BitSummit Day 2 Report: A charming puzzler from an ex-Grasshopper dev and a nod to Mega Man Battle Network

One of the best things about BitSummit is that you can frequently see some of Japan’s most notable developers walking around the show floor like regular punters.

It’s not clear whether it’s just a cultural thing, but developers who are recognisable enough to risk being swarmed by players and fans looking for autographs and selfies were they to try walking around a Gamescom or PAX show, instead get to walk around BitSummit without being pestered.

This is my fourth year at BitSummit, and in all four years I’ve seen former Sony Interactive Entertainment president and long-time indie game champion Shuhei Yoshida happily wandering around from booth to booth. Today I also saw former PlatinumGames director Hideki Kamiya walking about.

This year, on day one, just as I was walking away from a demo of the excellent Sloppy Forgeries – more on that in a later article – I turned around and saw none other than Grasshopper Interactive’s Suda51 checking out a horror game.

Suda and I have spoken numerous times over the past 20 years, so I tapped him on the shoulder and we had a nice catch up, as well as a brief chat about some of the games we’d seen at BitSummit.

“Have you seen that game yet?” he asked me, pointing to a colourful looking title called Mop’n Spark. “He’s a solo developer and he used to work for me, it’s very good.”

I had an appointment so I didn’t have time to check it out there and then, but on day two I made a point of heading there first. I’m glad I did, because it’s a joy.

Sure enough, the game’s studio Omoplata Games consists of one chap by the name of Nobutaka Ichiki, who spent two decades working at Grasshopper. He was an assistant director on all three No More Heroes games and worked on many of the studio’s other titles including Shadows of the Damned, Killer is Dead, Let it Die and Romeo is a Dead Man.

Mop’n Spark is certainly a change in tone, then, given its cutesy pixel graphics, but it’s got an interesting gameplay mechanic that makes me keen to check out the full game when it’s ready.

The city has been plunged into darkness by pollution monsters, so it’s up to a street cleaner called Bepp and an electrician called Gola to save the day. Bepp can use his cleaning tools (like his titular mop) to kill the pollution monsters on each stage, while Gola uses her expertise as a sparky to fix the broken power lines and turn the lights back on.

You control both characters by laying a series of commands for them – step left, step right, turn, attack, grab, fire, jump and so on – onto a timeline at the top of the screen. Each character has their own timeline so you can have them carrying out different tasks at the same time.

Since it’s hard to predict what will happen with enemies moving around, you can rewind time and tweak the timeline, using trial and error until you eventually kill the enemies and turn on the power. It’s a fun concept with plenty of room for potential creativity in future stages.

Another game to get the old grey matter working is Gutsy Grid, an action deck-builder inspired by the Mega Man Battle Network games. Set in the 1990s, it opens with four friends being sucked into a Game Boy-like device called the Gutsy-Bit.

Battles consist of two phases. The action pauses to let you choose attacks from your deck (which are designed to look like game cartridges), lining up three from a choice of five. Then things go real time as you and the enemies move around a grid, positioning yourselves to attack.

When you’ve used up your attacks and your energy has been recharged, you can then freeze the action and pull more cards from your deck. By dodging attacks at the last split-second you can also parry them and regain your energy quicker.

Gutsy Grid is at a very early stage just now and BitSummit was its first public showing, so its developer is still looking for feedback on what works and what doesn’t. It’s off to a great start though, and I loved what I played of it.

The same goes for High Fructose, a first-person roguelite created by Chris Cantero, a former animator at id Software (he previously worked on Doom Eternal) who decided he wanted to try making his own game.

Playing as a sort of ninja fox, you have to slash your way through a series of increasingly difficult stages filled with corrupt fruit which have been possessed by demons.

By killing the fruit you collect ingredients which can then be used to create recipes for various buffs, which is where the roguelite element comes into play. As new enemy types arrive, the recipes can get more complex and the rewards get more varied.

At its core it’s nothing earth-shattering beyond replacing orcs with oranges, but given the developer’s background the main aim here is to create a fast-paced FPS with plenty of wall-running, dashing and double-jumping.

High Fructose is available now on Steam Early Access, but the key word here is ‘early’ – this is still very much a game that’s still trying to figure things out, so don’t expect a complete package at this point. So far, so good, though.

Finally, a nod to Awaysis, which gets better every time I see it. If you aren’t yet familiar with it, it’s a dungeon brawler for 1-4 players where you choose an animal warrior and fight your way through enemy-infested lands.

Dungeon brawlers are nothing new but Awaysis leans heavily into physics-based combat, making things feel more fluid. Enemies can be popped into the air with uppercuts, meaning a viable strategy can be to knock them off cliffs. A slide button lets you tackle enemies, but can also be used on grassy hills to get around the environment quicker. The whole thing feels very ‘loose’, but in the best way – combat feels more free-flowing and less scripted.

It’s also extremely well-presented. The environments are beautifully detailed and each of the characters is appealing, while the soundtrack – which includes music from legendary former Nintendo composer Hip Tanaka (Tetris, Super Mario Land) is a delight too.

Awaysis still doesn’t have a release date yet, but it’s shaping up to be pretty special when it finally does arrive. There’s a demo on Steam just now if you don’t want to simply take my word for it.

Day 2 of BitSummit concluded with the BitSummit Awards, where I presented VGC’s Media Highlight Award to the aforementioned Sloppy Forgeries. I’ll get into more detail on that one in my final report, but for now stay tuned (if that’s still a thing) for my Day 3 report tomorrow.