№ 37: Baku Baku Animal (1995, Sega) — Arcade Apocalypse Ochimonogatari
Channel: bedsores
Date: 2023-10-20

what if paulie walnuts was a little girl, and wanted to be a zookeeper? we disagree with the jeff gerstmann of 23 years ago, listen to some *excellent* jungle, and make some time for acab. streamed oct 4th '23

i hedge my bets in my judgement of the 3D a fair bit in this video, which was (alongside its mechanics and gameplay) widely praised at the time. and yes, i think they were going for a primary-color, platonic-solid vibe. so a modern observer must filter a) how 3D models from the 90s feel rudimentary compared to *now*, and b) how this game is *purposefully* rudimentary compared to the graphics *of its own time*. Still, in the weeks since, i've concluded it's a failed aesthetic. Fairy-tale stories don't need to look rudimentary to get their point across; hell, dragon quest games didn't purposefully keep themselves behind the graphical curve. This is the year of Virtua Fighter 2, Alpine Racer, Wipeout and Twisted Metal. "We were trying to be bad" isn't much of an excuse; this was a flawed aesthetic goal, even if it executed on its goal accurately. (And trust me, the Saturn version doesn't look much better!)

Color stackers often increase their difficulty by increasing the number of colors involved; 5-color puyo is way different than 4-color puyo. Although this is technically a four-color stacker with four specialized trigger blocks, in practice i find it to be an 8-color stacker, and it plays only-somewhat-less-unweildily than that moniker suggests. There's even a 5-animal, 10-color mode, if you're a true sicko! There's a reason why Puzzle Fighter would later reuse a similar fomula, but use only three colors -- ACTUALLY THAT'S WRONG, AND HERE'S A BLOG POST FOLLOW UP https://cohost.org/lys/post/3276383-no-37-baku-baku-anim. That said, I think the way garbage is handled in this game is revolutionary. Sending random blocks to your opponent requires them to adapt on the fly to the upper structure of their stack changing AND find potential new patterns within it. In contrast, Tetris garbage merely raises your stack up, decreasing your execution time; Taisen Puzzle-dama's drop tables give you essentially readymade combos if you're prepared for them; and Puyo garbage locks out your upper structure without immediately allowing new improv.

Given the game's widespread praise at the time and the demonstrable richness of possible interplay between two skilled players, I'm ready to give this a higher score while sighing that it's "just not for me." But! I would honestly have expected more out of Sega and their flagship Saturn puzzle game. 7/10

Notes: there is a translation for the game gear version; because it seems reduced in scope, I've kept the machine translations here except for the opening cutscene (which plays while we are listening to the first Baku side) marked with asterisks. Scoring summary and translation transcriptions available here: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/sms/570275-baku-baku-animal/faqs/31816 . Trashboat's excellent 5-animal-mode (!!!) 1CC can be found here: https://youtu.be/NZ6wTN8mW-o?si=l6mLKnZTcqchyQj3 . And the tunes we listened to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyIhMcsT9mo

art of me by Minasheep! (minasheep on cohost, itch, twitch, and patreon.) next up is № 38: Derooon Dero Dero (1995, Tecmo). i hope you'll join us!