Bio-Attack

This article is about the video game. For other uses, see Bioattack.

Bio-Attack
Developer(s)	Taito
Publisher(s)	Taito
Platform(s)	Arcade
Release	1983
Genre(s)	Scrolling shooter
Mode(s)	1-2 players alternating turns
Arcade system	Taito SJ System

Title screen

Bio-Attack (バイォ・ア夕ツク) is a vertically scrolling shooter arcade video game released by Taito in 1983. The player controls a miniaturized ship moving through a human's body while shooting viruses. It was licensed by Fox Video Games, as it is based on the 20th Century Fox film Fantastic Voyage. It is based on the Taito SJ System arcade machine.

Gameplay

The action mostly takes place within a downward-scrolling (upward apparent movement) display representing blood vessels with sides that occasionally narrow or move side to side. Blue spikes on the walls present an additional hazard. The overall effect is similar to a vertically scrolling version of Scramble. The speed of the scrolling can be increased by pushing the joystick upward. Enemies appear within the vessels, and attempt to collide with the player's ship, or hit it with spear-like missiles. The player's ship can fire upward, with two shots on the screen at any time.

In the lower right of the screen is a schematic display of the patient, showing the heart, stomach and one of their eyes, connected together by the vessels to form a road-like map. The player is initially injected into the patient in the arm, and as they fight their way through the vessels a dot representing their location moves along the map, initially towards the heart. When they reach these three key points, heart, stomach or eye, the scrolling stops and the player fights on a static map with different enemies. In these areas, pushing forward on the stick moves the ship upward, allowing the player to move about the screen freely. The goal in these sections is to shoot key objects by first shooting through protective screens, similar to the boss level in Phoenix.

Play continues until the player reaches the eye, which presents a maze-like map with snake enemies. When the enemies are all killed, the player attempts to leave the eye when the moving eyelids are open. If this is successful the game re-starts with higher difficulty settings. Bonus scoring is provided by an oxygen tank that slowly depletes and can be partially refilled by shooting white ovals that appear within the map. If the oxygen reaches zero the player loses a life.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Bio-Attack on their June 1, 1983 issue as being the seventeenth most-successful table arcade unit of the month.