Switch one says "PRESS "A" BUTTON".

Neither the Switch version or the PC original have any options whatsoever. Just press button to start, you have 5 credits, no settings/config, no development credits, nothing else. Once you're in-game, controls are: A or L to shoot, + to pause, and Y to cycle through three screen options. Default 4:3 with wallpaper on the left/right borders, the same 4:3 with black borders, and a stretched mode to fill the screen. If you want to remap buttons, you'd need to do that at the system level (which, while a bit annoying, is supported on all of Switch, Playstation, and Xbox).

Game feels just fine to me as a casual player who doesn't know this game that well, but in a quick eyeball comparison of stage 1 PC/Switch versions, I see no big issues with the Switch port. Music sounds fine too, if maybe a little less vibrant than the PC version (but that could just be that I was playing with a decent PC speaker versus listening to a Switch Lite speaker). No major concerns.

Booted up Infinos 2 as well, but I've never played the PC version so have no frame of reference. Similarly barebones presentation, but after you hit start this one does have a second screen where you can select level (Easy/Arcade/Hard) and Credits (1 to 9). Same controls as Infinos 1, plays fine. Music sounds fine from my very short initial impression (stage 1 BGM is a cool track though).

[Ms. Tea]

Glad to hear the ports are fine! I

The AI-generated backgrounds in the Switch cover art doesn't give me a lot of confidence in Pixelheart's porting job.

1) How are you determining these are AI-generated backgrounds? Looks fairly on par with the art style of the Infinos Gaiden thumbnail key art on Steam (which has been there since January 2018): https://store.steampowered.com/app/7710 ... os_Gaiden/

Might be more obvious if you look at the full size version: https://assets.nintendo.com/image/uploa ... dbe8c604d0

Those weird blobby buildings and especially the bizarre spike shapes at the top look a ton like the artifacts you get from older, lower-end AI image generators. The shapes just don't make any sense at all. There's always a chance they got this from some stock photo site and didn't make it themselves though; the whole thing looks like a low-effort collage, with the ship, logo and pixel explosions pasted in on top from other sources.

I guess it doesn't matter that much at the end of the day, but it looks much uglier than even the standard kinda low-budget eshop art.

[hamfighterx]

Ahhh, yeah you're probably right, and looking at the larger image does help to see.

Boo! PixelHeart definitely seems to have done this on the cheap, and I absolutely appreciate that using gen AI instead of just paying an artist is lame. Though, as these things go, low effort icon art is fairly easy for me to ignore. Just getting these games on console is a pretty big surprise, for the $4 I paid I guess I'm not too up in arms, and hopefully this is a good thing and the original solo creator is getting a fair deal.

Satisfied with how both games play though, and I'm hoping Infinos Gaiden makes it to console too.

[Jonpachi]

I thought they were going for We Have Macross at Home with the building silhouettes. It very well may be AI, but I think the building shapes are intentional.

[Sweatlord_STG]

The Steam port of Infinos Gaiden looks awesome running a dedicated 4:3 based LCD monitor with this particular one: https://www.amazon.com/Wstirhy-Monitor- ... 9hdGY&th=1 It'll display IG in 4:3 aspect ratio at 640 x 480 as originally intended via HDMI input with a Steam Deck in "dock mode." The on-board OSD lists support for both 16:9 & 4:3 screen modes.

You can use the above listed 4:3 LCD monitor with a docked Switch setup as well.

This monitor stand has tate capability (in both 90 degree & 270 degree orientation) and is perfect with above listed 4:3 LCD monitor using M4 screws + washers to mount the monitor to a 75mm x 75mm Vesa monitor bracket setup: https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Free-St ... 9idGY&th=1

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

lol that screen is tiny

battle crust is also not bad btw https://store.steampowered.com/app/4447 ... d=45381719

[utsunderthesky]

My first thought was “this looks like Andro Dunos” and I was kind of right lol

[Darkseed_5150]

Bought both of these for PS and they look great on PS5 Pro. So nice to just launch into the action without a bunch of menus and intros. Gaiden and Battle Crust next pls!

Re: Andro Dunos 2, I've seen talk where the PC version supposedly looked better because the console versions were ported by other devs. I played it for years on PS4, PS5, PS5 Pro, and I recently bought the PC version on sale. Maybe it's the way the PS5 Pro handles the image quality and latency, but it looks and plays better there than on my pretty decent PC. I tried looking for these visual artifacts I kept hearing about but all I found were advantages in IQ on the console.

[Herr Schatten]

I bought the Switch versions of both games, and really, for the price they are a steal.

The ports are very bare-bones, but the games themselves are rock solid and great fun to play. Apart from an overuse of grays, they look a lot better than I remembered them, too.

I already have Gaiden and Battle Crust on PC, but I'd buy them in an instant if they got ported as well.