Kanipro Opens Steam Page For Utopia '97, A Retooled Hong Kong 2097
The developer's own stated reason for the rework was frustration at being unable to release the original on Steam, which makes this a case of a storefront rejection reshaping a finished game's content rather than killing it.
Reporting from 1 source: Game Spark.
Kanipro opened the Steam store page on October 2 for Utopia '97, a fixed-screen twin-stick shooter. The game has no violent content: the player controls a boy named Chen-kun and sends cute animals to an amusement park with blown kisses and cinnamon stick projectiles. It is a version of Hong Kong 2097, the controversial shooter that could not be sold on Steam, with characters and graphics replaced. Release is set for PC via Steam in the first quarter of 2027.
Utopia '97 keeps the structure of its predecessor and strips out the parts that caused trouble. The developer describes the process plainly: not being able to release the original on Steam was frustrating, and after weighing options for how to make it work somehow, the retooled version was the answer.
What replaces the original material is a game about sending animals to an amusement park. Chen-kun uses magic blown kisses and projectiles that look like cinnamon sticks. Stages ask the player to move a set number of animals inside a time limit. Green bullets fired by the animals can be absorbed with the Rainbow Shield and turned into magic power, while purple bullets cannot, so positioning matters.
The influences cited are Robotron 2084 and Smash T.V., and the release window is the first quarter of 2027 on PC through Steam.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.