Power Strike II is a shoot 'em up for the Sega Game Gear in Compile's Aleste series and the sequel to GG Aleste. Not to be confused with Power Strike II for the Sega Master System.
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Great improvement over GG Aleste 1, much faster paced and with some solid weapons...okay, I mostly used napalm.
Play it on the Aleste Collection compo with slowdown off for a smooth and fast experience.
Play it on the Aleste Collection compo with slowdown off for a smooth and fast experience.
Excellent little shooter - huge improvement over the first game, adds a nice challenge but not crazy difficult. Good music, good variation in levels and the runs are just the right length for a portable game.
Probably the best Game Gear game?? Aleste rules.
Earlier this year I played GG Aleste 1 and thought it was a fun game if a bit too easy for me personally. It was never gonna be one of the best games ever but for a GG shmup, it's a good effort. I actually had no plans to play Power Strike II/ GG Aleste 2 currently because I felt I was playing too many games in the series after already playing 2 Aleste games. I was testing it out for something and was enjoying it a lot that I decided to play the game all the way through.
Power Strike II is like taking the first game, ironing out some of the issues like its difficulty and making it even more cool with how much they throw at you and just how fast it feels. The beginning of the game just screams "Yeah we aren't messing around this time!" and you won't be either because you still got some powerful weapons yourself.
I'm not a shmup expert by any means but I found the weapons to be decently balanced but I did find the homing missiles underwhelming at least compared to the others. I also felt like I couldn't fully rely on the 3 defense balls 24/7. You even get a cool shield ability that can withstand a hit and I always love having those. Oh there's also a bomb but you don't get too many of them but they sure do look cool when you use one.
The stages and enemies aren't the most interesting in the world in fact what kept this from being a 9/10 was that it felt a bit repetitive at least when it came to some enemies but it's not the worst ever I should add. The level length feels kind of short and I don't mind that considering they upped the difficulty. The bosses also provide a decent challenge and they keep me engaged with the action.
The game looks really good for the Game Gear and while it can't always handle it especially when a lot of stuff is on screen, it still impresses me how fast it is. It almost can feel hard to fully see everything at once with how intense it can get. The music is GG music so I barely remember it, I'm sorry. Maybe I'll sit down and listen to it someday.
This game was a joy from beginning to end and it's one you should try playing if you ever get the chance. This is now currently my favorite Game Gear on the handheld and I'm glad to have given it a try. I would love to play GG Aleste 3 but sadly from what I heard, it's impossible to play on emulators and I don't really want to spend a lot of money to play it on Switch. So for now I guess that's it for Aleste for me, I guess you'll see me play Robo Aleste next year.
Also a little bonus section here. When I was playing this game and for some reason in stage 4 the game completely broke the graphics and it took me like 3 rewind attempts to make it actually progress properly. I still have no clue if I just had a bad rom, the wrong emulator, or the game can just somehow do that by accident.
Power Strike II is like taking the first game, ironing out some of the issues like its difficulty and making it even more cool with how much they throw at you and just how fast it feels. The beginning of the game just screams "Yeah we aren't messing around this time!" and you won't be either because you still got some powerful weapons yourself.
I'm not a shmup expert by any means but I found the weapons to be decently balanced but I did find the homing missiles underwhelming at least compared to the others. I also felt like I couldn't fully rely on the 3 defense balls 24/7. You even get a cool shield ability that can withstand a hit and I always love having those. Oh there's also a bomb but you don't get too many of them but they sure do look cool when you use one.
The stages and enemies aren't the most interesting in the world in fact what kept this from being a 9/10 was that it felt a bit repetitive at least when it came to some enemies but it's not the worst ever I should add. The level length feels kind of short and I don't mind that considering they upped the difficulty. The bosses also provide a decent challenge and they keep me engaged with the action.
The game looks really good for the Game Gear and while it can't always handle it especially when a lot of stuff is on screen, it still impresses me how fast it is. It almost can feel hard to fully see everything at once with how intense it can get. The music is GG music so I barely remember it, I'm sorry. Maybe I'll sit down and listen to it someday.
This game was a joy from beginning to end and it's one you should try playing if you ever get the chance. This is now currently my favorite Game Gear on the handheld and I'm glad to have given it a try. I would love to play GG Aleste 3 but sadly from what I heard, it's impossible to play on emulators and I don't really want to spend a lot of money to play it on Switch. So for now I guess that's it for Aleste for me, I guess you'll see me play Robo Aleste next year.
Also a little bonus section here. When I was playing this game and for some reason in stage 4 the game completely broke the graphics and it took me like 3 rewind attempts to make it actually progress properly. I still have no clue if I just had a bad rom, the wrong emulator, or the game can just somehow do that by accident.
tasty soundtrack
Maybe my favorite Aleste so far, it's such a damn smooth ride, and its contributions to the GG library go without saying.