Fans of Sega’s Mario Bros. killer rejoice! The online features for Floigan Bros. Episode 1 are now fully functional again (mostly, but I’ll get to that later) thanks to the efforts of Shuouma! Sadly, the game doesn’t feature any online multiplayer but it does have some interesting and unique features to take advantage of the Dreamcast’s online capabilities. These features include the ability to chat with other fans of the game, trade your unique Moigle with other players, and share FMTs (the monthly DLC downloads). The online mode is also where you would have acquired the monthly DLC back in the day (outside of trading with another player) but this feature hasn’t been restored as of yet. This isn’t a big deal as it’s available via the DLC Archive.
It’s interesting to see a game which such a unique online feature set. I have a feeling these features were only implemented because it was easy to do. Since the game was by Visual Concepts, they already had an existing online codebase via the 2K games and Ooga Booga. So why not take advantage of that? That’s my thinking anyway. But regardless, it’s always great to have more online functionality restored, even if it’s simple things like this. A huge thanks as always to Shuouma for reviving yet another bit of Dreamcast history!
Just a couple quick notes: The PAL version of the game didn’t have an online mode so you’ll need the US version to take advantage of the online features. Also, the account used in the game is the same as you would use for the other VC games.