Soukyuu Gurentai

Soukyuu Gurentai

released on Dec 31, 1996

Soukyuu Gurentai

released on Dec 31, 1996

After exhausting the Earth’s resources, particularly fossil fuel, innumerable trade companies team up with NASA and begin initiating space programs dedicated to finding resources outside the planet Earth. Mining facilities are established in different areas outside of Earth, particularly on large asteroids near the Moon and most especially on Mars. Various resources are found from these areas and distributed to Earth which aid in the world economy. The largest company that is established from this is the Jin-Sei (Exhausting Star) Corporation set in Japan which is worth 1 trillion in New Yen investments, founded by the Miama family. However, after years of space resource distribution, the separate companies started initiating attacks that would dominate other company’s resources. The strongest of these attacks started on Martian colonies established by the second largest company on Earth, Eight Luck Interstellar Development Inc., which banded with smaller companies across Earth including ones in China, England, and America. Eight Luck planned on claiming Mars for its own so as to monopolize on the outsourcing of minerals as well as developing terraformed areas. In response to these attacks, the Jin-Sei formed a union with the JSDF (known in the future as JDF) and began working on a space fighter program organized by Defensive Section 2 of the JDF known as the Scarlet Lotus Team (SOQ for short), which utilized a unique laser technology fighting system known as NALS (Non-blind spot All range Laser System) in combat. The threat of eco-terrorism was on the rise as out-spoken ecosystem protectionism groups opposed the company's outsourcing of materials; these were used as subsequent cover-up stories to hide the company war waging between Jin-Sei and Eight Luck from public awareness. Made up of the best fighters adapted to this combat system as well as innumerable stamina strengthening tests for space travel, the SOQ are sent in to defend company territory from rival companies on Earth and space at all costs.


Released on

Genres


More Info on IGDB


Reviews View More

One of the best shmups I ever played. Gameplay and graphics are so goooood.

outdated 3d is what videogames are made for

Shootemups are done for. Lockemups are the future.

one of the few shmups i've finished and thought to myself "yeah, i could probably beat this one without infinite credits". a lot more fair than most shmups of the era and seems to really reward memorization. the animations in this game are absolutely stellar too. really liked it! may check out the console ports too

There’s an obvious comparison to be made with Rayforce, both games utilizing a lock-on weapon that has you targeting incoming enemies (failed to mention when I wrote about Rayforce that you could only target enemies in the background; here you can shoot everything on-screen). The real trick of it ends up being the way your lock-on ends up taking precedence over your standard shot, forcing you to close distance with enemies and making attacking a much more conscious action then it ends up being in most shmups, a tension and release as you paint targets, a half-second of extra thought that will likely lead to some stupid deaths. But, on the plus side, at least you can bomb if things get too messy.

It’s a mechanical nuance that lends the game a great sense of intensity, but you’d be hard pressed to appreciate this in the moment, the music and visuals being as overwhelming as they are- this might be one of favorite shmups in terms of presentation: a few stages of corporate warfare set against Hitoshi Sakmoto’s incredible soundtrack, where you’ll break through asteroid belts and fleets of rival ships, an angry, guttural energy fueling the whole thing. Despite the difficulty of the game, I always wanted to push through, just to see what the next scenario would be- the highlight probably being Stage 3, descending through cloudcover to intercept an enemy convoy before fighting a dragon-tank boss. If you do try this out, you owe it to yourself to least get that far.