(Played the Rebirth edition on PC, but thought the OG page for this game deserved a review, of which there are none at the time of this writing.)
Very insane that a shooter of this caliber was released exclusively for a handheld system. I'm not saying it was a bad decision--it kind of rules?--but imagining playing it with that sus Wonderswan four-seperate-buttons dpad on that tiny screen is downright painful.
This is a big-boy fuckin shmup, and deserved a place on a big bright 15khz CRT screen in the arcades. It's that good... and it's that difficult! For the most part, "handheld shmup" = "baby time", but Judgement Silversword is very much for the real arcade sickos, boasting 29 micro-stages of blisteringly fast and dense stg action, as well as a brutal final boss that, should you beat it in a single credit, gives way to an even more punishing TLB. (Luckily, as long as you're aggressive enough, the game is happy to flood you with extends.)
Score can be had in two main ways: keep your shield fully charged at 100% (aka don't use it) for as long as possible, which slowly creeps your base multiplier upward; or go nuts with your shield, plowing it into bullets to send the multiplier shooting into double digits, and then kill enemies quickly during the spike. Both, or a combination of the two, gratify intensely.
My scant problems are mostly due to its origination as a handheld title -- poor visibility in some instances, very basic graphics, and repetitive and unexciting music. Aside from that stuff, this is stg bliss.
Very insane that a shooter of this caliber was released exclusively for a handheld system. I'm not saying it was a bad decision--it kind of rules?--but imagining playing it with that sus Wonderswan four-seperate-buttons dpad on that tiny screen is downright painful.
This is a big-boy fuckin shmup, and deserved a place on a big bright 15khz CRT screen in the arcades. It's that good... and it's that difficult! For the most part, "handheld shmup" = "baby time", but Judgement Silversword is very much for the real arcade sickos, boasting 29 micro-stages of blisteringly fast and dense stg action, as well as a brutal final boss that, should you beat it in a single credit, gives way to an even more punishing TLB. (Luckily, as long as you're aggressive enough, the game is happy to flood you with extends.)
Score can be had in two main ways: keep your shield fully charged at 100% (aka don't use it) for as long as possible, which slowly creeps your base multiplier upward; or go nuts with your shield, plowing it into bullets to send the multiplier shooting into double digits, and then kill enemies quickly during the spike. Both, or a combination of the two, gratify intensely.
My scant problems are mostly due to its origination as a handheld title -- poor visibility in some instances, very basic graphics, and repetitive and unexciting music. Aside from that stuff, this is stg bliss.