Dusk Golem
A 21st Century Rockefeller
My search has lead me to believe that NeoGAF has never had a topic on Blue Stinger since its clearing, which is a shame.
In my continued quest to play every horror game ever, I have just finished Blue Stinger. This game may be best known as one of the Dreamcast launch titles, or as that really weird quirky game made by the same people who went on to make the much more recognized cult title, Illbleed.
Merry Christmas~
Blue Stinger is about some guy named Elliot who rescues people, but may be in need of rescue when he and a friend, who are visiting the creatively named Dinosaur Island for vacation, are at the scene when a sudden a meteorite hits the ocean near the island, and a strange, inescapable dome is formed around the island. And lord and behold strange dinosaur-like aliens begin to pop up on Dinosaur Island, who woulda thunk? Before he knows it, he meets a fisherman named Doggs, some computer-nerd sniper chick named Janine, and a strange blue fairy who they call Nephilim. This all happens on Christmas Eve and into Christmas, and the game won't let you forget that if the billboards have anything to say about that.
Blue Stinger and Illbleed have a level of shoddy quirkiness about them that is truly unlike any other game out there. This is almost certainly due to the director of both titles, Shinya Nishigaki, who unfortunately passed away a few years after the release of Illbleed at the age of 42. One has to ponder what sort of games he'd have cooked up if not for his passing. In an interview conducted one month before his death, he commented that his single biggest source of inspiration for games were movies. His dad worked for a movie studio, so he got to see all the free movies he wanted to while growing up, and saw a variety of films, including American and European films regularly. “Movies have big budgets, like Titanic, for example. The big video game companies can throw lots of money at the programming aspect and try to make impressive graphics and special effects. My imagination is like a big-budget movie,” he said, in explaining on how his vision for games worked for a small studio, and also commented in a similar position of a fan who was making a fan-made sequel for Illbleed at the time, “I like this energy, so it’s ok with me. If I had to choose money or energy, I would choose energy. If one person likes Illbleed, then to me, it’s a success.”
I think all of this is very apparent in this game. This comes off as a passion project, and a very quirky one at that. However, it also is extremely shoddy, and the fact it was a low-budget and in many ways amateur effort definitely show as well. But then, credit must be given that I didn't actually find myself bored playing Blue Stinger personally. The game keeps throwing so many odd things at you, hamminess through the roof that is rather enjoyable, and actually changes up the gameplay between main locations to keep things fresh and interesting enough. Actually to my surprise, the pacing of the game isn't that bad, the developers seemed to have caught on to a lot of pacing flaws of games even today, and actually do things like lessening the combat later into the game to avoid players becoming fatigued, or introducing weird new things into each area to keep it interesting, such as a changing level, or climbing walls, or a sudden bath scene.
I'm still asking myself though if I thought the game was good or not. Which I honestly can't say right now. It also didn't strike me as being as 'good' of what I've played of Illbleed, but also being quirky in its own right.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, the game is flawed, and its not a masterpiece or something that should be experienced in my opinion like Illbleed is, but if the weird side of games or the hammy and the quirky appeal to you, or the oddities in the horror genre, this game is probably worth your time.
A note that the English version features a free-roaming camera, while the Japanese version features fixed camera angles, for whatever reason. Just to mention for those who might want to experience it.
I think with a game like Blue Stinger, its more worth talking about what stood out about the game. Firstly, the boss battles. They aren't cream-of-the-crop in gaming or something, but I had fun with most of them, and most were pretty fun ideas. Things like a giant insect wearing a giant truck on its back, or a giant slime monster, or a giant dinosaur-like thing. A lot of giant things, actually. Though probably the most notable is the final boss, which felt like a legitimate
Or the soundtrack, which is strangely cinematic and it sounds like they got an actual orchestra to play some of the music in the game. Seriously, how the hell did they afford an orchestra!? But really, most of the soundtrack is good, though a few of the songs become quite repetitive.
Dogs, one of the main characters and one of the two you can play as, is an enjoyable asshole pirate(?) who definitely stands-up in the game.
Or how can one forget the stage in the game when Elliot is
, or the mentioned random bath scene that happens out of the blue between Elliot and Dogs.
Or how hilarious its opening is.
Or how over-dramatic cliche, but not badly done, its ending is.
The heart is definitely felt in the game, and its not a bad game, shoddy though. But definitely along with Illbleed something that is unlike anything else in the industry right now. A sort of low-budget, arguably bad game that revels in the fact, and in the end is actually quite a bit of fun because of it. Almost the exact opposite to AAA development and everything it stands for, but interesting in its own way.
In my continued quest to play every horror game ever, I have just finished Blue Stinger. This game may be best known as one of the Dreamcast launch titles, or as that really weird quirky game made by the same people who went on to make the much more recognized cult title, Illbleed.
Merry Christmas~
Blue Stinger is about some guy named Elliot who rescues people, but may be in need of rescue when he and a friend, who are visiting the creatively named Dinosaur Island for vacation, are at the scene when a sudden a meteorite hits the ocean near the island, and a strange, inescapable dome is formed around the island. And lord and behold strange dinosaur-like aliens begin to pop up on Dinosaur Island, who woulda thunk? Before he knows it, he meets a fisherman named Doggs, some computer-nerd sniper chick named Janine, and a strange blue fairy who they call Nephilim. This all happens on Christmas Eve and into Christmas, and the game won't let you forget that if the billboards have anything to say about that.
Blue Stinger and Illbleed have a level of shoddy quirkiness about them that is truly unlike any other game out there. This is almost certainly due to the director of both titles, Shinya Nishigaki, who unfortunately passed away a few years after the release of Illbleed at the age of 42. One has to ponder what sort of games he'd have cooked up if not for his passing. In an interview conducted one month before his death, he commented that his single biggest source of inspiration for games were movies. His dad worked for a movie studio, so he got to see all the free movies he wanted to while growing up, and saw a variety of films, including American and European films regularly. “Movies have big budgets, like Titanic, for example. The big video game companies can throw lots of money at the programming aspect and try to make impressive graphics and special effects. My imagination is like a big-budget movie,” he said, in explaining on how his vision for games worked for a small studio, and also commented in a similar position of a fan who was making a fan-made sequel for Illbleed at the time, “I like this energy, so it’s ok with me. If I had to choose money or energy, I would choose energy. If one person likes Illbleed, then to me, it’s a success.”
I think all of this is very apparent in this game. This comes off as a passion project, and a very quirky one at that. However, it also is extremely shoddy, and the fact it was a low-budget and in many ways amateur effort definitely show as well. But then, credit must be given that I didn't actually find myself bored playing Blue Stinger personally. The game keeps throwing so many odd things at you, hamminess through the roof that is rather enjoyable, and actually changes up the gameplay between main locations to keep things fresh and interesting enough. Actually to my surprise, the pacing of the game isn't that bad, the developers seemed to have caught on to a lot of pacing flaws of games even today, and actually do things like lessening the combat later into the game to avoid players becoming fatigued, or introducing weird new things into each area to keep it interesting, such as a changing level, or climbing walls, or a sudden bath scene.
I'm still asking myself though if I thought the game was good or not. Which I honestly can't say right now. It also didn't strike me as being as 'good' of what I've played of Illbleed, but also being quirky in its own right.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, the game is flawed, and its not a masterpiece or something that should be experienced in my opinion like Illbleed is, but if the weird side of games or the hammy and the quirky appeal to you, or the oddities in the horror genre, this game is probably worth your time.
A note that the English version features a free-roaming camera, while the Japanese version features fixed camera angles, for whatever reason. Just to mention for those who might want to experience it.
I think with a game like Blue Stinger, its more worth talking about what stood out about the game. Firstly, the boss battles. They aren't cream-of-the-crop in gaming or something, but I had fun with most of them, and most were pretty fun ideas. Things like a giant insect wearing a giant truck on its back, or a giant slime monster, or a giant dinosaur-like thing. A lot of giant things, actually. Though probably the most notable is the final boss, which felt like a legitimate
Kaiju (as in, a strange giant monster that felt like it wouldn't be out of place in a Godzella movie).
Or the soundtrack, which is strangely cinematic and it sounds like they got an actual orchestra to play some of the music in the game. Seriously, how the hell did they afford an orchestra!? But really, most of the soundtrack is good, though a few of the songs become quite repetitive.
Dogs, one of the main characters and one of the two you can play as, is an enjoyable asshole pirate(?) who definitely stands-up in the game.
Or how can one forget the stage in the game when Elliot is
slowly transforming onto a monster and you gain scorpion tail-things on your back and the ability to climb pipes
Or how hilarious its opening is.
Or how over-dramatic cliche, but not badly done, its ending is.
The heart is definitely felt in the game, and its not a bad game, shoddy though. But definitely along with Illbleed something that is unlike anything else in the industry right now. A sort of low-budget, arguably bad game that revels in the fact, and in the end is actually quite a bit of fun because of it. Almost the exact opposite to AAA development and everything it stands for, but interesting in its own way.
