Apidya, Surreal bug-themed shooter!

[ScutigeraColeoptrata]

Greetings fellow Bog Leeches,

Here's a crazy game you might not of heard of; Apidya from the Amiga, a bizarre surrealist shooter where you play as an avenging honeybee. While the game may look like an old-school Japanese shooter, it is actually a clever facsimile of one created by a German company called Kaiko. Kaiko wanted to capture the look and feel of an obscure Japanese game, which at the time was something quite exotic in the West and in Europe. The company even went so far as to put a "II" in the title, to make it seem as though Apidya belonged to a series.

The plot of the game is that an evil wizard sends insects to poison a woman...for some reason, and her husband has to turn into a honeybee to save her...for some reason.

The game itself incorporates a wide variety of areas and enemies, ranging from mole hills to techno dungeons, and insects to animated dolls. The bosses are all imaginative, and the music is pretty good too. You can read more about it here:

http://www.shmups.com/reviews/apidya/index.html

And you can check out a longplay here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZcT_Kr7tLs

[Carni~Vorus]

I watched that longplay a few days back actually!

I feel that the the guy becoming a bee to defeat a wizard seemed kind of off, in my opinion, but the levels were pretty cool, especially the sewer level.

[ScutigeraColeoptrata]

I actually rather love how the story of the game has absolutely nothing to do with the actual game play and clashes with the style and setting heavily; it adds to the in-joke.

My favourite boss is the maggot-filled rat.

[Carni~Vorus]

Hmm... Never thought of it as an in-joke, more like they had to give it some story. xD

The maggot-filled rat was somewhat unexpected, even though it was a sewer level. xD I don't know why.

Another boss I liked was the fish boss. More time consuming than an actual fight, but still fun.