A futuristic sci-fi shooter in which you play a test pilot strapped to the brand new RAIN combat simulator which allows you to remotely control fighters as they immerse themselves in the midst of enemy territory. The game is a side-scrolling shooter in which you control your ship and try to survive the onslaught of enemy attacks while you attempt to clear the levels. Weapon upgrades are based on collectible power-ups, but the game mostly relies on a power bar that fills as you destroy enemies and which allows you to unleash your super weapon at the expense of decreased normal firepower. The game also features a unique "border" system which involves three separate routes through each stage. You select the default route at the start of a level and when your ship is destroyed you get knocked down to the next "border", which features alternate backgrounds and enemy patterns. Only if you get knocked off the last border you lose the game. Uses completely polygonal graphics and features single player arcade, remix and practice modes through 6 enemy-infested stages, the last of which has four unique variations.
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This game is the reason I have a Dreamcast
Border Down is a port of an arcade game that was made on the Dreamcast arcade counterpart Naomi, years after the system was discontinued.
The foundation of Border Down is built from successful ideas and mechanics form older arcade shooting games with unique ideas and mechanics built off of them.
A lot of old arcade shooting games have some kind of adaptive difficulty also known as "rank"
Expert players come up with ways to keep the difficulty down so high scores and 1 credit clears are manageable known as rank management.
I've always been on the fence about this aspect of games like Battle Garegga (the game probably most well known for "rank" also Ibara and Pink Sweets) it's built into the game in a way that players are expected to intentionally lose ships and avoid powering up, it feels counterintuitive and even when I fully understood these systems I didn't enjoy playing that way.
These systems feel more like a checklist of seemingly random actions the player has to take to play optimally, they're often secretive and intentionally obscure, and hidden within the code of the game, with the intention that with enough trial and error players will decode the games complicated systems and create a "route" through it.
Realistically you'd never want to intentionally crash a ship or lose a life in a regular game, and you would always want to be fully powered, it doesn't make sense for the characters in game to do this, and it's not explained narratively in any way, it's sort of superficially layered onto the game.
Border Down does something incredible, it takes this rank concept of losing lives, fully communicates the mechanic effectively, and gives it context while mixing it with a branching level path system seen in games like the Darius or Star Fox series.
It's completely up front with the mechanics of the lives system to the point that it's the core identity to the game, it's narrative, even the name "border down' is referring to this mechanic. The game makes the idea of losing a ship on purpose make sense and made actually want to engage with it.
Dominant strategy ruins a lot of games for me, in this game though there are many possible ways through the game it has a rank system with real freedom, I had fun coming up with my own route.
Losing doesn't just make the game go easier on you or lead to a different end level boss, you get a new view or perspective of the current level to play through, the game is only 6 levels long but the separate paths can look and feel entirely new depending on the level.
Each life (or ship) is on a separate path (the game calls them borders) and there's three of them, instead of just choosing the path, normally losing a life (intentionally or not) moves the player down one path from green, to yellow, then red.
When on green you can sometimes see the yellow ship flying through it's route in the background for example, the in game protagonist is exchanging remote control between three different ships.
Another thing this game really gets right is not only do the mechanics all have narrative and gameplay context, they all feed into another in some way.
You can get "extra lives" in Border Down just like you would any arcade game from reaching a certain score however this " extra life" is just earning back the previous higher path and ship, the other gameplay mechanics all tie-into getting scores to regain these paths.
Besides rank and paths this game uses the laser mechanic from Metal Black and G-Darius where you exchange weapon power for a very powerful laser that clears the screen and makes the player invulnerable.
This has a new layer of depth to it as any bullets erased and hits on enemies adds to a score multiplier, so using it effectively and at the right spots is important to earn back lost ships and defeat bosses.
Each boss has it's own version of the laser and just like in those two previously mentioned games you can counter it with your own, creating a cool looking spectacle but also severely damaging the boss and adding a much larger score multiplier.
The game is extremely difficult, so memorizing when bosses use their attacks and how to deal with them is important, the game feels ahead of it's time in that it has a practice mode where any part of levels can be replayed and restarted instantly for easy memorization. it's not necessary to beat the game but it helps a lot.
I can see it being too frustrating for a lot of people but with the practice mode and unlockable free play (unlimited continues) it is still accessible for anyone that decides to put enough time into it.
It's all about finding your preferred path and strategy through the game, it will test even the most skilled players looking to beat the game on a single credit but it is a mostly fair challenge.
There are open levels like in space or in the sky, but the game has many cluttered sometimes claustrophobic levels with environments the player needs to precisely fly through and these can be very tense.
A collision with a stationary wall or ceiling wont result in a loss unless you keep pushing into it, you can scrape by obstacles and still get through the game is often demanding while being lenient.
In general this game has very smooth and polished gameplay, it is meticulously designed and in some ways ingeniously built.
That's not all this game has going for it, it looks great too.
The game is fully polygonal, a lot of shooting games don't use 3D space that well, often playing it safe, with little to no camera movement, or dynamic movement through environments or background details, they're usually still kind of flat.
While this game still plays just like any 2D side scrolling arcade game the camera often will pan around and go in or out of the background usually in between the main areas of a level (automated like cutscenes). Sometimes the level wil start scrolling in a different direction, sometimes up, down or diagonally, it keeps things feeling fresh.
Bosses will fly around in the background or appear in the distance earlier in the level before you end up fighting them, and during fights they can move in strange and surprising patterns all over the playable space. The game expects the player to move all around the screen to dodge attacks and aggressively take care of enemies, space is used extremely well.
Sometimes you can see bosses from a different path in the distance or the obstacles on an alternate path, it makes it feel and look like a real place or environment that I'm fighting through.
There's often random ships, debris, ect flying around in the background there's always something going on and a lot of detail to it. It's very dynamic and the game has a lot of spectacle that keeps it engaging just to watch even after many playthroughs. It's full of neat and impressive small details like these.
Overall the graphics are also polished though it's a lot of grey and black most likely to keep bullets and enemies visible. There were times where enemy bullets would get lost in explosions or fire effects, these don't come up often, but it's unfortunate that it does and there were times where I suddenly lost a life without seeing what hit me, it's one of the few flaws I have with this game.
The music is strange, I like it out of context, but it's often upbeat and whimsical. The feel and challenge of the game is very intense and it really doesn't fit until the later half of the game, I don't know what to think about the way the game sounds or what they were going for, it is catchy though. The Dreamcast has a remix mode with new music so at least there's that.
This game was made by a lesser known (at least at the time) company: G-Rev, they later assisted development on Ikaruga and much of the visuals camera work and polish are there too, it's interesting to compare both games as design wise they feel like complete opposites while having many of the same level mechanics, they seem to specialize in games that can be casually appreciated but take years to master.
It definitely is frustrating at times and takes a lot of patience.
Border Down is a game that feels like the culmination of years of iteration and experimentation and this is the natural conclusion and peak of those ideas, it's truly unique and memorable, and I am still addicted to it, I don't have much to complain about.
I definitely recommend this one, even if you have to play on easy and use infinite continues, it's worth it for the uniqueness and visual polish, It was very enjoyable to play through even when struggling or getting a game over.
When I found out about this game I was drawn in by the visuals and spectacle, and I decided I needed to get a copy with a Dreamcast and I don't regret it. It was everything I hoped it would be and it's still my favorite Dreamcast game.
Border Down is a port of an arcade game that was made on the Dreamcast arcade counterpart Naomi, years after the system was discontinued.
The foundation of Border Down is built from successful ideas and mechanics form older arcade shooting games with unique ideas and mechanics built off of them.
A lot of old arcade shooting games have some kind of adaptive difficulty also known as "rank"
Expert players come up with ways to keep the difficulty down so high scores and 1 credit clears are manageable known as rank management.
I've always been on the fence about this aspect of games like Battle Garegga (the game probably most well known for "rank" also Ibara and Pink Sweets) it's built into the game in a way that players are expected to intentionally lose ships and avoid powering up, it feels counterintuitive and even when I fully understood these systems I didn't enjoy playing that way.
These systems feel more like a checklist of seemingly random actions the player has to take to play optimally, they're often secretive and intentionally obscure, and hidden within the code of the game, with the intention that with enough trial and error players will decode the games complicated systems and create a "route" through it.
Realistically you'd never want to intentionally crash a ship or lose a life in a regular game, and you would always want to be fully powered, it doesn't make sense for the characters in game to do this, and it's not explained narratively in any way, it's sort of superficially layered onto the game.
Border Down does something incredible, it takes this rank concept of losing lives, fully communicates the mechanic effectively, and gives it context while mixing it with a branching level path system seen in games like the Darius or Star Fox series.
It's completely up front with the mechanics of the lives system to the point that it's the core identity to the game, it's narrative, even the name "border down' is referring to this mechanic. The game makes the idea of losing a ship on purpose make sense and made actually want to engage with it.
Dominant strategy ruins a lot of games for me, in this game though there are many possible ways through the game it has a rank system with real freedom, I had fun coming up with my own route.
Losing doesn't just make the game go easier on you or lead to a different end level boss, you get a new view or perspective of the current level to play through, the game is only 6 levels long but the separate paths can look and feel entirely new depending on the level.
Each life (or ship) is on a separate path (the game calls them borders) and there's three of them, instead of just choosing the path, normally losing a life (intentionally or not) moves the player down one path from green, to yellow, then red.
When on green you can sometimes see the yellow ship flying through it's route in the background for example, the in game protagonist is exchanging remote control between three different ships.
Another thing this game really gets right is not only do the mechanics all have narrative and gameplay context, they all feed into another in some way.
You can get "extra lives" in Border Down just like you would any arcade game from reaching a certain score however this " extra life" is just earning back the previous higher path and ship, the other gameplay mechanics all tie-into getting scores to regain these paths.
Besides rank and paths this game uses the laser mechanic from Metal Black and G-Darius where you exchange weapon power for a very powerful laser that clears the screen and makes the player invulnerable.
This has a new layer of depth to it as any bullets erased and hits on enemies adds to a score multiplier, so using it effectively and at the right spots is important to earn back lost ships and defeat bosses.
Each boss has it's own version of the laser and just like in those two previously mentioned games you can counter it with your own, creating a cool looking spectacle but also severely damaging the boss and adding a much larger score multiplier.
The game is extremely difficult, so memorizing when bosses use their attacks and how to deal with them is important, the game feels ahead of it's time in that it has a practice mode where any part of levels can be replayed and restarted instantly for easy memorization. it's not necessary to beat the game but it helps a lot.
I can see it being too frustrating for a lot of people but with the practice mode and unlockable free play (unlimited continues) it is still accessible for anyone that decides to put enough time into it.
It's all about finding your preferred path and strategy through the game, it will test even the most skilled players looking to beat the game on a single credit but it is a mostly fair challenge.
There are open levels like in space or in the sky, but the game has many cluttered sometimes claustrophobic levels with environments the player needs to precisely fly through and these can be very tense.
A collision with a stationary wall or ceiling wont result in a loss unless you keep pushing into it, you can scrape by obstacles and still get through the game is often demanding while being lenient.
In general this game has very smooth and polished gameplay, it is meticulously designed and in some ways ingeniously built.
That's not all this game has going for it, it looks great too.
The game is fully polygonal, a lot of shooting games don't use 3D space that well, often playing it safe, with little to no camera movement, or dynamic movement through environments or background details, they're usually still kind of flat.
While this game still plays just like any 2D side scrolling arcade game the camera often will pan around and go in or out of the background usually in between the main areas of a level (automated like cutscenes). Sometimes the level wil start scrolling in a different direction, sometimes up, down or diagonally, it keeps things feeling fresh.
Bosses will fly around in the background or appear in the distance earlier in the level before you end up fighting them, and during fights they can move in strange and surprising patterns all over the playable space. The game expects the player to move all around the screen to dodge attacks and aggressively take care of enemies, space is used extremely well.
Sometimes you can see bosses from a different path in the distance or the obstacles on an alternate path, it makes it feel and look like a real place or environment that I'm fighting through.
There's often random ships, debris, ect flying around in the background there's always something going on and a lot of detail to it. It's very dynamic and the game has a lot of spectacle that keeps it engaging just to watch even after many playthroughs. It's full of neat and impressive small details like these.
Overall the graphics are also polished though it's a lot of grey and black most likely to keep bullets and enemies visible. There were times where enemy bullets would get lost in explosions or fire effects, these don't come up often, but it's unfortunate that it does and there were times where I suddenly lost a life without seeing what hit me, it's one of the few flaws I have with this game.
The music is strange, I like it out of context, but it's often upbeat and whimsical. The feel and challenge of the game is very intense and it really doesn't fit until the later half of the game, I don't know what to think about the way the game sounds or what they were going for, it is catchy though. The Dreamcast has a remix mode with new music so at least there's that.
This game was made by a lesser known (at least at the time) company: G-Rev, they later assisted development on Ikaruga and much of the visuals camera work and polish are there too, it's interesting to compare both games as design wise they feel like complete opposites while having many of the same level mechanics, they seem to specialize in games that can be casually appreciated but take years to master.
It definitely is frustrating at times and takes a lot of patience.
Border Down is a game that feels like the culmination of years of iteration and experimentation and this is the natural conclusion and peak of those ideas, it's truly unique and memorable, and I am still addicted to it, I don't have much to complain about.
I definitely recommend this one, even if you have to play on easy and use infinite continues, it's worth it for the uniqueness and visual polish, It was very enjoyable to play through even when struggling or getting a game over.
When I found out about this game I was drawn in by the visuals and spectacle, and I decided I needed to get a copy with a Dreamcast and I don't regret it. It was everything I hoped it would be and it's still my favorite Dreamcast game.
imnot good enough 💔
"Alright what if we made a game that just got way harder every time you died"
"Genius"
Idk how to feel about it, but it's certainly an original idea.
"Genius"
Idk how to feel about it, but it's certainly an original idea.
This right here, is one of the best Shoot 'Em Ups ever. Sega's consoles really had most of the best shooters compared to other companies like Nintendo and Sony. It's very challenging, but also fair. The futuristic setting is cool, and the 3D graphics have actually aged pretty well, unlike a lot of other games at the time. I also really love the boss designs. The weapon system is great, as it requires a lot more strategy than a lot of other games of this kind. This is a must-own for the Dreamcast. Pick it up if you can!