We attended BitSummit Drift this past July, the latest edition of Kyoto’s biggest gaming event. At this event we got to play many upcoming indie titles from across the world, but mostly from Japan. NantenJex will be sharing his thoughts on the games he played from his hands-on experience and providing important information on each of the titles. Trailers and links to each of the games Steam pages (or closest equivalent) will be included (although many are coming to multiple platforms so if you want to get the title on a platform other than Steam then please check your system’s digital store).
In this fifth preview block, we cover all the games at the show that aren’t traditional (except in one case where it’s extremely traditional). None of these games were designed to be on current generation hardware, including PC, or they require some bizarre peripheral to play it properly (like a 3D printed foot).
Changeable Guardian ESTIQUE
- Platforms: Famicom / NES
- Release Date: TBA
- Official website: https://www.cathuitrading.com/?page_id=2563
In the year 2413, the Earth was invaded by evil space pirates “Van-De-Raus”. They are dominating 5 big economic cities and taking control of the world economy. Friendly planet, Petelgeuse, decided to save the Earth from space pirates and send reinforcements. Ace pilots, Mary and Kanon, ride on ESTIQUE and are now launching to the Earth. Mary, you must be the messiah of the Earth. A tomorrow winner is you!
Our first game on this list isn’t releasing for any modern consoles but is in fact launching for the Famicom! Changeable Guardian ESTIQUE is a brand new SHMUP title made by several veteran developers of the genre, that aims to push the Famicom to its graphical and technical limit, creating a silky smooth shooter with HQ 8-bit graphics. And I think they’ve succeeded – the game looks and plays great.
So what makes Changeable Guardian ESTIQUE stand-out? I’ll be honest and say that I’m not a SHMUP player. I have played a few of the key ones but I’m not so familiar with the genre that I could tell you what it’s most like and how it differs. What I can tell you is that it has a very expected system of powering up your spaceship and that with the press of a button the titular ESTIQUE does its titular changing, transforming into a powerful mecha.
From what I could tell, the only real difference between ship and mecha is that the latter is taller, meaning it has a bigger hitbox, and its attacks are also bigger so it can destroy more enemies at once. Potentially, there are other differences in play but I’m not sure what they are and I am wondering if the ability to pilot a mecha is simply for the cool factor involved. Because that is pretty cool.
Bear Runner
I have no idea if these next set of games will all be available to release but I imagine not as they all require some kind of physical hardware that you’d likely only find at an event like this. Case in point: Bear Runner. A Famicom game that on the surface looks like Super Mario Bros. but as an autorunner, however players are tasked with getting to the end of the level as fast as possible. How do you do this if the game is automatically running at a set speed? Glitches. And how do you get those glitches to occur? Well by smacking the crap out of your Famicom cartridge.
Yep, someone took that old issue that cartridge games had where you might accidentally jostle it while it’s on and corrupt your game in a strange way, and made a game out of it. The ritual bear just runs forward and you have to smack the top of the Famicom cart to have it glitch through walls, obstacles and even glitch through the borders of the game itself. The goal of the game is to take the fastest path to the end of the stage and so you want to glitch through any obstacle and across any gap, while avoiding power-ups that will slow you down and avoiding attacks so you don’t die.
This might encourage the player to just constantly whack the cart and have it in a constant state of bugging out, but you can’t do that. Hit the cartridge too much consecutively and the whole game will freeze, requiring the Famicom itself to be reset.
The game is very addicting and I found myself saying ‘just one more go’ a lot more than just once. It was a ton of fun and a very novel idea.
Foot Game
Keep this one off the internet. Foot Game is exactly what it sounds like, a game where you play as a foot, using a foot-shaped controller. The aim of the game is the stuff of nightmares. You have to stub your toe on a cupboard as hard as you can, with points being determined by the force of impact and which part of the foot gets damaged. Stubbing the pinky toe gets the most points while the big toe gets the least.
The foot is always moving and the player has to use motion controls to glide the foot along. Players can increase their speed by collecting the foot shaped pieces of gold but they can also lose that speed if they make a sharp turn. So the challenge comes from retaining the speed gained and lining up a charge towards the bookcase so you can receive maximum damage. It’s a challenge, but I managed to hit the pinky toe in the end.
Really, the novelty of Foot Game comes from the foot shaped controller that you play with. It’s a silly way to play a game that only works for this game, but that makes it very memorable.
Kick and Loud
The name says it all. You kick and you get loud. This game echoed throughout the whole first floor of BitSummit as every other moment you could hear someone screaming at the top of their lungs, but that just attracted more players to try out this silly game.
Kick and Loud has three phases to its gameplay. First, you run as fast as you can on the spot for a couple of seconds, with a mat underneath determining your speed. Then you put slippers on your feet and kick them off – straight into a net that was in front of the TV. This decides the trajectory your in-game shoe is about to fly in. And then you scream. Scream as loudly as you can to make your kicked off slipper fly through the sky with the goal of getting as far as possible. I was a unique experience
I wasn’t sure if I was meant to run while wearing the slippers or not. It feels like I should have as the awkward pause between running and kicking the slipper killed my momentum. I had fun though. It reminded me a lot of Cho Chabudai Gaeshi, the table flipping game, and I think this is something that could be made into a fun arcade game. Just make sure to clean that slipper every so often before it gets too stinky.
Whack-a-You
This game didn’t actually have a name, Whack-a-You is what I call it. An alternative name would be reverse Whack-a-Mole because that’s what this is, a game of Whack-a-Mole where you are the mole and you have to keep your head above ground for as long as you can without getting whacked by the AI hammer.
This game concept is really neat but in execution I feel like I was getting hit even though I was underground. This is because the game projects your shadow onto the screen and that’s what the hammer goes for. So if it thinks there is any shadow in the hitbox zone then it will count it as a hit, even if you are firmly underground. It was a good workout, but too inconsistent for me to want to go for the high score. Or maybe I’m just too big a mole. I’m destined to be whacked.
Miniature LAND -Four Seasons-
- Platforms: Mobile
- Release Date: 2025
Miniature LAND – Four Seasons- was the only mobile game I played at the show. What attracted me to it were the graphics. It’s one of those games where the developers have created the entire world as a miniature model (which they had on display) and used photos of it to create the in-game environments. Because of this, it looks really good graphically.
But what kind of game is it? A traditional point and click puzzle game. You start off outside a seemingly abandoned summer house and the first chapter has you looking for a way in. So you tap about the screen to investigate objects and find key items you can take and use elsewhere to solve puzzles and progress through the game. The charm definitely comes from the first person perspective the game provides, making you feel like you are a miniature in this tiny world. They must’ve used a really tiny camera to capture all of these different angles!
Miniature LAND – Four Seasons- is a cute adventure game that I think would be great for winding down in the evenings. It definitely has a very cosy vibe and I enjoyed exploring the different environments. The demo only had the Summer House setting but it looks like some of the later areas look really beautiful. I wish I could see the actual models for them.
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