Product Info
Title:
Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa
Developer:
Konami
Publisher:
Konami
Genre:
Action
Price:
2200.00
Description:
Upa is a baby prince, doing regular baby things, until he accidentally
knocks over an urn that contains the soul of the evil demon Zai. The
villain quickly sets about taking all the souls of the adults in the
kingdom, as well as kidnapping all the babies except Upa. To that end,
he must navigate seven different themed worlds in order to save the
kingdom.
Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa’s contribution to the platform genre is that
it forces you to think and plan your moves in certain parts of the levels.
The main gimmick comes from Upa’s magic rattle, which can stun
enemies and turn them into floating platforms. These platforms, in turn,
are often necessary to get over various obstacles. Further, you’ll also
need to use inflated enemies as weapons against bosses. This is easy at
first, but the later levels have strategically placed bosses where you
have to pull off some tough angled shots in order to hit them. Despite
the cute veneer, it can be quite a difficult game. Luckily there are hidden
items that make the game easier, the most important being hearts.
These are generally easy to find, and for each one you collect, you
increase your life bar up to five units. There’s also a power-up which lets
Upa walk on two feet (he normally crawls), which looks really, really
bizarre. Overall, the graphics are done very well, as is the music, which
has a dance-y, samba-like style. There are some interesting levels, too,
such as a water zone where Upa can swim, as well as cake-filled stages
where he must dig through the strata by eating it.
Konami re-released this game in cartridge format in 1993. The main
difference is the addition of a difficulty select. Due to the Famicom
lacking the FDS's extra sound channel, the music arrangements are
different. The game was actually brought to the USA and Europe
through the Wii's Virtual Console, but there’s no Japanese in any version
outside of the title screen. There were also rumors that Konami had
attempted to publish this game in North America – referred to
unofficially as “Baby Mario” – but may have been denied by Nintendo.
Upa also appeared as a playable character in Wai Wai World 2 for the
Famicom, and in the shooter Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius for various
platforms.