I’ve always considered arcade-medical-terror as something of an underpopulated genre, so I’m thrilled to see that indie developer Locomalito of L’Abbaye des Morts and Hydorah fame is, in fact, hard at work on an arcade-medical-terror game that he calls Viriax. It’s a sort of anti-shmup where you play a virus navigating a human body with randomly generated levels and… oh, just watch the trailer below.
I got all excited when I thought that the doctors in the video were actually Locomalito and his friends, then disappointed when it turned out to be (I think) stock footage of doctors. Such is my craving for human connection.
Anyway, game looks terrific, eh? Very, very tense.
08/03/2011 at 10:12 Tori says:
Uh, it doesn’t look that terrific.
08/03/2011 at 19:48 Bonedwarf says:
This game is a joke, right?
08/03/2011 at 10:13 salejemaster says:
It looks terrific!!!
08/03/2011 at 10:13 Longrat says:
Looks very intense, to say the least. I’ve been seeing a lot of “biological” (games that involve creating bacteria, exploring biological organisms, or just acting as some sort of micro organism in one way or another) games recently, mostly in the flash department. I wonder what the cause for this current tide of biogames is.
08/03/2011 at 12:26 Emperor_Jimmu says:
I wish they actually had anything to do with biological processes. They are thematically about biology but in practice they are just rehashed arcade games.
08/03/2011 at 10:14 Bilbo says:
Ah, from the headline I’d pictured some kind of deep, high-definition graphics version of the Pandemic flash game.
Imagine my disappointment.
08/03/2011 at 10:18 Inigo says:
It has three difficulty levels: Casual, Normal and
Deus ExMadagascar.08/03/2011 at 10:27 BooleanBob says:
Haha. Seriously, fuck Madagascar.
08/03/2011 at 10:39 Out Reach says:
I once started in Madagascar…. he shut down everything before I could leave :(
08/03/2011 at 11:29 DevilSShadoW says:
oh boy, that brings back memories
also, fuck madagascar
08/03/2011 at 16:14 Jolly Teaparty says:
Great thanks a lot guys you said Madagascar too loudly; now it’s crowbarred itself off the Earth’s crust and jettisoned into space.
08/03/2011 at 21:55 Rich says:
Shut… down… EVERYTHING.
09/03/2011 at 00:35 Eukatheude says:
I was waiting for this joke.
Yeah, fuck Madagascar.
09/03/2011 at 06:16 bill says:
Gamer, Advanced and Hardcore?
08/03/2011 at 10:21 Howard_Roark says:
I read the title of this article and I was immediately reminded of a great game from years ago. I have been hoping and waiting for a new and improved version for years now.
That game was called Life & Death. It strived to be a realistic and informative medical surgery simulation. It was no buffoonish “Theme Hospital” type. You were a resident surgeon learning your craft by starting with simple surgeries and earning prestige in order to engage in more complex surgeries. There was an informative briefing given by the chief of surgery on various surgical techniques which were very helpful. You were graded by the chief of surgery after each operation. It was a very intriguing game and really captured a sense of realism and tension of surgical procedures.
If any ambitious developer is reading this, make a surgery simulation like Life & Death. Make it complex, hard and challenging. Make it for adults. There are legions of adult gamers who grew up playing and want a more mature experience every now and then. I’ll be waiting with cash in hand.
08/03/2011 at 10:31 Longrat says:
I, for one, don’t find the thought of messing around with a person’s innards very appealing. But then again, any game involving guts is automatically ruled out for me (see that creepy as shit game where you were an embryo in your brother who ate him)
08/03/2011 at 12:59 PJMendes says:
Life And Death was amazing and very underrated (although barely playable without guides, unfortunately).
RPS mentioned a game which seems like a nice follow up, Surgery Simulator from Excalibur Games (I haven’t tried it yet, but do intend to eventually).
08/03/2011 at 13:36 kikito says:
wasn’t there a NDS game that dealt with opening, suturing and closing people up with the stick?
08/03/2011 at 10:36 Dominic White says:
Locomalito has a perfect batting average so far. L’Abbaye des Morts and 8-Bit Killer were both very good, and Hydorah was one of the best games released last year, freeware or otherwise, with incredible production values for an indie/freeware release.
For those who haven’t played it yet.. do so. Now.
link to locomalito.com
I don’t doubt that Viriax will be great, too. I’ll be getting a testing/beta/preview build to poke around with soon, so I’ll be able to share my thoughts and stuff.
08/03/2011 at 10:59 Hoaxfish says:
Can’t agree more. Since Hydorah, I’m eager to see anything they release. It’s consistently “old school” high quality (tight gameplay, not just relying on nostalgia graphics)
08/03/2011 at 12:42 Acorino says:
I never managed to get past the second stage in Hydorah, and I played it a lot, really, lots of hours.
But it’s a good game to help you relax. At least, for me.
08/03/2011 at 10:40 Bullwinkle says:
Someone needs to make a Descent-style invader-killing game.
08/03/2011 at 10:40 Howard_Roark says:
We have Core i7’s with 8 cores and 16 threads, terabytes of internal storage, gigabytes of RAM, SLI video, and yet there are more and more of these cheesy PC games that look like they were designed to run on an Atari 400.
1979 called.. they want their video game back.
08/03/2011 at 10:49 Dominic White says:
Well, if you’re not using that PC, feel free to send it my way – I haven’t upgraded in 4-5 years.
Also, bitching about the graphical detail in an indie freeware game is astoundingly dickish.
08/03/2011 at 11:09 logizomechanophobe says:
Hey pal. You ever consider that these freeware indie games weren’t lovingly crafted–by a dude in his spare time–specifically for you with your costly computer or your ilk with mindsets like yours?
As far as I’m concerned, the 1980s graphics and game styles can come back to visit at any time, now or in the future. As long as it’s fun, then it’ll be welcomed with my open arms.
So, Contemporary Computerman, if you don’t like it, then don’t play it! And please don’t poop your words all over the place about a game that’s less than a triple A title, and preferably don’t do that about anything at all if you can help it.
08/03/2011 at 11:28 Corrupt_Tiki says:
THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS.
08/03/2011 at 13:34 kikito says:
If you had seen Back to the Future, you’d know this is how games should look like by this age.
08/03/2011 at 15:04 Fumarole says:
Kotaku called, they want their membership back. Seriously, what are you doing at RPS?
08/03/2011 at 10:44 DrunkDog says:
The video clips are very “Look Around You” don’t you think?
08/03/2011 at 12:07 stahlwerk says:
Look around you!
Look around you!
Just look around you!
Have you worked out, what we’re looking for?
Correct! The answer is…
08/03/2011 at 16:20 Jolly Teaparty says:
sulphur!
08/03/2011 at 10:54 skx says:
looks&sounds&feels like a GB Game
08/03/2011 at 10:55 Capitan Estupido says:
I would like to point out that the virus shown is a bacteriophage (as in the kind that does noting to humans or other animals), the ones that can harm us just don’t look that cool.
08/03/2011 at 11:20 Xercies says:
Awesome music.
08/03/2011 at 11:23 Corrupt_Tiki says:
Ah so that’s how viruses work? Next time I get stomach Aids or something I’ll have to give the little guy some credit for getting through all that!
08/03/2011 at 11:32 MonkeyTwat says:
Anyone remember a game called canyon on the BBC?
08/03/2011 at 11:58 Jubaal says:
Lest we forget….
08/03/2011 at 11:57 Matt says:
For some reason I’m reminded of Bio-Attack, even though its gameplay was bog standard shoot ’em up and not the rather interesting-looking backwards attack behavior in that trailer.
08/03/2011 at 12:33 evilbobthebob says:
The game isn’t my kinda thing, but the title certainly made me think of this: link to youtube.com
08/03/2011 at 14:18 costyka says:
The tile set seems to be from Return of Samus, the little critters look like that also.
RPS should cover it’s upcoming remake, it really looks promising.
08/03/2011 at 14:26 brau says:
the presentation with the actors reminds me of Italian Spiderman haha. If it’s as funny as Italian Spiderman i’ll be interested!
08/03/2011 at 15:45 Recidivist says:
DIIISSSSTURRBBBEEDD!
Anyone?
08/03/2011 at 19:40 Gabe McGrath says:
Just echoing the ‘Hydorah’ love mentioned earlier (if you like Gradius, Rtype etc, it’s an essential download).
Oh – and in the Viriax trailer -did anyone else notice the ‘beaky snake things’ from level 1 of Salamander? The man sure knows his classic shmups.
09/03/2011 at 04:31 GuideBot says:
I’m gonna lose some indie cred on this one, but I’m actually saddened that Locomalito doesn’t endlessly rehash his ideas through endless sequels because I’d love one to 8 Bit Killer, which was fantastic.