Echidna Wars Mini: Revitalized
"Echidna Wars Mini" was an HTML game demo constructed by Asimofu and D-Gate prior to the release of "Echidna Wars DX", and was taken down in the wake of the full-game release.
The gameplay is reminiscent of NES classics, especially the Megaman series, which ultimately led to this "Revitalization".
NOTE: I can't believe I forgot to say this anywhere. Press "K" to toggle 60fps mode. All the footage I could find was at 30fps, but I would've rather the game take advantage of the entire processing power the engine could give, so I built it to run at 60fps internally and only render every other frame (to emulate 30fps visuals), unless 60fps mode is enabled.
You control a party of determined warriors(/ordinary girls living ordinary lives) challenging the invading Echidna army, after their home city was spirited away into an unfamiliar dimension. Should your character fall in battle, you can mash keys to break out of your restraints, or switch to another party member in order to defeat the restraining enemy to rescue your unfortunate teammate. Within each level is an alien purple crystal which must be destroyed in order to properly complete the level.
A few features are still missing, but are likely to be added/tweaked/fixed in the near future, as I continue work on this project.
Here are touched-up original instructions:
How to Play
- How to Operate -
| Arrow keys | Character and cursor movement |
| Z | Shoot / Confirm |
| X | Jump / Cancel |
| A | Open/close menu |
| R | Return to level-select after defeat |
| S | Pause the game (not implemented - try the menu?) |
| Q/W | Adjust game speed (not implemented) |
| 1/2 | Swap the functions of the Z and X keys |
- Story -
A never-ending solar eclipse
The sky lost its brightness, as if the day had been stolen away. Suddenly one day, Ryonazawa City was separated from the world as we knew it, and remains suspended in an alternate world by the magical power of the Echidna forces. The power is focused into so-called "Echidna Stones", if we don't destroy all of them, we'll never be able to return to the regular world.
- Characters -
Milia [localized as Mirea in-game] is a warrior sent from the world of Battle Maidens to defeat the forces of Echidna. Recently, some Echidna have been integrating into calm city life, leaving our hero with less work to do. She has a sweet tooth, but she's a terrible cook- don't leave her alone in the kitchen!
<Special Ability ~ Floating>
Milia can hover in the air by holding down the jump button.
Sachiho [localized the same in-game] is an ordinary wolf-eared girl. She's concerned about the prospect of being a hero, but seems to be adapting quite quickly. She loves meat, and can keep up the fight as long as the promise of meat is in sight. [This section was written very strangely, this may not be the correct meaning.
<Special Ability ~ Sliding>
Sachiho can sneak through narrow gaps by pressing the jump button while holding the down button.
TGO-03 was originally human, before volunteering to become a cyborg, citing "the weakness of my flesh." She loves food, and considers onigiri to be a gift straight from the hands of God.
<Special Ability ~ Super Armor>
TGO-03 does not take knockback from enemy attacks.
Echidna were supposed to be invaders who came to prey on humans... but for some reason, a few of them have settled in Ryonazawa, and even acquired citizenship. The others seem to be planning something major...
Pukis and Deltas
These mysterious creatures have been showing up in Ryonazawa for some time, and they've all but become an established presence by now. Lots of people find them helpful day to day.
Slime
[Okay, this was really rough. Something about slime, dungeon, and that they crawl out of pipes...]
Jellyfish
Poisonous ghostly creatures that float silently through the air. They don't seem to be liquid-filled, nothing spills out when you kill them.
Earthworm
Knocks down allies with powerful projectiles, and suck them up [not implemented... sorry!!] to swallow them whole. They're huge and densely muscular, and never feel full...
- System -
The goal of the game is to destroy the crystals scattered across each stage to free the world from the Echidna.
Stage Selection-
After selecting the world, you can select a stage
| [yellow icon] | completed stage | Try previous stages again if you like! |
| [red-orange icon] | available stage | There are still crystals here. |
| [blue-indigo icon] | locked stage | Future stages you haven't unlocked yet. |
On the world-select screen, you can press the A button to customize your adventuring party [not implemented... would require more than 3 playable characters, which is a big ask]. If you help people during gameplay, they may join your party.
(On the party formation screen, you can also see each party member's maximum HP, combat level, and unique abilities.) [party formation screen... not implemented]
Party management-
During gameplay, you can press A to open the menu to swap the active character or use a mini Sachiho plush (to recover HP on demand). In the menu, you can see some status effects:
| [blue teardrop shape] | "Pinch" | If you take damage, you'll be "in a pinch" for a moment. |
| [purple "!"] | Restrained | If attacked by an Echidna while "in a pinch", party members will get captured. |
| [pink stomach shape] | Swallowed | If their HP drops to 0 while restrained, the party member will be swallowed. |
| [red "X"] | Down | Cannot recover on their own, rescue them quickly! If their HP is brought above 0, they'll be able to fight again! |
| [dotted pink outline?] | Wipe-out | If a party member's red health bar is exhausted while captured, they'll be... down for the count. |
Rescue system-
If your party member gets captured, you may be able to break free by struggling. This has a chance of working, but uses up a lot of HP. If HP reaches 0, the party member will find themselves swallowed whole, so be careful! [a button-mashing system is implemented instead. Press any button X number of times in under Y amount of time to break free.]
In case of an emergency, you can switch party members to try to rescue your fallen teammate. However, so as not to hurt your teammate, damage against the restraining enemy is halved. (Beware of enemies that can still attack while restraining your teammates, beware of enemies that can capture multiple teammates at once!)
When you deal a certain amount of damage [that part not implemented], or defeat the restraining enemy entirely, your teammate will be released, but they won't be able to get up on their own. You'll have to get them to safety (by collecting them)!
(If you leave a restrained, swallowed, or released-but-not-rescued teammate behind, they'll become wiped out and inaccessible until the end of the level. No man left behind!)
If the entire party becomes incapacitated, that spells game over, and you must either try again, or try a different level.
If you find a Puki holding a big red balloon, that's a checkpoint! Shoot the balloon to save your progress through the level- if your party wipes out, you'll return to here- refreshed and ready to go- instead of the beginning of the level.
Your progression is saved to a local file [not web cookies] when exiting a level (whether or not you beat it), meaning the HTML build at the top of the screen will not remember your progress [but the downloadable versions will remember!]
- Items -
| Rice | A common HP item, restores just 5. |
| Bone-in meat | An uncommon HP item, restores 20. Collected HP items will heal the active party member first, and then other hurt party members from top to bottom. |
| Max HP Up | Increases a character's max HP by 10, from a default of 40 up to a limit of 70. (Characters will not pick up a powerup they can't use.) |
| Power Up | Increases a character's combat ability. Each character can collect a maximum of two (from level 1 to level 3). |
| Pudding | Instantly restores the entire party's HP. |
| Sachiho Plush | Collectible to be used from the menu. Restores one character's HP fully, unless they are wiped-out or currently restrained. |
| Key | [not an implemented item, but WOULD be used for destroying special lock blocks] |
| Mini Puki | This is a lost Puki child. Maybe something good will happen if we collect them all? |
Once more, this game was originally developed by Asimofu and D-Gate, and this "revitalization" was created as an accessible version of lost media, otherwise accessible only through youtube videos or shady, shady websites... All the love goes out to them, for the art and mechanics!
Download
Development log
- Version 1.288 days ago
- Version 1.1Sep 27, 2025
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
As a reminder, consider all links in the comments to be scams. If I WERE making an update to this game which required a new itch.io page, I'd put it in the description, not a comment, because I have access to the page description lol
(And I AM working on another update to this, which should bring it significantly further in line with the original project)
This post is in celebration of 1,000 Windows executable downloads (we're at 2.2k total downloads so I missed important milestones there)
My previous projects had gotten a couple hundred interactions at best before, this level of sustained attention is new to me lmao
Echidna Wars. I've seen this H game already for some time now, yet I don't even know where I could get it (and also how it can get modded)
"Echidna Wars DX" is still purchaseable from D-Gate's DLSite page, right here for less than $10 (although the price fluctuates with the exchange rate between USD and Japanese Yen)
"Echidna Wars Mini" is technically still accessible at this website, but you need to use an old third-party website and tell Java not to care about security in order to get it running, which is altogether too many obstacles for me to be happy with, which is why I made this project (and continue to perfect it).
If you're looking to mod Echidna Wars DX, you will want to obtain a copy legitimately first, and then visit the EverDriven discord server, where EverDriven is an overhaul mod for Echidna Wars DX, and the members there can help you mod your game.
I see, though oof. I don't think I'll be able to, since I'm from South America. Thanks for the info in any case
Yo! Nice job coding the game and making it more accessible for other people. I thought about doing this myself years ago with the raw java files, but it was too much work.
The original game is still playable with a specific link on D-Gate's website, but REQUIRES legacy versions of Java and Internet Explorer/Firefox to function properly. I've only ever gotten them to work within a virtual machine I have running Windows 7 and another on Windows XP.
I do have a few notes on inaccuracies between this version and the original if you're interested.
That's everything that I noticed at a glance between the two versions. The general feel of your version is slightly different too when it comes to player movement, attacking, and jumping. Still, this is a great effort and gives players the opportunity to experience something they otherwise wouldn't. Great job, man.
Thanks for the feedback!
1. I've been desperate to figure out how Mirea's flight worked, because indefinite flying does feel broken, but I had no way to verify if any instance of a video showing the player no longer flying was due to a time limit being exceeded, or due to the player simply deciding not to fly any more. His is invaluable information.
2. That's interesting to hear! More guesswork on my part, this time due to the sprites- there's no flying + shooting sprite so I had assumed it was not an ability (while playtesting, I, too, find myself wanting to shoot while flying. This should be a really easy fix, simply removing the "&& not flying" from the prerequisites to shooting as Mirea. [Maybe also confirming it looks correct.])
3. (& 4.) This one will be tougher to properly implement, but sounds correct. Levels should keep track of which pre-generated items in each room have been collected, including Pukis. Actually, if they always respawn (minus the Pukis) on level reload, that makes it easier, as I don't have to carry over knowledge of which items were collected indefinitely, and can naively reload the level from static data on level start (minus, of course, pukis, which are already tracked indefinitely, in your save file.)
5. Good to know. As they are now, they ONLY lose all HP, and keep their health/weapons upgrades. There is a central "kill character" code block that I can pretty simply add "also set the levels back to 0" to. This also implies, level-design-wise, the developer should be fairly benevolent with level ups.
6. Woah that's not good!! I'm not sure why that's happening (i.e. this will take a while to figure out...), I'll have to investigate this more closely.
7. I'll revisit the enemy behavior code, as capture and digestion SHOULD preoccupied the enemies, with the exception of the lamia, who moves around (and possibly attacks w/o capture ability) while digesting. Possibly my janky-ass target-priority code needs to be rewritten.
8. (& 9.) Sachiho's room is incomplete, yeah... What one might also note is level 3 ends "late", with the player jumping up to end the level instead of there being a hitbox in the final room, on that final platform, to end the level. I haven't implemented a "level-end trigger" hitbox type, they've all been screen transitions sorta hijacked for multiple purposes. The puki, delta, cat, AND flowing curtain are in-game, I just have no appropriate protocol for an animated background (or foreground) element and never picked a best way to implement such.
10. I'll be honest. It wasn't very fun to work on, was a pain to test, and a personal deadline was rapidly approaching, so I did what I could and called it good enough. I really should get on top of PROPERLY implementing ALL of the "help!" icon because it does look really nice in the videos and will look nice once implemented.
11. I am fairly sure I implemented the worm's vacuum ability after the initial release, so if you downloaded the game near its release and are relaying feedback only now, download the updated version! It has the worm suckies
12. GOD YEAH THE JELLYFISH IS WEIRD! I took a stab in the dark implementing its movement and I'm still not happy with it (it goes crazy when capturing someone because it stops bouncing up but its gravity doesn't stop pulling it down.) I should analyze video more thoroughly to figure out how it ACTUALLY behaves when moving up towards a player character, and when moving down towards a player character, with those edge cases I can safely interpolate behavior between the extremes.
Re: moving & attacking, there is a one-or-two-frame delay between first holding the jump button, and a jump actually resulting, this is when the "bending knees to jump" sprite is displayed, but it also makes jumps feel a little stilted as you have to plan ahead, not just react to enemies. The moving and jumping actions themselves are based on frame counting on blurry videos with no actual input displays, so they LOOK right to an outsider, but may not feel quite right, and might not be accurate pixel values. I suspect running might be half a pixel per frame too fast...? And jumping is equally likely not right- tuned to just about the correct height of a jump as per the video evidence, but gravity's strength is a big assumption (it might not be constant through a jump, like gravity being stronger while you're falling, or there being a terminal velocity we might reach while falling, etc) and so it may feel wrong.
(Also, sorry for springing this much text on you, I just really appreciate this game for its specifics and want to address feedback adequately.)
Nah, no worries dude, it was a joy reading your feedback. I was very passionate about this game about 10 years ago which is why I know all these things. Then DX came out and I kinda walked away from this one, viewing it as more of a tech demo of sorts leading into the DX version.
I did notice just a couple more nitpicky things on a second glance.
1. Mirea's level 2 power up seems to be missing. Her projectiles don't gain more damage or change visually on each level up like Sachiho and TGO-03's do, she just gains an additional one per level. Level 2 gives her the upwards angled additional shot and level 3 gives her the downward one (which you have correctly implemented).
2. Enemies heal at a fantastic rate when digesting a character. So much so that if you're trying to save Sachiho with Mirea and only her level 1 shot, you're going to have a tough time out-DPS'ing her heals.
3. Escaping a grapple is not a random chance each time as you've implemented (though I do kind of like this change). In the original, it ALWAYS takes EXACTLY 10 button presses of any combination of movement, jumping, and/or attacking to escape. You do have the HP cost of each button press down pat though.
4. Lamias have a very small chance (~5%) to drop an HP MAX upgrade upon defeat. You may have already implemented this, but I didn't farm them enough to find out for myself, so I'm notifying you here just in case.
NOW I think that's everything haha.
If you want some more help or information, I do have the raw original java files if you care to decompile them.
I also have my own footage I recorded of a playthrough back in 2015. It's only ~6 minutes long, but maybe it has something unique in it compared to other vids.
Keep up the good work, mang
1. Oh, this is helpful! I haven't been able to find anything on the level 2 attack, just 1 and 3. I'll get right on that.
2. They might be recovering every frame, instead of every animation + sound cycle, and they might be recovering way too much. What I know is that some (slime and jellyfish) are meant to spit out their capture after dropping below half health, which I don't remember whether I properly implemented. They DO take half damage from attacks while capturing, I did implement that though. I'll double check video evidence and compare notes again.
3. I originally had it exactly like this (press the button X times in Y seconds to escape) then I carefully read the user manual which said something about a gacha-type system for escape (which sounded like spend X health for a Y% chance to escape). I think both have their merits, and I could definitely add it to the list of things to include in an options menu once I know how that should look like.
4. See, I knew SOMETHING was going on with the inconsistent, infrequent item drops. I did a whole statistical analysis across multiple videos, tracking which rooms exhibited which enemies of which types dropping what at which frequencies. I believe I settled on a per-enemy sorta.... "juiciness" metric, which determines which item pool to select from. Enemies are either "regular" (25% chance to drop rice, 12.5% chance to drop meat), "ricey" (50% chance to drop rice), "meaty" (50% chance to drop meat), or "upgradey" (25% chance for rice, 12.5% chance to drop meat, ~3.9% to drop a pow-up, ~3.9% to drop a health-up [3/4 × 5/6 × 1/16). If you had more concrete stats, or could tell me otherwise why the slimes at the end of level 1-2 seemed to drop a meat when that's outside the expected range, or why the spawned slimes from le pipes ALWAYS dropped ONLY rice, that'd be awesome and amazing, stats are really tough to glean from limited video evidence.
And thank you for being so thorough with your feedback
I know this is 2.5 weeks later, but on the 'gacha' subject, it was probably 'rebagacha' which has nothing to do with the games where you collect a bunch of characters by rolling for a low random chance at a higher rarity.
To my understanding, it comes from 'lever' (or control stick, like you would see on an arcade cabinet, but also modern video game controllers, which becomes 'reba' in katakana) and 'gacha' as a sound effect for something rattling around (which is the same root as where it comes from for gacha games, except in that case, it hearkens back to physical gacha machines where you insert a coin and get a random plastic capsule).
In other words, 'rebagacha' ultimately just means shaking the control stick like crazy to the point it makes a bunch of noise - or in more common English parlance, the intended effect is 'button mashing'. Random chance need not be a factor, and in fact just having to do something quickly or X times within a Y time frame was pretty common for how this worked in older games like this.
Now that is some funny etymology
Re: Point 2, enemies healing very quickly. I checked the code, they SHOULD (excluding unforeseen consequences) heal 1 hitpoint every 32-60 frames (depending on their eating animation lengths, a shorter animation means quicker healing), WHICH IS once to twice per second (it's the worm that heals every 32 frames, and I could probably artificially slow that animation down to take 48 frames instead...?)
Is it ACTUALLY true that enemies take half damage once they have captured a player character? It really limits your DPS- if it's not true, that'd get you double the friend-saving DPS and make Mirea plenty effective at saving characters.
Yes, but since they didn't move or attack you directly (lamia's would bump into you if you were careless, but wouldn't chase you), the half damage made sense to keep you from just destroying them in an instant. It created a nice sense of urgency when trying to save your friend.
If you were lucky, you could have your attack free your ally and then you'd have a few frames before the still-helpless ally just got scooped back up to deal some real damage.
Echidna Wars DX is a paid game, purchases of which support the original developers (which I encourage). I don't believe any ports to an HTML format exist for it? And I would highly recommend anyone wanting that, or wanting to MAKE that, to simply direct their attention to the official source of Echidna Wars DX.
If Asimofu and D-Gate go defunct and it becomes impossible to acquire legitimately from the dlsite, then I would consider it free game (pun not intended) and no longer piracy. Until then, though, please support the original creators by buying and playing their game!
I assume you had already checked all the sources, but people on forums (for example here https://aryion.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=31660&p=3046671#p3046671) might have a fully downloaded version or tips on where one can get it, if it is even still possible.
If I recall correctly, the game wasn't as much taken down as the software required to run it in the browser (java Applets) were discontinued and prevented from working on modern OS. I had a wild plan to downgrade to like Windows XP or Windows 7 (standalone or in a VM) and try to access the game's page from an old browser and software stack that came with them. I give it a solid 50/50 that it may actually still load and work, especially since last I checked the resource packages seemed to still be available at their URL addresses and it was the engine itself that wouldn't properly start-up no matter the browser version I tried...
Since you are serious about this project, perhaps you could give running an older OS inside of a VM a try? After all, reconstructing the game from assets and videos is one thing, but having it running locally is a totally different matter :P
P.S. It may also be a good idea to join the Project EverDriven discord. You may find people there who have played the game and know more about it, and perhaps even people who can help you with development! I know I'd love to follow your updates on there (or wherever else).
Yes, I believe I did look at the aryion thread about it, it at least looks familiar. I tried downgrading firefox to make it run locally, I might be stoopid but I couldn't get it to work, which spurred on the project.
I have the tools to simulate, but not to emulate, the original game. I don't know where to start with regards to building a virtual machine, it's simply outside my tool- and knowledge-set.
I'll look into the discord server, but no promises! (I am reclusive.) Fine-tuning the physics or interactions would make me quite happy, and the denizens' knowledge about the game would be quite useful for that purpose.
I would love to pick this back up, it's been a hot second since I last touched it, and I've had a couple ideas for unofficial expansions that I really need to get to.
It really isn't that difficult. Most Windows installations actually come preinstalled with Hyper-V virtual machine environment, you just need to configure it. There are lots of step-by-step guides online on "How to Install Windows 7 in Hyper-V". The hardest part is actually finding an installation image of an earlier OS, be it Windows 7 or XP, assuming you don't have an old installation disk lying around.
All-in-all, it doesn't take longer than a few hours even if you have to start from zero, but as the reward you will get to play the original game so you can compare everything side-by-side. I imagine doing so will be a huge help in ensuring feature and gameplay parity :)
And now that another user has seemingly verified my theory and personally assured that this method will indeed work, I seriously recommend you to look into it. If you need any help - feel free to reach out to either of us. Sounds like @wyrd-agyo knows about this even more than I do, but I'll be happy to help in the process too! Heck, I may actually install Win 7 just to play the original soon, I think I already have Linux VM installed, so it shouldn't be difficult to override it or add another one :P
As a general PSA, don't click links in comments. I am not sure why (and it's not just on my page), there appears to be a plague of bot posts advertising a large number of free adult games on the other side of a link. Undoubtedly this is a scam of one kind or another. Practice safe internet browsing, everyone!
Are there only 3 stages?
Just curious if the game's actually thatsmall or if I'm just missing somethig.
Also, out of curiosity, which programming language is this written in?
Yes, the original game was only 3 stages. There are a bunch of totally-unused assets too, which points to the likelihood that it was unfinished when Echidna Wars DX came out, and it [Echidna Wars Mini] was shelved. I cannot replicate what wasn't there :P
This was made in Dragonruby! So, written in ruby!
Turns out that if you get a healing item and get captured by an enemy at the same time, the game freezes, forcing a restart.-
Also, the menu shows Mirea as all the names despite them having diffferent names in the top left.
Ahh, I should fix those. I can guess what's going on with the healing thing, and the names being the same SHOULD just be some functionality being commented out for testing purposes.
will this get any updates or its it finished?
I plan on updating it eventually, to increase its parity with the original demo, but it won't get any "new content" updates until after reaching perfect parity.
As well, such "new content" updates would be quite slow. It's a lot easier to piece together pre-existing assets to conform with pre-existing specification, than it is to make entirely new assets and entirely new levels.
ok thank :)
lol shooting too fast crashes it on browser.
I'm surprised! There's nothing about the way I handle projectiles that should be even a little unstable.
This game engine struggles with HTML builds for reasons outside the developer's control (even an empty project, doing nothing, can't reach a stable 60fps...) so I highly recommend- if you like the gameplay, but feel like it's too slow, download it and run locally! It'll be so much better running at a smooth 60fps.
(and I'll take a look to see if I can replicate the crash)
does anyone know how to actually play the orginal game cause i have been trying to find a place to play it
"Echidna Wars Mini" or "Echidna Wars DX"? I believe the original DLSite page is still up if you want to buy the full version.
the DX one
Echidna Wars DX is available from D-Gate here
thanks