Review Fix chats with Piko Interactive founder Eleazar Galindo Navarro, who lets us know all about the company’s new Kickstarter and why revitalizing the Switchblade IP is just one part of their master plan to bring back the memories of your childhood.
Review Fix: How was this Kickstarter born?
Eleazar Galindo Navarro: This Kickstarter was born out a mixture of my love for old school action figures and the company’s wishes to expand to other products.
Review Fix: How did the original Switchblade affect you?
Navarro: Switchblade it is one of the IPs that I care a lot about because it was one of the first major IPs we acquired. I really wanted to get some IPs that had anime style. However I found out that it was quite hard to work with Japanese companies. This game in particular I knew it was licensed to another publisher from the States so I never thought to inquiry about it until later years. I was very excited to be able to work with it.
What I love about this game is its simplicity it is basically a “Rick Dangerous on Steroids” were instead of playing in levels, you play through a very very long level that you have to explore. So it doesn’t really breaks your concentration when you finish a level and start a new one. It just keeps going and going and going until you reach the end. And it gradually starts showing you more difficult enemies etc, so it is a very well balanced game with a very unique fighting system.
Review Fix: Why bring the series back on the Sega and Jaguar?
Navarro: Besides our main business is to produce cartridge based game; the game was developed for both the Amiga and Atari ST which share the same Motorola 6800 processor than both the Genesis and the Jaguar so it was definitely a technical decision.
Review Fix: Is there any desire to bring these to other consoles as well?
Navarro: As a straight port probably only to the NES, however I’d love to start producing a sequel for 24 bit or even 64 bit systems (as well as modern PCs).
Review Fix: What makes the action figure special?
Navarro: Well what I think it makes this particular model of action figure special is that the line of action figures we want to produce will include a card with a Steam Key code. Which will allow the customer to download the game featuring the action figure for free. The customer then would be able to play the game on their PC, learn more about the character, story, enemies etc. Kind of like the figures that had a mini comic book, but instead of that, and actual interactive commercial video game.
Review Fix: Bottom line- why does the world need these games and action figures?
Navarro: First off to learn about the history of video games, Switchblade was a popular title in Europe, but we didn’t get to see it back in the day in the US. We missed it at the time (well until the sequel that was on lynx). Retro gamers in general are looking to new exciting games to play, and sometimes they all have played all the games available on their region at the time. So now with this Kickstarter they can get a new game was well as anction figure (if they are Action figure enthusiasts as myself)
Review Fix: What’s next?
Navarro: We hope to have a long line of action figures based on video games from the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s.
Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?
Navarro: Thank you for this opportunity and any readers out there that like either Retro video games or Retro Toy, support the kickstarter as this would be the start of a long line of products celebrating the toys and games of the past!
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