Biomechanical Toy sounds like a straight-to-video H.P. Lovecraft-inspired horror, or the latest revolutionary pocket toy launched by LoveHoney. Either way, it’s not a great name, nor is the premise. However, this is another 90s game I missed the first time around and only heard about when QUByte Interactive announced they were launching it this month. 90s action platformer with extras that include scanlines? Yes, please.
Unlike their other remastered title, Soccer Kid, I knew nothing about this and had to look it up while collating this series of sentences. The reason I didn’t know about it was that it was only released in the arcades, so it never crossed my path on the Amiga (nor the SNES or Mega Drive for that matter), and it was such a low-key title, it never reached the shores in Blighty (that I’m aware of). For a game so niche and with a premise so shoddy, you have to wonder why this was brought back.
You play Ingunz – an archetype leather-jacket-wearing hero wielding two pistols that sets out to retrieve a stolen pendulum that has the power to make toys come to life. Instead of a scaredy-cat dinosaur or slinky dog, you have angry dinosaurs, madcap chess pieces, and a manner of all other Hasbro plastics intent on hurting you. Well, guns are your friends in this case, and considering Biomechanical Toy has enemies that respawn repeatedly, you need something reliable to see you through.
The premise and assumed character you play aren’t restrictive in any way, and on the contrary, the combat is really good. Those who’ve played it will argue my comparisons, but as a quick fix, I’d say this is Blackthorne meets Zool. The design is more like the latter in terms of level design and garish colours. It’s really quite a mishmash of ideas, and the repetitive opening tunes summed up how disorganised this feels to begin with. However, something about it worked, and I was able to see this through without interruption and enjoyed myself, except for two things. The first is the platforming, while quite limited, it is a bit rubbish. The second is the abrupt ending with the wording ‘Happy End’. I haven’t told you what happens, but it’s very abrupt, and the credits are longer.
With that in mind, the actual combat in Biomechanical Toy is good, with responsive controls and satisfying, albeit limited, weapon upgrades. There’s a random bomb pick-up that kills everything on screen, though the best one is the Shinobi-like special that summons a phoenix and wipes everything on the screen. Manage to secure three of these, and you can whittle down the boss’s health to a couple of hits of your gun for an easy win.
Surprisingly, the game doesn’t feel very toy-like. You aren’t wandering around bedrooms or those cliché train tracks you see in most representations. I’d wager the original developers used the toy plot as a way to use whatever characters they wanted throughout. The dinosaurs in particular looked really good, as did the orc punks. Shame there weren’t enough of them in it. Again, this draws me to the conclusion that while fun, Biomechanical Toy is a casserole of random ideas that mostly work, though a main bad guy named Scrubby doesn’t invoke fear.
Not necessarily an expectation, but it’s good to see that QUByte are consistent with the extras, as there’s a digital manual if you’re interested, as well as fit-to-screen, full and 4:3 ratios with associated bezels. What was quite surprising for me is that I didn’t like the scanlines on this occasion as I’m typically drawn to them. The CRT effect really is good, though I’m still on the fence about the other extra, which is the built-in cheats. This isn’t on the main option screen, so I missed them (thankfully) the first time. When playing it again and pausing to play with the CRT effects, I noted infinite health, bombs, etc… Not ideal. Still, it is a choice – you don’t have to switch them on, but if you’re forking out your hard-earned pennies for a game, it’s recommended to try without the cheats, as Biomechanical Toy, while good, is quite a brief experience.
