Paprium
2020 homebrew Sega Mega Drive game
Paprium is a side-scrolling beat 'em up video game for the Mega Drive developed by studio WaterMelon and released in 2020. It was announced as part of a crowd-funding pitch in 2012. Development took eight years, with little to no communication with game's backers or the press, and the game was widely considered to be vaporware.
Gameplay
Paprium is a beat 'em up game similar in style to other beat 'em up games that came out on the Sega Mega Drive in the late 80s and early 90s like Golden Axe and Streets of Rage, with visuals styled after various pieces of media in the cyberpunk genre. The game offers three modes, "Original", "Arcade", and an unlockable "Arena". Original and Arcade mode are playable initially, with Original mode featuring cut-scenes and player-chosen progression, while Arcade mode is styled after retro-games of the era with set progression; however, it is unique due to new routes which are unlocked by playing the Original Mode. Arena mode is unlocked after progression in Original mode, and it is a survival type mode with up to four players, but only if each of the four players use the WaterMelon produced Grand Stick III arcade stick.
Paprium begins with three playable characters, Tug, Alex, and Dice, each with their own strength and speed, with a handful of other playable characters that the player can unlock with game progression. The game follows the three characters in Paprium, a fictional supercity built after a massive nuclear war located "somewhere at equidistant point [sic] between Shanghai, Tokyo and Pyongyang" in the year 8A2 (hexadecimal value for the year 2210). The game supports both the Mega-CD and the 32X accessories: when the accessories are plugged in to a Mega Drive, it will insert boxes of the accessories in game which functions as a throwable explosive weapon for players.
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