Bio Menace

Bio Menace Episode Two

Lately, I've been playing a lot of games from 1993. It must have been a really good year for gaming, because companies like Apogee were cutting them out like no other. Bio Menace is a 2D sidescroller similar to the original Duke Nukem which came out in 1991, only with several updates. It uses the Commander Keen engine, which was also released in '91, but plays with much more aggressiveness than the retarded kid with a helmet. You're Snake Logan, and you've been sent to check out the mutants invading the city. That's right, Pliskin's not the only Snake in town. This guy sporting a V-neck and mullet has been here a long time.


Gameplay: 7/10
Okay, here's what sucks. You can't move while you shoot, and you can't point upward. -1 point for each of those. Otherwise, the jumping controls feel pretty nice, and the action never really stops. There's lots of platforming going on in this game, hopping around through cities and forests, also there's lots of shooting going on. At least they were decent enough to allow you to duck and shoot, which you're going to be doing frequently, because 50% of the enemies are too short to hit while you're standing up. Every now and then you have to find a crystal or key to open the door, which is amazingly cliche, but what's a sidescroller like this without it? Of course, you're going to be picking up some powerups, which will do stuff like increase your fire rate or bullet damage. There's also a few types of grenades to use. Additionally, you have a few "secret" combinations that allow you to use the plasma shot, shield, and some others. The levels are usually self-explanatory enough to let you just blast through it on your first try, and not have to run around trying to discover your way, but sometimes you have to open up a bunch of doors to find the crystal you need to proceed, and those require keys, so you get what's gonna happen. -1 point for that.

Skull Man in Episode One

Graphics: 7/10
Hey man, they're good, and the game runs pretty smooth to boot. The level graphics are great and the game portrays itself very well. There's some things that bother me, like why all the monsters are so cute. Blobs, smiley dinosaurs, robots and such. -3 points for that but hey, at least they blow up with a satisfying gib.

Sound: 8/10
Lots of high quality digitized sound and sweet adlib tunes keeps your ears entertained. There's lots of explosions and gunfire, but the music sounds a bit random, so I bit off 2 points.


Overall: 9/10

The secret Apogee room, portrait of a hero

It's really a great game, despite the fact that you're some creepo with a mustache. Wait... a... minute, isn't that Carlos Santana? What are you doin' disguising yourself as Snake Logan trying to shoot a bunch of cute monsters? Did you take mescaline again? Oh look, you've wandered into the secret Apogee room, where they were keeping all the spare Duke Nukem and Commander Keen items! Looks like they're working on a game that's going to blow you out of the water in the near future and everyone's gonna forget about you! It's alright, Bio Menace, you had a good run, and it was fun to see you again. Have a good one.
http://www.3drealms.com/menace/