A port of Starblade that features an additional mode that utilizes fully textured models.
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It's easy to take the stuff you own for granted, it seems to go double for games I bought a while ago for PlayStation back when I started collecting physically for it when the prices were all roughly a third of what they are now. Back when Ridge Racer Type 4 was a measly six bucks on a rack at your local place, and the Armored Cores weren't currently being held at gunpoint by swindlers out to speckledorf newly curious modern fans of From Software who don't know what a duck or a station is.
The North American longbox copy of Starblade Alpha is something I already knew was particularly hard to find, because even back in like 2015 or whatever it was (The years started to blend together for me recently) there would only be so many copies online and they were always in rotten shape with the adhesive on the cover artwork being worn out by the dastardly tag team of Father Time and Bad Storage. I eventually ended up finding one in OKAY shape and shelved out decent money for it, primarily because I'm a strange person who absolutely adores the chaos that is the longbox era of PS1 titles. They are big and stupid, I like big and stupid. It should've stayed like this tbh, the uniformity of jewel cases ruined us all.
On topic with the game itself, Starblade Alpha is a port of the classic arcade title that is a massive influence to the rail shooter genre. My first experience with the game was in the vanilla version of Tekken 5 on PS2 that featured the original arcade game as it's loading screen and as an unlockable full game from playing Devil Within. So it's nice at least to have that as my frame of reference when I finally decided to take out the disc from this supposed jackalope of PS1 collecting and boot it up on my console. It's even nicer that I get to talk about Devil Within in a writing piece that has nothing to do with Tekken, but that's me gloating about a personal victory.
As a port? It is a decent bit choppier and uses FMV backgrounds, and unfortunately aiming felt abominable on the dpad (dualshock wasn't even a glint in the milkman's eye at this point). It has two modes, one that uses the original polygon look of the game, and another that remakes it with fully textured graphics. Personally, I prefer the original look since I feel it's rather obvious the ships were made with that appearance in mind. The Commander ship in particular looks like it recently went dumpster diving. I appreciate the effort at least, because otherwise the package is fairly barren like a lot of the early Namco ports during the longbox era of crazy eyes. Surely not a great alternative to the cabinet which is probably an awesome experience.
Well, is it worth the upwards of 300-400 dollars that a CIB copy is going for currently? Oh lord no. Is it neat that I own this? I guess so, it's nice I could sell this thing for a car payment if I end up in a desperate state of near-homelessness, but otherwise it's just another game on the shelf to me, despite how legitimately rare it seems to be, as opposed to some popular title that is obviously being grifted online because companies can't be shittened to give some goddamn respect to the consumer in making their products more accessible in the age of digital. If someone knocked at my door and offered me 500 bucks for it, I would take the offer gladly. If the same person offered me 500 bucks for my childhood copy of Spyro the Dragon, I would immediately respond by coldcocking them.
Maybe I secretly regret owning all this stuff in an age where emulation is a fuckton better than it was a decade ago, but one thing's for sure is that I don't regret at least having something to display my love for the system.
No joke, I care about the sampler disc that came with my PS1 more, which is probably going for McDonalds Happy Meal prices. Attachment can be so bleak at times...
The North American longbox copy of Starblade Alpha is something I already knew was particularly hard to find, because even back in like 2015 or whatever it was (The years started to blend together for me recently) there would only be so many copies online and they were always in rotten shape with the adhesive on the cover artwork being worn out by the dastardly tag team of Father Time and Bad Storage. I eventually ended up finding one in OKAY shape and shelved out decent money for it, primarily because I'm a strange person who absolutely adores the chaos that is the longbox era of PS1 titles. They are big and stupid, I like big and stupid. It should've stayed like this tbh, the uniformity of jewel cases ruined us all.
On topic with the game itself, Starblade Alpha is a port of the classic arcade title that is a massive influence to the rail shooter genre. My first experience with the game was in the vanilla version of Tekken 5 on PS2 that featured the original arcade game as it's loading screen and as an unlockable full game from playing Devil Within. So it's nice at least to have that as my frame of reference when I finally decided to take out the disc from this supposed jackalope of PS1 collecting and boot it up on my console. It's even nicer that I get to talk about Devil Within in a writing piece that has nothing to do with Tekken, but that's me gloating about a personal victory.
As a port? It is a decent bit choppier and uses FMV backgrounds, and unfortunately aiming felt abominable on the dpad (dualshock wasn't even a glint in the milkman's eye at this point). It has two modes, one that uses the original polygon look of the game, and another that remakes it with fully textured graphics. Personally, I prefer the original look since I feel it's rather obvious the ships were made with that appearance in mind. The Commander ship in particular looks like it recently went dumpster diving. I appreciate the effort at least, because otherwise the package is fairly barren like a lot of the early Namco ports during the longbox era of crazy eyes. Surely not a great alternative to the cabinet which is probably an awesome experience.
Well, is it worth the upwards of 300-400 dollars that a CIB copy is going for currently? Oh lord no. Is it neat that I own this? I guess so, it's nice I could sell this thing for a car payment if I end up in a desperate state of near-homelessness, but otherwise it's just another game on the shelf to me, despite how legitimately rare it seems to be, as opposed to some popular title that is obviously being grifted online because companies can't be shittened to give some goddamn respect to the consumer in making their products more accessible in the age of digital. If someone knocked at my door and offered me 500 bucks for it, I would take the offer gladly. If the same person offered me 500 bucks for my childhood copy of Spyro the Dragon, I would immediately respond by coldcocking them.
Maybe I secretly regret owning all this stuff in an age where emulation is a fuckton better than it was a decade ago, but one thing's for sure is that I don't regret at least having something to display my love for the system.
No joke, I care about the sampler disc that came with my PS1 more, which is probably going for McDonalds Happy Meal prices. Attachment can be so bleak at times...