After eight years and a lot of radio silence, Paprium for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive has been released. But is it worth your time, or a game eight years too late?
To begin, you will notice the game does not work on certain Genesis/MD systems, specifically officially licensed clone systems. This is because Watermelon Games dislikes those systems and it seems the game may have been intentionally programmed to not work with them. When you start the game, you will find a small minimalist-designed minigame that will require you to turn off and turn on your system again in order to play the actual game. Playing on a clone system like the Mega-SG will lock you into the minigame only and it will not be of the same quality.
Basic Overview
The game is a beat em up with three characters to start and more to unlock. You can unlock more characters as you go and they all feel different, so playing as everyone is a neat touch. The game has the interesting gimmick of using button A to take a blue pill to power up your moves for a time, but you need to be careful since the pills prove addictive and that can negatively affect you as the game goes on. It is a nice touch to set the game apart from other beat ’em ups you may have played, and it is applied rather well.
The game has branching paths in story mode, and the path you take will see affect which route you end up in during the game, and there are quite a few stages to find here. The strange twist is that once you beat a boss of an area, you can become the boss and throne yourself, but that will take your character out of play until you step down. It’s an interesting mechanic but I do not feel it is well developed. All paths are needed in order to find hidden areas and characters in order to get the best ending, so replay is needed.
But if the idea of temporarily being the boss is a strange idea, Paprium’s saving features are downright bizarre. Sometimes loading a save will move you to a different part of the level you were on, and you are locked out of your save once you achieve 100% completion on a file. This is a baffling choice, and I do not understand why it is here. It feels like trolling from the developers, and along with the minigame fakeout at the start, and the game mocking you should you choose to disable friendly fire, a lot of the game design only makes sense if the developers were pulling jokes on the players.
Looks, Gameplay, and Issues
I do want to stress that Paprium is a gorgeous game and looks far better than a Genesis/Mega Drive game should be able to. Watermelon had stated this is an 80MEG cartridge and uses the DT128M16VA1LT, also known as the Datenmeister, to achieve these technical feats. There are a lot of technical options as well for a variety of system features, such as having the Genesis/Mega Drive handle sound and various visual effects. The game looks and sounds good enough to be running on a modern HD system, so I think Watermelon’s disdain for using non CRT TVs is a rather strange one.
If you like Beat em ups, you will like Paprium as the game takes from the best of the genre in terms of gameplay, and everything feels satisfying. In addition, If you have a Sega CD/Mega CD, there is a mode to have the CD run a CPU controlled 2nd player to fight alongside you. You may think this is similar to Final Fight 3 on SNES, and this mode clearly takes inspiration from that title, but Paprium’s version plays much better. There is also an arcade mode that does not have branching paths or unlockables, and unless you want to start story mode over and delete your save file, it is an okay choice.
I do want to warn though, that the game has some powerful flashing effects that make it unsafe for players with photosensitivity issues. This is not a castigation of Watermelon necessarily, but rather I just want to give a warning for those interested in playing. In addition, there are some bugs that are rather annoying, including problems with hit detection that do get in the way of enjoyment. It feels like for all the time in development, plenty of issues still remain.
Final Thoughts
Paprium is an interesting beast. It has some great ideas for a brawler but also delights in trolling the player unnecessarily. Watermelon has some good ideas here, including having a jack for a feature called Megawire that will let you upload your scores and download potential DLC directly to the cartridge. This is something I have not seen before and is rather different for sure. However, the poor handling of the game’s crowdfunding and contact with backers is just inexcusable. This combined with the odd design choices and I am rather disappointed in Paprium. There is potential, but I just do not feel Watermelon handled things right even after release. The numerous bugs are also a problem and overall, I feel Watermelon could have done so much better. Perhaps if the game is brought to modern systems, many of the issues can be worked out, and I would give it a second look then. As it is, I do not feel Paprium is worth it right now.
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