| paleface [sys=PCE; cat=Shooter_Vert; reg=JPN] |
| | | This hasn't impressed me as much as the other PCE "Soldier" games (Super Star Soldier and Soldier Blade), even though I've spent a little more time with it than those other two. It seems odd to me that you select weapon types in an option screen before starting the game--this effectively cuts the weapons by two-thirds, because really you'll just pick the one you like most out of each of the options of three and stick with that for the duration.
It has the usual modes of the series: Normal, 2 Minute, 5 Minute. And bombs, that's something of a new thing, and instead of just starting with them you have to collect them, at which point they dangle behind your ship like little non-shooting options. And you can toggle between three different ship speeds. Whee! Maybe I just need to get some shut-eye or something, but this seems a bit ho-hum at this point.
The game lacks inspiration really, at least in the early going. The small and dull enemy sprites don't really inspire a whole lot of interest, and even the (early) bosses are rather forgettable. In a somewhat unusual move for a Soldier game you leave the nice cold cradle of space and drop down to a planet's surface, but the ground backgrounds leave a lot to be desired in the way of interesting surface detail and pleasing color choices. For instance the background for the water planet stage is.... a big badly-animated tiling bright blue wave graphic. Get out! At least the music sounds good.
It's still a nice solid game and all but I'd get the other PCE "Soldier" series games before this one. |
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