Jump kick: how to beat any brawler.

To call this video a review is underrated. This is a documentary! Mighty well done, mate!

I'VE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS!

Great review my friend, to be honest it’s still all sinking in. It was great to work on the soundtrack along with some great friends. Trevin (Jredd) was the perfect guy to work with as we could always come up with ideas. Seriously without his help this soundtrack wouldn’t have been half as good. Tiido really did an amazing job with the tools that we used for composing the soundtrack, adding whatever new features we asked for. Tulio because in all honesty I don’t think we would have got very far without his positive attitude, help with giving us so much early on and great feedback along the way. Luis is also a really great guy who helped inspire with his incredible skills. One of the best things about music is sometimes all it takes is one piece of really cool art to inspire something really wicked. Fonzie, I’ve always had time for Fonzie and he’s always been fair to me. Not long ago many people thought the project was dead in the water but I always had faith that somehow he would make things work. Sure some of his methods and the way he approaches things are different from the way most of us would do things. But at the end of the day he did manage to pull this ambitious game off which is no small feat. Thanks again for the great review and I hope everyone else who plays the game enjoys what we have created.

Sounds like this Fonzie guy really jumped the shark.

Makes me wonder...if the mystery game that Watermelon Games is working is related to the Shockwave Supersonic Squad postcard

Man, a 46-min St1ka video? And it's still super high-quality stuff, including interviews with developers? Damn, dude - going above and beyond for this! (^-^)

Back in 2019-01-27, when you made your first video on Paprium, did you think you would be holding a copy of it today, or did you think the game was dead?

Thanks St1ka for this fantastic review/ interview. Love the humor, enjoyed every bit of it.

This review was incredibly well done. I'm super happy that the game came out and that people can finally hear the soundtrack that Groovemaster303 and I put together. Thank you for putting so much time and effort into this. After I saw you had a series dedicated to what happened to Paprium, I was hoping to get your thoughts on it now that it's out and you really did an amazing job here. Thanks for your kind words on the soundtrack. Your channel is great and you should be very proud. I hope that your channel continues to grow. You deserve it :).

Oh shoot! The final episode in the watermelon trilogy!! Fonzie strikes back : The last mustache

I love that the joke mini game plays ,,never gonna let you down" at the title screen.

Welp. I learned a lot, I heard kick ass music, and interviews. A+

Man, there is a certain hivemind that Amiga 500 and MegaDrive was the last and final format. *This is our rock.* I mean, it is not right or wrong but...

Great review, I LOVE this game. Easily one of the best beat em ups for the Genesis/Mega Drive and honestly one of the Top 10 I have played across all systems. I am glad I got the original clamshell version, but it's kinda cool that it's so unique.

great video man and I appreciate you getting in touch with the devs

Totally agree with you. Got the same version you did for the same console setup. I ended up putting the game back inside its blister pack because the thing doesn't close properly in that fold out design. Not sure why Fonzie didn't use clamshells or what he used for Pier Solar. I guess this video is Part 6 of your documentary? By the way Dave from GameSack got an exclusive with his copy from Fonzie's personal underwear collection : a thong. I guess that's why his channel is called Game Sack? Ahahahaha!

46 mins of St1ka goodness 👌😊👍

I think the most interesting thing about this game from a gameplay perspective is that it's very clear with the hit collision/hit stop that it more so resembles Golden Axe than Streets of Rage 2 in a lot of ways. Like, if you watch Golden Axe on the Sega Genesis when an enemy goes into a kneeling state, the hit concept is the same as a lot of context actions in Paprium. So not just the mounts, which were mentioned in the video, but just the odd, floaty collisions. I know that it's clear that there are "proper" attacks to use when enemies are in certain states, such as stun. It's just straddling an odd line between the tighter or more prominent hit stun of Streets of Rage games and then wanting varying states of animation and how that emphasizes fidelity and adds visual variety to the action. The thing is that by prioritizing having so many enemies on the screen and not showing restraint, what you get is a frenetic game where it isn't just that enemies can't react to jump kicks but that it's clear that having that many enemies on screen draws attention to how certain options are more strategically sensible than others. It has concepts more akin to a musou/Dynasty Warriors game and fighting huge waves of cannon fodder. Alien vs Predator on the CPS2 has very acrobatic combat for the sake of accommodating large waves of enemies. By emulating SOR2 but using the enemy saturation of games that play much differently, I think you arrive at jump kicking being preferable to putting yourself at risk like blocking and having less favorable escape options. The choreography of the game looks pretty tedious, but I think that the idea of just emphasizing traversal mitigates that. The problem is that by releasing on the Mega Drive alone, as a "premium product", there's no flexibility in terms of ever refining this. Say what you will of Early Access games, but I think the "a la carte" model puts a lot of strain on developers that make a lot of features based promises before considering the design of the game in action. This is no slight on the various team members, I think saying someone has ambition is extremely frustrating when their reach extends their grasp. I like the soundtrack a lot, but other than liking action games and making some crude observations, I'm more than likely never going to play Paprium. And it's not something I really lament, rather I just think it's a moment to say that I think Paprium might have a very distinct level of drama but there's sadly nothing exceptional about this kind of crowdfunding design.

Ironically the sound engineer designer speaks in a monotone voice 🤣🤣

glad you still putting effort to make these videos my mang. I really think you deserve a much larger view count, but I hope you keep on trucking regardless.

You didn't just review the game but you also interviewed the dev team!

What an odd conclusion to an even weirder situation. Great video though!

Great review man. Best review I’ve seen of this game. Super thorough, fair, and I believe honest. Thankyou for this.

Such great significant details about the CPU cooperative player... KUDOS for the amazing video pal :D

Great video, dude. Your hard work paid off!

Wow the video was astonishing and fascinated for me. I discovered you by Gamesack mentioned to you about Paprium and Pier Solar from there I saw your video and I loved it. Keep it up my friend ;-)

Best Paprium review on YT. Appreciate the video. Good stuff.

Awesome video St1ka, i must admit i did end up pre ordering the game but i was really hesitant because of the saga documented in your previous videos about paprium. But for a spectacle wow.

Also wanted to say, this is the best review of the game! But your reviews are always on point haha

Great video, really, finally someone besides Goati addresses the problems of this game with constructive criticism. I disagree with the game being a masterpiece for two motives: gameplay and level design (I'd give it a 15/20 maybe, it's a good game but not great). You never get the same feel as other great beat em' ups like SoR, capcom beat em' ups, Dragon's Crown, etc, sure, it is fun and some weapons like the extinguisher are nice but in the end it ends up being repetitive (and some levels just end up being huge corridors). Looks great, obviously (minus many animations which lack a ton of frames), sounds great (minus sound effects which sound muffled) and it's a big game, but in the end I guess many people are caught up in the excitement of it being a new Mega Drive release that doesn't look like 15 year olds designed it, and we can't remove that fact that it's a pricey game - doesn't matter how much people spent on it back in 2017 or earlier, everyone now believes this is a game worth 129$-169$ minimum and if affects people's judgement on how good the game is (making them subconsciously believe the game is worth more than it actually is - I can think of Earthbound, Shantae 1 as a similar examples). We'll see if in a few months people will actually keep playing the game or just put it in their shelves forever. Unfortunately all the problems of this game come from the same person (and this video explains it 10000x better than any words I could say). I don't see Fonzie learning from this game, though, in the end it feels like your normal narcissistic person in any workplace, they make everything worse around them and create toxic working enviornments just because they aren't able to empathize with other people or have past issues which also led them to their narcissism. In this case (well pun intended as there's no case for the game lol), he overdesigned everything just so he could make it different, the game took ages to come out due to that and all the necessary people needed for a smooth project ended up leaving watermelon anyways, and he gets all defensive with that hilarious letter (he didn't even let anyone proofread it lol), he knows he f'd up but he'll never admit it, especially now that the game is out and the "haters" were put in their place - when the haters are mostly people who wasted money on a project which he barely had any type of communication and where he didn't even respect the backers. All it would take would be explaining people what was really going on, refunding people at the right time and explain what was being done in a monthly update, even if it was small updates. Backer feedback is necessary, as creators you need to read it, even if it's a bad feedback, and learn from it. If people acknowledge the game is super impressive, I'm afraid Fonzie will just ignore everyone else which created constructive criticism (like this video, which I'm sure he'll just ignore after 2 minutes lol and slash St1ka's name in the backing for that next game - IF it comes out lol) and just glorify himself in watermelon's page and into the next game (when he really knows he f'd up and he needs to tread carefully so he can milk us money once again until 2026). Fonzie if you read this (you won't lol), just look at Xeno Crisis, if there is a golden standard for mega drive games made by independent studios and/or people, that's it, NOT Paprium, which is the "How not to handle a backer project" (there's far worse project examples ofc, yours did come out). Also, 300€ for a game? That's just taking a dump on customers.

As always man, fantastic and in depth video. I agree, your opinion IS a bit outside the norm though lol. While I think Paprium is very good, I disagree with your assessment of the gameplay. I find it pretty lacking sadly (especially the more I play), although granted, still fun. There are quite a few missing elements to the fighting and moves (such as the ability to do a downward jump attack that stuns the enemy so you can combo into them, like SOR2 and 3, this is a HUGE omission). Now, on the surface, and by the way you described it, it does seem like a pretty decent move list. And if this was just a straight 6-8 stage arcade beat em up that would be fine. But Paprium offers SO much more content that I personally got bored trying to unlock everything and just stopped. Why? Because IMO the gameplay just doesn't live up to the otherwise AMAZING presentation of the game. The complexity doesn't even reach SOR2 sadly... If you look deeper in the fighting system, the 3 main characters are in essence the same and do primarily the same moves, just with different animations and speeds. For instance, there's no character like Skate from SOR2 who can flip over a guy, jump on his back and pound him in the head (this is a unique attack, none of the characters in Paprium really have unique attacks that feel that much different from one another IMO). When you grab an enemy in Paprium, you can do a little 3 hit combo, but that's it really. Sure you can flip around behind them, but then all you can really do is toss them. You can hold them as a human shield I guess, but I found this sort of worthless, especially in a crowd. Blocking is a nice addition I suppose, but again, I rarely ever used it and I felt it wasn't needed. I'd rather have more offensive moves to do instead. Wouldn't it have been really awesome if when you grabbed someone from behind, they had the option to do a different combo than if you grab them from the front? Or better yet, an option to do multiple different offensive attacks? For example, in SOR2 and 3 there were different move sets, punches or kicks you could do once you grabbed an enemy, not just the the same 3 hit combo over and over again like in Paprium. Max for instance, as soon as you grabbed an enemy it opened up a plethora of different moves to do. You could follow through with your combo from the front, or grab them in a headlock and crush their skull with your biceps, or you could pick up the guy, jump in the air and slam him to the ground, or if you grabbed them from behind, you could suplex them backwards into the pavement OR jump into the air and perform a piledriver move. You could also slide, do a jump kick or jump elbow plus 2 special moves which required a bit of strategy to use as they used up your life. Oh, and this was all expanded on in SOR3. The blue pill in Paprium is a cool idea, but it needs to unlock more than just a single repetitive attack. I found myself getting bored with it sadly. None of this is to say that Paprium isn't a great Beat em Up for the Genesis, it absolutely is! I am still blown away by the presentation and the gameplay is fun in 30-60 minute doses. And I am really glad you enjoyed the gameplay as much as you did. I mean, I did as well. But I just got bored with it before I could finish unlocking everything. The move set is too simple to be engaging enough to traverse ALL of that amazing content for me unfortunately. Not to mention the AI which you talked about is a bit lacking. I'm hopeful that if updates are ever released, some of these issues can be addressed. We shall see... To me, the perfect Beat Em Up is SOR3. It does all the things Paprium does, except better. The only place it isn't as strong IMO is in the presentation department. It doesn't LOOK as amazing. But SOR3 is also a huge game with branching paths, 7 playable characters, different endings, plenty of secrets and a much larger move set than Paprium (and done in 24 megabits, not 80). I just wish more time had been spent refining the gameplay in Paprium and less on the gloss. It could have been legendary instead of just "very good", at least IMO. Anyway, GREAT VIDEO ST1KA!!!!!!

Hey, thanks for the mention and great review!

Great video review. My investor edition arrived just before New Year but I have not even had time to open it yet.

This is the only review that matters. Fantastic stuff man.

Totally forgot I saw this like a year or two before I met you, and considered it a go to legend level video

Awesome review! Thanks a lot!

Excelent review. It's great that you managed to interview people for this. Thanks. You are braver than me in ordering the mistery game, I hope you get it. PS: I've read that maybe it is possible to update the Paprium ROM to correct some errors using that port on the top, but I don't know.

St1ka reviewing paprium... feels like the end of an era, lol.

St1ka, another top notch video. I really like you reached out to some of the devs for interviews. Great job!

Shame your copy didn't come with the rubber thong I really wanted to hear you're thoughts on its quality

My copy arrived in a solid, non-rattling condition, but became a 70 dollar maraca on pulling it out of the console. The heat sink was attached with spit and hope, I guess. dang thing's been getting pretty warm during play since

Finally! Will definitely watch! :D.

Congrats 8k

To my Understanding, nobody has yet gotten a "good ending" but rather a "the End?" ?

That was a very well-structured and informative video, and useful to one such as myself who has no real connection to this realm of gaming.

Excellent review! I'd love to play this game myself but I don't know if I could justify that steep price tag, espicially since it might not even work. It would be great if this was released on Steam and modern consoles but something tells me Fonzie wouldn't be interested in doing that... :P Oh well, still a great video!

I can’t wait to get this game myself when/if water melons website comes back up. Excellent review! I love they way you talk dude, it’s like I’m not sure the word to use but it’s the opposite of monotone. You’ve earned a like subscribe and support on Patreon 😃

You have far exceeded my expectations with this video, my friend! Thoroughly enjoyed it. Hope their next game works out for you.

Still waiting for mine to be shipped received an email from watermelon yesterday saying there’s delays for some shipments truly can’t wait to get my hands on this.

Top content dude best modern retro reviewer of all time barre none

What is there to even say about this? Paprium has become something of a legacy for you, and this feels like the highest point you could hit. In-depth, fantastic, and well constructed. You put so much of yourself into this game and this video specifically, and it absolutely shows.

Very Awesome video! It was a long wait but I'm glad the backers finally got their game. It didn't disappoint either =)

This is awesome his voice sounds like a Saturday morning cartoon character

A fantastic video on this---unlikely to be topped anytime soon.

I really hate the pill packaging thing too. I threw my tray out but almost kind of regret it because now the cartridge has nowhere to properly fit and just sits loosely in there. Also, how you gonna sit there and talk bad about my waifu Alex? She's such a badass character :D Outstanding work on the video as usual St1ka I'm glad we got to see the end of such a weird saga and the end product was actually worth it. I really hope Fonzie can manage to get his shit together someday so more people can play it, but I feel like we all already know he won't. I also hope I can play Paprium on my Mega SG someday. Paprium's release was definitely 2020's last weird twist. I look forward to living vicariously through you as you wait endlessly for whatever the hell that AMB96 game is :)

Great video.

I ordered a copy after seeing the final product. I hope I actually get it.

Lol i’m the Simon from twitter who left the comment you used in the video... was not expecting that 😎. Anyway quick update... got an email from the fonz that said that more will start shipping on the 15th and that everyone needs to just wait. Ugh sounds like more bullshit to me.

It's weird.. because it's both impressive and a let down all at the same time haha. It has its flaws. Not all the animation is fluid, some of it is choppy. Some of the throwing frames/animation/setup looks completely wrong. The palette style is nice as first, but gets old fast (but the art if fantastic) - like they used a c64 palette for everything. Some palette variety would have been nice. And few enemies colors look like maybe uses 5 haha. Could have used some more variety in enemies in a specific areas. The music is pretty good, but it doesn't really sound beyond of what I expect from the MD. Also, nothing I would listen to outside of playing the game. That said, there's a LOT of polish on this game that just overall overshadows *any* faults/flaws. As in, the more you play it - the more the polished stuff shines and the less the flaws really matter. Very happy it came out, regardless of the drama because it's a great game.

Great video! Really appreciate you being so thorough and so fair, looking at the game in isolation, it looks fun and cool, and that coop AI work is really impressive! I have to say though, given the overwhelming evidence of how much of a dirt bag the guy behind this game is, I think it's a mistake to give him more money for the next game, let alone support this one. I know that sucks for the talented and passionate people who made it, but I think they'd rather we not give the guy money either lol - especially if how you're saying he doesn't give anyone else the money they earned. Just imho tho, again video is awesome and love your stuff! :)

i backed this before 2017 and then also pre ordered it in 2017 and still havent recieved it, i'm pissed. fuck water melon.

Glad you like it. My copy just got delayed... and my arcade stick that I preordered 3 years ago said out of stock on the day everything was announced. Fonzie was slooowwwlllyyy helping me fix this issue, and now he's closed down support for the next 15 days. I'm pretty unimpressed tbh. I'll judge the game on how it is if I ever get it, but this mess has really left me with a strong distaste for Watermelon and Fonzie.

I know this is old now but I wanted to comment on the voice work in this game. Paprium (I think I spelled that right) has some very good voice work no doubt but I believe the same effect could be had on stock hardware. Not the music just the voice clarity and I'll tell you why I believe that. For many years (especially after the Snes's release in 1991) we were told many lies about Sega's 16-bit console. This wasn't helped when we recieved quite a few shoddy ports that helped sold the lie of "the Genesis has poor sound." I have actually heard what a stock Genesis can do with voices and too say it's impressive is an understatement. If you look at the fan fix of both Street Fighter 2 Champions Edition and Mortal Kombat you will hear crystal clear audio like never before. We're talking every voice featured in the arcades that just might be arcade perfect. I believe with enough ROM space and technical knowhow you can make the Genesis read novels if you were so inclined. Just my two cents anyway....great video.

Woo-hoo! Closure! In the end, I'm also happy how the game turned out. 👍

I also have a model 1 region modded, i hope it will work with mine!! Great video anyway! The waiting was worth it..

That was interesting rewiev thx💪

Good review. If I ever get a real chance at getting this, Imma try. I only got a Model 02 NTSC Genesis and don't use any wide screen high def tvs

Nice typo when booting up: Do not TEMPER with. Not sure if it’s Fonzietard just messing again BUTT we’ll never know...🤣

"Should I buy it?" "I dunno?"

I sooooo agree with you man about the packaging... I got the same edition and wish I would have just got the regular clam shell...

Laughs in streets of rage 4. Good vid man

Awesome review! I agree, it's an amazing game! I just hope it can be update to tweak a few things (eg. random freeze I had on first play through on the final level), and perhaps another difficulty level or make the existing ones harder. If they add DLC too - wow!

But just let's all agree that if this game would come out in the 90's specially in the mega drive era in Portugal it would be the must have game back in the day!!

That "letter" from fonzi is a rant. Hahahahahaha 😂😂😂😂

Sounds like he wanted to skip some of the testing and tweaking needed for broader hardware compatibility and decided to try passing that laziness off as elitism.

Presentation, style, audio, content, etc. are all bonuses to me, like icing on the cake. If the core systems and mechanics don't hold up to those of Streets of Rage, it's still not a better game in my personal opinion.

@St1ka - Maybe you could cut a small square of Styrofoam or something like it to fit under the lip of the protective plastic packaging to level it out and make it stand flat. Or if you wanna do a small project, you could cut a piece of wood that fits under it perfectly, and paint it to match. You could print out the Paprium logo and put it on the front of the square, then add a clearcoat over it all to make it shine and protect the paper logo. It could be a small project for someone more artistic and talented than me. Im sure they could make something really cool, like a custom display stand to fit with the cases design.

It is worth mentioning this non compatible cartridge is just on their first run and they promised it would be corrected next releases. According to Luis Martins the 'incompatible' cart the guys from My Life In Gaming got was a faulty one. Game is insane and the art is beautiful. I hope they improve the AI in the next revision. It truly looks how they wanted the user to have a genuine experience. They really tried.

Regarding Project N. I got this email December 13 when I updating my shipping info for Paprium. Which I am one of many unlucky people who haven't received their order yet. "Investors of ProjectN. As you may imagine, the project have been halted until we fix our situation with PayPal, still ongoing. We are confident the game will release in a form or another and if we cannot resume work, we will proceed to a refund of each of you. Please allow two extra months until we clear things out. Thank you again for your patience." Lord knows it's going to take way longer then 2 months to figure out.

My friend, the console you have is the 1601-18? Does it writes "high definition graphics" on? I am asking in order to chech the compatibility with the game.

Extremely extensive and informative review, Thanks a lot. Imho they should port/emulate it on the Evercade just like Xenocrisis and Tänzer...that is AFTER they shipped all the MD cartridges;-) Seriously, this way they'd have the chance to fix a few bugs and make some extra money. I'd buy it.

If Paprium came out in the 1990s, it would have both impressed the masses and caused many cultural and content controversies contributing to the implementation of the ESRB (along with Mortal Kombat and Night Trap).

The game is a masterpiece I’m still addicted to it.

Cool video St1ka! Paprium looks like a fun game. Was wondering, have you played the Mega Drive/Genesis version of FX Unit Yuki? There is also a port of Cave Story that is free to download on GitHub by andwn that I think you'll like. It's currently on v 0.7.0. The main story is "finished", only little things and bugfixes remain.

My order is still on shipping status and after emailing Watermelon i got an email that it's not yet shipped. I hope it will still ship and arrive...

I’m still waiting for mine to show up. It has been “shipping” since December 15th

I don't think we need to worry about Genesis units dying in the distant future, so that nobody can play Paprium. I think people will figure out a solution, long before then. But for now, Paprium's special hardware does keep people from being able to dump / emulate it, so it makes sense for the short-term, imo.

Packing since December 15th. I noticed the non investor edition can can go anywhere from $300-$550 ebay. Considering you can still preorder the next batch for $170 i can somewhat understand fonzie price gouging.

> "You troll your enemies" .... You troll your enemies? What? > Watches video. . .. OOohhhh, LMAO You THROW your enemies... It's "throw" not "chroll".

"Paprium is better than any Streets Of Rage game" Thats a huge statement there mate! Just worried a bit about the enemy ai here, while i am waiting for my copy. Also do you know what is exactly the purpose of that phone jack input? Well my first comment on your channel was about your Borat "impersonation" (yeah i know its your actual voice) but after watching some of your content i ended up adding you in my retro youtube channel list, great review mate.

In terms of programming, design, etc they did a hell of a job.

This looks amazing, hopefully it will be available on Steam at some point!

Pros - Nice packaging art, nice graphics and sound. Cons - High price, quality control issues, packaging that I don't like and some unnecessary in-game features that I feel the game would be better without.

You’d think the heat sync would help with the cartridge considering how much Fonzie boasts about the game “pushing limits”, but nope. It’s just there to look cool.

Excellent video, technically and topically; quick question, why is the video not in 4:3 aspect ratio (or even 16:9, stretched, if that were possible)? It seems to be about a 5:3 ratio. Is that just a matter of outputting the Mega Drive to HDMI?

Great review, my regular edition I ordered back in early 2018 has unfortunately not shipped yet but finally got a response from them that they will be resuming shipping soon, I hope! Wait the 32x game is fake boo! I will say you got guts to pre order there next beat em up at twice the price without even seeing anything and I hope it actually comes out! So when's Paprium VS Streets of Rage 4 lol!

LOL. So, I googled Paprium for a larf, and what do I see? Lots of stuff happened in the past few months. My takes: 1) That game does look beautiful. I'll have to take people's word on its play; I don't have it, and likely never will. But boy - it's a sight to behold. 2) We live in an odd world where a business that fails to deliver its content in any reasonable amount of time, while holding onto its customers' money no less, can be considered a victim. Even in this age of, "Let's try and get offended over this!", this is a stretch. But anyway, in regards to the video, excellent review/summary of events. I watched your documentaries some time ago as well. Keep up the good work!

Well I hope this won't end all modern 16-bit titles, but how about starting a new trend of MD games that go beyond the usual hardware limits... Run'n'gun? Hmmm...

Incredible video that was well worth the effort :) I really REALLY wanted to order this back in the day but didn't. I felt pretty lucky for a while but now seeing everyone get there game makes me kinda wish I did pre-order it hah. It looks incredible and it saddens me that it costs WAY to much for just one game. This is the crap that you do if you want your game to be pirated out the ass. It might have good piracy or whatever but charging that much even for a basic edition is not the way to go at all. I also never plan to support scalpers too so unless that gets a huge price drop I guess ill never have the chance to play it, and that really pisses me off. These new genesis games are becoming way to pricey and who knows how much HE is taking from all this money. The less money that goes to the fonz the better imo because I hear nothing but horrid stuff from him. Thanks for the lovely video St1ka