Remember Paprium? Developed by Watermelon — the studio behind the excellent Pier Solar — this side-scrolling fighter was supposed to launch on the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive some time ago, funded by pre-orders pledged by the many fans desperate to see a new Streets of Rage-style brawler come to the classic 16-bit system.
Unfortunately, the release window was missed and stories of Paprium’s troubled development began to emerge. Last year, a launch party was held which didn’t actually launch anything, a rather laughable event which sums up Paprium’s life so far.
However, it seems that the project is back on track, at least according to lead artist Luis Martins. Martins actually completed his work on the game some time ago, and was the person who spoke to us when we were trying to unearth exactly what was going on with the game.
Martins has now tweeted that he has made contact with Gwenael Godde (aka Fonzie, WaterMelon’s Creative Director) and that production is complete:
While this is obviously positive news, those who backed Paprium have been here before, and will rightly want to see more evidence before they get too excited. Needless to say, we’re digging and will hopefully have more info soon.