After sharing his story about trying to purchase Paprium and eventually succeeding, TigerMacz has shared his experience opening the box! These words are unedited
In my previous article, I said I was waiting for the game Paprium which I made a deal with a reseller. It has arrived. I’ve cut off the envelope which was covering it and had mine and the sellers details on it, underneath were two USPS priority mail jiffy bubble wrap bags which gave the parcel more protection. The seller also included a MegaDrive/Genesis cartridge security bit.
After the jiffy bags were dealt with we finally start on the meat of things, there’s a cardboard box and has a sticker with the watermelon logo containing a barcode and manufacturing information stating it was made in china. We open the box and contained inside Is a blister packaging which is embossed on the rear which contains the game case… there is a sticker near the top which keeps the blister pack sealed shut.
The sticker is bright neon pink and purple and has the water melon logo presented in while with test saying seal of quality. The part of the sticker on the rear on the blister pack contains purple graffiti which the test greets you by saying “Fuck you!”… Real classy Watermelon games. I broke the seal and the blister pack folds downwards, Inside is the Classic edition of Paprium. The Cast compared to the limited editions is a plastic clamshell and what surprises me is the actual quality of the case has a nice texture to it as you can see on the clear plastic window looks and feel textured like original official Mega Drive cases back from the late 80’s and during the 90’s the texturing also happens on other parts of the case and the quality of the plastics don’t feel cheap or nasty.
The front cover has the cover of the game with the 3 characters, Tug, Dice and Alex placed on the left hand side gazing to the right where the logo is placed in bright neon pink. At the bottom of the front cover has the logos for the cartridge itself and the water melon games company logo.
Surrounding it on the left hand side and bottom is the classic grid style which on the left has the later style test logo for the Mega Drive and Genesis. (a bit naughty on Watermelons part). There is a puke green graffiti which is also on the spine which wraps around to part of the front again with the words “Fuck You!” The spin of the cast with the graffiti test also has the grid effect with the game logo, company logo and Sega Mega Drive and genesis text.
On the rear of the case it again has the Paprium logo in bright pink with the games tag line “Rule, Be ruled or die!” There is more graffiti which now states show 16bit respect.
Underneath there is artwork of a hand next to some pills on a floor overlaid is test which gives the premise of the game along with screen shots underneath there is more text in bright neon pink boasting about the games graphics and sounds etc.
I break another seal which was on the case to open the case proper, In side on the right hand side contains the Paprium cartridge, next to it is the water melon logo which is embossed into the case, on the right hand side contains a manual, set of stickers and a poster/map. The stickers are bright pink and purple with flashes of white which have the Paprium cross logo, the datenmeister chip and 80 Meg logos a Blu pill graphic a cockroach and 2 stickers of showtime a character/enemy from the game who also appeared in a live action form for a Paprium video, one is a sprite of the character and the other is a health bar.
The map/poster contains the art work which was used as the main cover on one side and on the other side has the city of Paprium mapped out as a transit system with different levels on different stops on the map. The quality is really good for the print work, we not come to the manual. The manual is in a similar style to the Mega Drive manuals as in they are a horizontal design and have the classic grid style on the right hand side on the left is the same artwork used for the cover which contains the 3 characters looking to the right, the manual is printed in colour which really pops at certain points and contains multiple languages. Only down side is the manual etc. isn’t held down properly in its section so usually end up sliding out unexpectedly. Now we finally get around to the cartridge itself.
I noticed my cartridge when I removed it also has the tell tale rattle where the plate for the “datenmeister” chip has fallen off the epoxy under it and is not rattling loose inside the cartridge. The cartridge feels of a good quality and textured plastic on the left of the cartridge there is a small cut out which were only seen on Japanese cartridges and all versions of sonic and knuckles. Which accommodates for the Japanese Mega Drive’s cartridge lock system. Most new titles for the Mega Drive also seem to use this style of cartridge.
The sticker has the image of the hand on the floor with pills surrounding it and overlaid is the game title Paprium and cross logo underneath are the water melon logo and 80 Meg HDC logo underneath is the grid style design with the Mega Drive and Genesis text underneath is copyright information which is dated 2018.
On the rear of the cartridge there is a small grab tap for when you pull and insert the cartridge from the console embossed water melon design on the back a small cent and embossed caution warnings. On the top of the cartridge there is a hole which has a connector port which seems to to be for the Mega Wire 4.0 device little is known about it. Without opening the cartridge proper I can tell that the circuit board its using is red in colour which is different from the green and brown boards of the past. Apparently it has some screen printed designs on the cartridge.
Finally inside the cardboard box there is a piece of folded paper which contains “Fonzie’s Manifesto” all I have to say its something where its a mix of lambasting people who backed the game to self aggrandising to even telling people to resell the game at a majorly inflated price. With a small addendum section about the game. He also takes a few pot shots over people who play on modern televisions compared to CRT. Later sections he complains about PayPal stealing his Paprium money. He then makes from very inappropriate comments at the very end which comes off as crass and slightly unhinged.
But the final Insult is he has his bank information with save the whales and walruses which comes off as another total scam he’s running, which means he would be literally laughing to the bank with other peoples money when they will have no recourse to get it back.
A review of the game will follow soon.
TigerMacZ