Steam-Heart's

Critics generally found the gameplay to be average, with the erotic content being the sole distinguishing feature.

• Developer — Giga • Publisher — TGL • Released — PC-98 March 15, 1994 PC Engine Super CD-ROM² March 22, 1996 Sega Saturn September 23, 1998 • Genre — Scrolling shooter, eroge • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer • Platforms — PC-98, PC Engine Super CD-ROM², Sega Saturn

Steam-Heart's is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up and eroge. There are 8 levels in total, as well as single-player and two-player modes. The primary weapon on the player's ship can either be a vulcan cannon or laser. These shot types can be upgraded or swapped by picking up power-ups. The player can also choose from a variety of secondary weapons which vary between the versions of Steam-Heart's, but include fixed turrets, flamethrowers, and satellite ships that hunt down enemies among others. The ship can also temporarily boost in any direction to dodge enemies or pick up items. Completing each stage results in a cutscene told through a succession of still images. The player only has one life but can take about six hits before losing the life. There are only continues in the cooperative two-player mode. In single-player mode, the player restarts the level after losing a life. The Saturn version includes an arcade mode (a mode devoid of all cutscenes and character dialogue), and a score attack mode.

The game is set in a world where people have been taken over by a virus, altering their behavior. Two siblings, a male named Blow and a hermaphrodite Falla are immune to the virus and set off to fight it. The characters exchange dialog during gameplay to progress the story. The bosses at the end of each stage are mecha piloted by scantily clad women including catgirls. After each boss is defeated, Blow and Falla interact with the women. Blow ejaculates into the boss character to cure them from the virus.

Steam-Heart's was developed by Giga and published by TGL. The character designs were done by animator Takahiro Kimura. The game is unusual for combining a shooting game with eroticism, as Japanese erotic games are more typically genres like role playing, adventure, strategy, or even beat 'em ups. It was originally released for the NEC PC-9800 series of personal computers in Japan on March 15, 1994. The game's first port was on March 22, 1996 for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM² System. For this release, all the graphics were redrawn, the secondary weapons were weakened or removed altogether, and the two-player mode was pulled. It was released near the end of the system's lifespan as its last shooter. A port for the Sega Saturn was released on September 23, 1998, as the Saturn was beginning to lose market share in preparation for the November launch of Dreamcast. The Saturn version comes with a small yellow seal warning of the erotic content of the game. The game did not receive a red seal, which is for even more explicit content. Again, all the graphics were redrawn, but this version retains the cooperative mode and also includes more secondary weapons. The Saturn version also makes more use of the scaling and rotation effects supported by the hardware. Eroge was known for being more graphic on personal computers than consoles, so when the game was ported to the PC Engine and Saturn, the cutscenes were completely redrawn to be less graphic, albeit more suggestive. The scenes on the Saturn are not visually explicit, but are fully voice acted, including sounds of moans. The Saturn version is the most censored. The text scrolling in the original was also replaced with voice acting in the console versions.