On Saturn there's Guardian Heroes and Radiant Silvergun, both games I've always really liked and immediately got the hang of.
And then there's this game...

My first time playing this I felt like I was fighting the game mechanics, I often felt like I was missing something.
I really struggled my way through this game, brute forcing my way to the end while throwing away multiple continues. I didn't understand why it couldn't just be a straightforward run-&-gun or action platformer, it seemed like the added mechanics just got in the way.
It was so frustrating and exhausting to play. I just saw it as the one weak link in the developer's history.
And so this game just sat on my shelf for many years and I'd always remember it as that weird mediocre treasure game.

Only now after coming back to it years later and finally understanding how to play it I feel qualified to write this review.
Silhouette Mirage comes from a developer that is most known for out-of-the-box ideas and experimental game design, and this is one of their games that pushes things even further than usual.

Silhouette Mirage is a misunderstood game, and I also misunderstood it.
This game is deceptively esoteric and deceptively genious. So much so that it took many playthroughs before I finally "got it"

Silhouette Mirage has a color polarity system but the player can't just easily change color at the press of a button you have to face left or right, it's the kind of idea that seems arbitrary and unique for the sake of being unique at first. It's easy to write the mechanics of this game off as shallow the game can almost feel mechanically confused, but the truth is that it isn't just a gimmick, most mechanics are deep and thoughtfully designed.

That's how the game is deceptive, before I really learned the deeper skills and mechanics I assumed that jumping over enemies and trying to move around them was a effective way to play, instead it's all about manipulating and forcing enemies into places where they are at a disadvantage, in other words move the enemy not yourself. It's counter-intuitive to the the way most games would go about something like this. There's a lot of depth to this idea, and it does work in practice once it's properly understood. Many of the bosses in the game feel the same way, before I understood their gimmick, patterns, or weakness they seem tedious and unfair but now they're fun to fight and a reasonable challenge. It's a huge contrast in difficulty all coming from the mechanics themselves. Nothing about Silhouette Mirage is minimal or simple.

This is primarily a run-and-gun game, but it feels a lot like a beat-em-up in some aspects with how spacing is used, it's really important to navigate around enemies and push them into place to control the situation.

You can shoot enemies with the same color and it won't do damage, it might seem like a waste but what this actually does is drain their energy, my first time playing I didn't understand the utility of this and only tried to damage them, it's really important to drain some enemies of all their power first.

It's a really clever layer added to this mechanic, instead of just aggressively attacking everything the game has a focus on disarming your opponent first, so you can get in closer and deal heavier damage. The game prioritizes defense and patience in a really unique way there's not really any run-and-gun game that does things like this. Silhouette is certainly no Contra or Metal Slug, you can't just run in and blast away groups of enemies.

Once an enemy or boss is disarmed they usually have no attacks they can do anymore leaving them open to being grabbed, you can grab and thow almost any enemy and boss which is important for controlling the battle and spacing, but the player can punch money out of enemies and bosses while grabbing them.
This leads to some grinding for shops where you can buy healing items and upgrade weapons, it's essential to have a chance against harder bosses later into the game, there's another layer of resource management added to everything that's already going on here.
It's a lot to keep track of and will keep the majority of players from enjoying it. This is definitely not a game for everyone, I think it has a niche appeal. It's a very demanding, complicated, and punishing action game.

As well as everything works and how well planned and developed many aspects of the game are, there are some serious problems that skill alone can't fix.

My first time actually getting to the final level of the game I was experimenting with weapons and ended up stuck with the Bomb weapon named Angara, the massive problem with this is that Angara can only hit ground targets, you see the final few bosses are exclusively airborne... I could not hit them, I had no chance. My entire playthrough ended right there at no real fault of my own, because the weapon system is so under-developed and unbalanced. The game can be very frustrating like this and not in a satisfying way, there's a smoke/toxic weapon and a targeting homing shot that both take too much setup when you could just get much higher DPS with anything else and worst of all weapons give enemies knockback. This is no issue with the standard shot, Laser, or boomerang, but the rest just hit once launching the enemy away while the rest of the attack misses.
There's no reason not to just use half the weapons.

If I had to pick out the most significant weakness from Treasure as a developer, the most significant and recurring problem that can show up in many of their games, it would be over reliance on gimmicks and one-off ideas.
committing too hard to an idea at the detriment of pacing or enjoyability, at times it's as if they thought the idea was too good of a concept not too put in the game without considering if it's worth including to begin with. I always reward a game for creativity and I think they deserve some credit for trying and experimenting with new ideas, but those ideas can't always be good. Sometimes it's possible to go too far in that direction, I think they get a bit carried away at times.

I think this flaw is the worst demonstrated in this game, often it's just one or maybe two bosses in their games that have this issue but here I can count at least six that do this, it's a lot to explain as the scenarios can be very specific, so I'll let parts from my latest playthrough (on very hard) speak for itself. It's as fun as it looks (so not at all)

SPOILERS FOR FINAL BOSS
https://youtu.be/rUB-91LxKeE

Whenever there's a boss exclusively in the background it's just dreadful, both of those go on for five or more minutes as the player is just waiting around for them to damage themselves.

You would want a game like this to scale in difficulty gradually and naturally, with a few exceptions that's true here and the game overall is challenging, but the semi-final boss is an absurd massive spike in difficulty, and it's fought right after another very hard boss being the third one in a row with no heals or shops in between, it's especially cruel design and it artificially lead to most of my playthroughs ending early.

As it turns out the key to actually fighting them is just holding reflect or attack in the corner, like a lot of the gimmicky parts of the game figuring it out is the challenge but once that's over with it's just pathetic, fighting it knowing the solution just takes all the challenge and skill away. The most mindless nothing kind of gameplay.

For every 3 great boss fights there's a really bad one, the bosses that are straightforward to fight end up being the most fun and thankfully they make up the majority of the game, many have a clever gimmick that just helps or makes it much easier without getting in the way or ruining the overall flow and there are a lot of them, not all boss fights are bad there's a lot of very memorable and fun ones.

I have a lot to complain about in terms of gameplay, but I can't complain at all about the presentation
graphically it's a nice looking game with charming and unique character designs, they're about as unusual as the rest of the game, every level takes place in a very different environment from the others and there's a lot of imaginative and appealing locations, it's nowhere near the spectacle or scope one would expect from Treasure, nothing mind blowing or awe inspiring but it's still above average and the game is very distinct.

The soundtrack is catchy it's not my favorite but there are a few standout level themes and it's well varied
Overall the game has a very unique character and style with a strange and complicated plot to go along with it

Despite being complicated the game is responsive and has many moves to take control of any situation, it feels good to run up walls or slide and the character has a lot of air movement without being too "floaty"

Not every idea works well and it can be cumbersome a lot of times, there are some awful parts in this game that there's just no getting around. It's a game that has a lot to like but it takes a lot of work to learn to like this game. There's some really good bosses and levels here that are brought down by the bad ones I have a list of complaints with this game, but in the end it still has enough good ideas to make it worthwhile.

In spite of everything I appreciate that the developers took some risks, some ideas failed but without that first attempt they may have never learned from their mistakes, and maybe some of the later games that surpassed this one wouldn't have been made, if anything Silhouette Mirage is an extremely unique and unusual game that any action game fan should experience.

Gundam Seed PS2 is a unique, surprising, and mindlessly fun action game, but you probably have never heard of it, not only is it Japan exclusive it's a Gundam Seed PS2 game of which there are at least 4 more with "Gundam Seed" in the title, a very crowded genre with an IP that was being overused at the time. The extremely basic game title here only makes this worse and the bad reputation of the anime and other Seed tie-ins indirectly effect this game. You'd probably never guess this is a run & gun - beat-em-up hybrid, and probably the best of any of the Seed games with some actual effort and creativity put into its development.

This game comes from the same developer as Wild Guns, Ninjawarriors, and specifically the Battle Assault games, it's quite the pedigree, this game doesn't live up to any of those, but it is still well made and fun all the way through, it's definitely one of the better licensed games from this company.

I don't know anything about Gundam Seed, and really my knowledge about Gundam in general is very surface level, I'm not familiar with a lot of it I can't read or understand Japanese anyway so I'm not going to miss the story in the game, but it seems to follow the anime up to the point it was made, to the end of the first season (this is a problem, I'll get into that later)
Overall the presentation here is pretty good, the cutscenes are well animated, some clearly are clips from the show but a lot of it is original for the game, there's 2D animated scenes and some in-engine ones, the menus are sleek and nice looking, and the attention to detail is great, ingame models are decently textured and detailed, and ingame environments look great except for the far off parts of the background being very blurry, some of the ground textures are blurry and out of place in a few spots, enemy explosions leave a lot to be desired with a very small effect and no shrapnel, it looks very unconvincing. Overall it's a decent looking game.

What really stands out visually is as you are fighting enemies are will have their own chatter and reactions as they fly in or are defeated, with a little animated profile that displays above them, many enemies have their very own voice and likeness, these aren't just silent faceless enemies to mow down, I was reminded there are supposed to be pilots here and kind of adds to the seriousness and stake of the setting, it's a cool detail and it makes the confrontation with ingame rivals and end bosses feel a lot more dynamic.
I appreciate the music this game has too, it would be easy enough to just copy over the anime soundtrack or give it a generic orchestral or rock sound, but this has a very nice Synth soundtrack that stands out compared to other Gundam/Mech games, at times it has a sort of Mega Man X PS1 era sound https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYjDzLErnsc
Other tracks set the mood with seriousness or intensity for the fast paced parts well, and an end credits theme that conveys the war ingame is not over and there were some serious losses.


This is a shorter arcade focused kind of game, the beat-em-up elements are satisfying and responsive. Combat has a lot of wind-up and recovery without many actions to cancel out of it and dashing can feel delayed, it does end up feeling like piloting a massive mecha and isn't quite as smooth as you'd hope.
It's not too slow or clunky overall, moves are still fun to pull off, though there's only two attack buttons (long range and short range) there directional inputs, some follow up attacks, aerial maneuvers, and a super move that takes some health, these all add enough depth to it and I was never bored with the mechanics nor did it get too repetitive or old, it's somewhat standard but well executed.
I wouldn't say it's as satisfying or smooth as something like Mad Stalker or Gear Fighter but it's serviceable.

The game has an auto target system that will keep the player facing the enemy, and auto-aims long range weapons, while there are enemies on the same single plane, others fly in or wander in the background shooting back at the player from far away and indicators show where the bullet will cross the play area or hit the plane of ground the player is on, and these can be targeted and fired at from the player too, it's kind of unique and novel for this kind of game and I really appreciate the idea.

Having a side-scroller with fighting game mechanics, where you can target enemies in the background perfectly fusing Gallery shooter with beat-em-up is just fantastic, the potential for a unique and dynamic action game is definitely there.
The main issue with this game is it sort of combines all the ideas from their previous games together, and on paper it's genius the way this could work, but this game doesn't quite pull it off as well as I'd hope, it IS really cool that there's this other dimension to the game with dodging attacks from the background and dividing your offense between the two.

The way long range works is a lot like Wild Guns, and had me remembering a lot about how that game worked if it was just as frenetic and smooth as that game it could have been great. What really limits this and takes most of the skill and depth away is you that can't aim the cursor at all. It locks on automatically and the fire rate is VERY slow no matter what build you choose.
When firing the player is locked in place, there's no dodge roll like in Wild Guns and a delay to jump out of firing, it's just not that satisfying.
This game has the exact same multiplier system as wild guns too, defeating enemies without letting go of fire or moving adds a score bonus this should be a good thing as in Wild Guns this added to some great risk reward depth especially when you could shoot down incoming bullets to keep the chain going, but here you just hold the fire button while all the aiming is done for you, it's way too incentivized to just stand and shoot mindlessly as the brain-dead AI on your own plane slowly walks at you and maybe decides to attack, they often don't get a chance to pose a threat before they've been blasted away, just tanking damage and holding the fire button can nearly get the player through entire levels, and worse, it's the dominant strategy for getting score and leveling up.
This game has the same problem as something like Devil May Cry 2, thankfully it's not as broken or exploitable and bosses will force the player to engage with them, it's a significant oversight but it didn't ruin the game for me.

Score is also experience which adds to you max armor, when you run out of armor the weapons equipped at the beginning of each level break and you're stuck with the basic starting mobile suit, bosses have their own armor and it works the same way, it's a unique and engaging health system

Shooting on the ground locks you in place, but while hovering (which the player can do for quite a while) you can freely move around while shooting, so dodging fire from the background becomes easy, all while the enemies on the ground just stand waiting for the player to land, they won't even try to jump at the player, this loses the score multiplier so at least it's not incentivized but it's a bit broken and unbalanced.

You could stay on the ground and do flashy fighting game moves while guarding strategically and getting score bonuses, but why take the risk?
In between some of these levels there's on-rail sections where the player can freely fly around, these are more focused on shooting and has the same aiming/targeting system, whenever enemies get in close the player can do some melee moves, and sometimes you have to time the attack to counter an incoming enemy, these levels were more simple but were also fun to play, still it's essentially Sin & Punishment 2 but slow and simple, there's not as much going on in these levels but I did kind of enjoy the more minimal approach. These levels were a pleasant surprise despite how simple they are.

The game starts very easy with very few enemies at once, it takes a few levels before it really starts getting more hectic and then when the game seems like it finally hits it's stride, it ends... There's no hard mode or extra levels to really put the players skills and moveset to the test and there isn't much fanfare for the final fight, I had no idea I was fighting the final boss nor did it feel like the last level, that's the worst thing about this game, since the anime hadn't finished airing at the time, they couldn't really have the game end in a substantial way.
This is pretty standard for Natsume licensed games, all the Power Rangers games, Gear Fighter, Endless Duel, all ended abruptly without a satisfying conclusion and I've seen many other licensed games from this company that did the same.

Before any mission the player can choose between some different modifiers to add to the mech, sadly there aren't any other mobile suits or characters to play through the game with, these all have different combos and weapons (though not drastically different) that add a great variety on top of everything.
After clearing the game a score attack mode with no level ups and a VS mode are unlocked, Vs mode lets two players fight on any (ground not flying) level setting with any of the ingame boss Gundams, and the five versions the main game had, it works well enough though the different mobile suits can be unbalanced and it's not as deep as a dedicated fighting game, still a good addition it was fun from what I was able to try.

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed just isn't up to the standard or scope of the original titles that came from these developers it's generally plays like "diet Wild Guns" fused with "diet Gear Fighter" which don't get me wrong, still ends up being a lot of fun. This still surpasses many licensed games in general, and many Gundam related games, it's one of the better ones, and for the unique approach to gameplay alone it was well worth playing, at the very least it has a great visual and audio presentation to go along with that, and a fun enough VS mode for some added content and longevity.

For the price a used copy of this goes for it's really a bargain, and overall I'm not that disappointed by it. The novelty of it makes up for a lot, it's a fun, quick, and easy game to go through in an afternoon. The game is a little mindless, but not every game needs to be deep or difficult. I really wanted to like this more than I did, but it's still a solid game. I'd recommend this one, even for non-Gundam fans, if you like the other games I've mentioned in this review, definitely play this game, it's not going to change your life, but it's a decent way to spend an hour or two.

What I've played from this developer; Shin'en, has always left me a bit unsatisfied.
They're clearly extremely talented at coding with what they can pull of on basic hardware, creating pseudo-3D games and impressive 3D rendered environments with convincing visual depth and you can always count on an incredible soundtrack to go with it, with uncompressed sound that rivals the best the Game Boy Advance can handle, they have a lot of potential as a developer.

But every game I'd played from them pre-2015 was underdeveloped or unpolished. Terrible hit detection, bad visibility, and repetitive games that wear out their welcome quickly. Something like Iridion II comes very close to being a solid game (and I would still recommend trying it), but difficulty balancing, useless weapons, mindless boss fights that go on for too long, and basic enemy patterns hold it back from being great, there's elements of the dreaded "euro shootemup" design in many of their games.
I've always liked games they made in spite of all of that, because the aesthetics and sound were that amazing.

Something like Maya the Bee: Sweet Gold (and Great Adventure) is unassuming, considering it's a licensed game I had even less faith in it, I thought, surely this is a terrible low effort shovelware game.

No, it's actually the opposite, I was very pleasantly surprised once I started playing this, as it turns out this is probably their best game (that I've played so far).

It's the last Gameboy Advance game developed by this team and it looks and plays like it. From the very first level in the game the player is presented with very clean visuals, fluid animation, and a surprising amount of background layers with visual depth, while this really catchy theme is playing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS8y1OUT9H0

Out of the 6 world themes none had underwhelming music, and every level has some kind of nice visual effect. Whether it's ridiculous parallax
https://youtu.be/eAKN2UzwnT4
Transparent background layers https://youtu.be/uq0wGG-iVy0
weather effects https://youtu.be/ctNlewHfYho
lighting effects, or just a nice looking background, the game is consistently appealing visually.

The game plays like a late-era Snes game, movement is smooth and responsive, and there's a small hover move that can be done after jumping making hitting enemies and landing on small platforms more manageable.

One neat and unique mechanic is that the hover move is limited, and has to be recharged with an item throughout each level, there ends up being some light strategy and puzzle solving with conserving it and making it last for when it's needed to clear a wide gap or get some extra height.

The gameplay consists of jumping on enemies, collecting many items scattered throughout the levels to earn extra lives, and a goal somewhere at the end of the level, it's pretty standard.

What makes this fun to play despite the simple and familiar gameplay is the level design and theming, every level has many secret areas to find and they're often intuitive or just hidden well enough to be a challenge to find but not to the point of frustration.
The camera seemed like it was going to be a significant issue more-so with the small screen size advance games have, but thankfully there's a look up/down function mapped to L and R, and the camera doesn't move around too much or too little to be annoying.

Besides that there's a some variety introduced with level specific gimmicks, push-able objects that are part of small puzzles, round objects that roll down hills and can be used to avoid spikes, moving platforms, or objects that need to be stomped from above to be broken that block paths.
Again it's all standard but well implemented, in fact all of these things are near identical to the game Yoshi's Island, even the visual effects that were used, it never reaches that level of ingenuity or brilliance but it's competent at least and keeps the game from getting too repetitive.

So the game isn't very original, players won't find anything groundbreaking or unique here, but it's well designed enough within more open larger levels to stand out and be enjoyable to play in it's own way.
Repetition almost sets in before the environment changes or a different mechanic is introduced, there's also some completely vertical levels which is not something often seen in 2D platformers and works really well with the mechanics the game uses.

It's also a pretty easy game, I only played on the hard mode, which just removes checkpoints and health refills and I still barely had any struggles getting through this game.

It's very laid-back, I would describe this as a comfy game. the clean colorful visuals, nice weather effects, and charming music all make this a very easygoing cozy game, overall it's just pleasant to play.

After beating the game there's an "arcade" mode where all the collectibles are tracked, and getting all of them is acknowledged by the game.
I had more fun playing this way with a real goal in mind, and it means completely exploring every level.

So it's a solid game, but there are some issues. Collecting everything and beating the game unlocks a sound test and image gallery, but that's it, beating the game on hard doesn't seem to do anything either, it takes awhile to fully complete arcade mode, it would have been great to unlock some kind of extra content within the main game, but there isn't much of a reward at all, it's kind of a letdown.

Hit detection is pretty good overall, but a few enemies have unpredictable movement or are harder to jump on than they should be so there were a few deaths that were unfair, some obstacles like falling icicles blend in with the background or fall from off-screen and I got hit by them constantly, the ice levels were dreadful to play because of that, falling obstacles are hard to react to.

Worst of all there are no boss fights, considering how platformer bosses usually end up it's not much of a loss, but some kind of added challenge, especially at the very end would have made more of an impact, otherwise it feels like the game ends suddenly with no real conflict. Instead of boss fights the game has these odd flying stages, they're all the same besides the background changing for each world, it's just avoiding enemies for a few minutes as the level scrolls by until it ends, there's no combat and they're also very easy.

It's definitely not a perfect game, the highs aren't nearly as great as the best you'd find in something like Mario, Yoshi, or DKC, it's derivative and doesn't take as much risks as it could and isn't quite as ambitious or creative as the best of the genre, but there aren't really any low points and for a licensed Gameboy Advance platformer it's much better than it needed to be.

This doesn't set the standard for licensed child-friendly platformers, but it comes awfully close. An overall pleasant experience with great graphics and some nice music.
It's a shame copies of this are so hard to find and that the game only released in PAL regions, anyone looking for a decent GBA 2D platformer that isn't a Mario port or licensed shovelware should find a way to play this.

This is so smooth to play, this game is short and it has some rushed or thrown together aspects but it's really enjoyable despite that.

This is a beat-em-up that plays on a single plane, there's fighting game commands, dashes, throws, and a variety of moves that add some depth to the game, there's the usual meter and super moves too.

What makes this worth playing is how fast and smooth it is, linking together attacks and reacting or countering enemy attacks feels very satisfying, dashing into a jump/dash then dashing again into a rushing attack just feels very much like maneuvers from a good fighting game.

The player and most bosses and enemies also have long range attacks at their disposal with multiple levels of attack power based on the input, with air/anti-air versions too.
You can throw enemies around and juggle them, it's cool to find another game that has all the best aspects of something like Guardian Heroes (which I've read was inspired or influenced by this game)

The enemy AI moves around quickly and can counter the player attacks easily so bosses and even most average enemies put up a good fight, it's a difficult game but it didn't feel horribly unfair like many 90s beat-em-ups and didn't rely on boss I-frames, long range grab/throw attacks or overly long health bars like so many games like this do. I personally find most games in the genre kind of exhausting and hopeless to even consider beating on a single credit, it's always great to find a game in this genre that seems like the devs thought more about making the game fun for even casual players and wanted players to have a good chance to beat the game, this game pushes back but not too hard, there's an Easy and hard mode with unlimited continues if the player wants more or less challenge.

So, it's true this game is extremely short, and it ends abruptly
I'm ok with that, in some ways it benefits the fast pace and makes this much more replayable, but it's going to be a deal breaker for the average player and I think the devs knew it would be unacceptable to release this with such light content, so this also features a VS mode and I think that's very important to consider with this game as it does add a lot of value to it.
All the movement and attacks are carried over into vs mode, I've played some games that had this feature as a disposable extra or novelty, often these extra vs modes on games like this are shallow and underdeveloped
however this plays just like any other high quality fighting game, now this isn't just the main 1 player mech vs one of the bosses or something, no they put in every single enemy and boss in this mode with all of their moves, even the small filler enemies that have one attack just.
And of course it's unbalanced but that doesn't stop it from being enjoyable with a 2nd player, it's commendable that there's so many playable characters that all play and move differently.

As if that's not enough, with a simple code the main mode can be played with any of the boss characters, and even more are added to the vs mode, there's a fantastic amount of replay value with so much variety added from this feature, it really elevates this from an alright game to an amazing one.

This is a remake of an old PC game, I actually enjoy the remade music and most of the visuals here despite the basic low-budget feel some of it has.

The robot designs specifically are very appealing, the design in general has a late 80s OVA look to it that I enjoy, there's nothing impressive or deep going on in terms of tech here, the backgrounds are flat and kind of blurry and there's barely any moving parts to it, the custscenes have some nice art in them but they're extremely simple and amateur, it shows how little time or budget was given to make them.

There are some negatives but it's mostly presentation, even so I appreciate that the game is so focused on gameplay and that's where nearly all of the effort and polish went, I'd rather play a really satisfying game with mediocre presentation than a boring one that looks great, anyone looking for a decent story or lengthy campaign should look elsewhere.
This game is all about Substance over style (though again the mech designs and settings definitely have some style).

The truth is, if it has a giant blue mech on the cover I'm going to buy it anyway, I can't say it was worth $290 US, but I wasn't disappointed and I'm very glad to have this game, I'll get my moneys worth even if I have to play through this 50 times or play the vs mode with CPU or a friend for hundreds of hours, I don't think I'll get bored of it.

Sometimes I forget just how far back true 3D games go. I mostly find these games fascinating and endearing with how simple they are, I haven't really played many early 3D games from this era.

I was surprised to find this old rail shooter I've never heard of, with neat wire-frame graphics. It has a lot of similarities to the Star Wars arcade game while having what feels like prototype versions of gameplay styles from X and Star Fox.

The visuals are well done overall, with a cool futuristic opening and launch sequence, also very good and memorable soundtrack.

I was really caught of guard when the game suddenly ended after about 10 minutes, the game is like one continuous (changing) level, not just flying in an empty void, there's an asteroid belt, then planet surface, and tunnel section, before ending in a boss fight. Again it's very simple and has all the tropes you'd expect from a space themed rail shooter.

Most wireframe based games were very plain and lacking in personality, one aspect that really elevates this game is the style it has to it, the ship designs and small details had some thought put into them.
Playing this felt like delving into a completely different time and place within games, it was a very unique experience, even more so since my experience with this Platform is very limited, something like the X68k really had a very specific and entirely different gaming "ecosystem" from what was being seen on console.

It's somewhat rough to play and has some unrefined design, considering this predates games like Star Fox and Panzer Dragoon it's not too surprising.
For example the main projectile the player shoots moves in a cumbersome circular pattern and often the environment gets in the way, it was hard to hit anything.
Enemies can shoot the player from off-screen or even from behind, and the movement has lots of momentum to it.
Playing this took a minute or two to acclimate to it, and I did get hit by a lot of cheap shots. The game is kind of saved by it's brevity, and the very generous health bar, and on the two occasions that I did get a game over it was quick and easy to get back to where I'd lost, it makes the game very replayable.
The game has limited lock on shots that help immensely with hitting enemies and the framerate and movement are very consistent for the time, it's kind of impressive how smooth it feels to play this.

It really comes across that the developers enjoyed making this it's very much the same kind of passion for games I felt growing up with the original star fox, if it were condensed into this tiny very focused game.

It has some rough aspects and limitations, but in the end I think it was still worth experiencing even just for the novelty of it, and I just can't get enough of wireframe / low-poly games so I was going to get something out of this anyway, it ended up being a pleasant surprise overall, I'll probably regularly replay this one.

Everything from how fast and extremely short the game is, the stylistic intro and ending, and the carefree upbeat music feels like it comes from a completely different era that's long since passed, it just feels so sincere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TykN4vXukpA
The main ship design, for what it is looks pretty cool too.

The way the ending shows your ship escaping and getting picked up while this victorious/somber tune plays is not something I'll forget anytime soon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0G_CFoXfcc

There was something so specific about this game that I haven't really felt anywhere else, the way it's designed is so of it's time in the best possible way to me.
This is the kind of game I dream about it's so flawed and limited in specific ways that just make it stand out even more than it would have otherwise, it adds some "character"

If you're curious about early 3D stuff or just want to try something different, at only a ten minute playthrough there's not much to lose in trying this, and at worst it will be an aged time capsule of early 90s 3D games.
Despite everything this doesn't just feel like some experiment, there was ingenuity sure, this game has some real "soul" put into it.

It all started with a game company by the name "VISIT" that I had never seen before. I'm always looking for more obscure music to listen to for the Snes, I'd been searching for random Japanese games to see if I'd find some undiscovered or forgotten masterpiece in game music, (much like Last Bible III, Wagyan Paradise, or Waterworld before they had caught on and found popularity) and somehow I ended up on a game called "Tarot Mystery"
I suggest finding the music for Tarot Mystery to get an idea of what impression I got from it.

It's truly wild to me that a game like Tarot Mystery existed in 1995
Its a horoscope/fortune reading game with no more than 20 seconds of content. It's so daring and avant-garde for a game studio to put out hyper-focused and unconventional software like this.
Genres such as visual novels, music visualizers, and any kind of software tools, were not popular outside of Japan and most developers of the 90s were focused on polishing proven concepts and iterating on what worked before, experimentation and niche ideas like this were very rare at the time. For what it is I noticed the amount of effort it had, with the unique visuals and musical talent/direction they didn't have to go so far with something like this.

Overall, it stood out to me how mysterious and unusual the atmosphere of thas game is, and I had to see what else this studio had done.

And that's where I found this "quiz game" Shinri 2, and I was not prepared for what I was going to experience.

Have you ever just wanted to isolate the hypnotic backgrounds and off-beat tunes of Earthbound, and just take in the atmosphere while letting your mind wander? Do you enjoy the subconscious ethereal experience of L.S.D. Dream Emulator or the unnerving cozy horror of Yume Nikki?
There's a lot about a game like Earthbound that stands out and I will never forget, some of the animated battle backgrounds were so visually distinct and creative.
I'd always wanted to just be able to flip through them in some kind of easily accessible menu while perusing a sound test.
I never would have known that I'd basically find what I was looking for by random chance so many years later, and I'm still awe-struck that it exists.

Shinri Game 2: Magical Trip is so hard to describe, it's so many things. relaxing, mesmerizing, liminal, hostile, cursed.
Getting this game and powering on in my console feels like stumbling into some forbidden ritual, the game is so otherworldly, it feels subliminal.

This game has a sound test with 42 backgrounds to choose from and 22 audio tracks, there's also a mode with presets that loop through specific set background animations to a specific theme.

Going back to the Earthbound comparison, if you've experienced the final battle in that game, or the sound stone eight melodies screen, some visuals and audio from Shinri 2 gave me the exact same feeling that game did, it was noteworthy enough I took the time to capture it and share it here so you can understand what I mean, from a real game/system unedited...

(before I can show anything I must give a warning to anyone reading this, the visuals I've picked out are completely safe however)
I can not stress this enough, if you have any photo-sensitivity or epilepsy of any kind, even just motion sickness,
---------------------------------- DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME ------------------------------------------

this game was made before awareness about epilepsy became widespread and commonplace. I'm not exaggerating, some backgrounds change and flip every frame while flashing between opposite colors 60 times a second, they're really hard to look at, I've never seen such harsh visuals, don't take this lightly.

Some Calm sound and visuals
https://youtu.be/slZ83evfNP0
Hostile, unnerving
https://youtu.be/vFEEfe5c5-g

Some other themes very much bring to mind the visuals and sounds of L.S.D. Dream emulator on playstation with very unconventional music:
https://youtu.be/0hQuITm-g5A


It can be dreamlike and unnerving
https://youtu.be/9zoN3hmQ36U
https://youtu.be/YPuPQONQj4g
https://youtu.be/P4tM5DhS2qU

I did mention earlier this is a quiz game.
The quizzes are supposed to be the main part of the game, however I don't understand Japanese so this is all lost on me.
There seems to be quite a lot of it, around 20 quizzes that each can go on for a long time. As the player answers questions the tone changes with background and music to fit, at the end I think it gives some kind of explanation based on what answers were given, a psychological exam of some kind? I can only speculate here.

I can't engage with a significant portion of this, because I can't read the language, so I can't reasonably give it a rating.

This was such a unique experience, and I will probably end up putting on some of the presets while doing something else, working, playing a handheld game, ect. What strikes me about this specifically is that it feels more like an experimental art piece, and it's not trying to be anything more than that.

The Super nintendo/Famicom is a console I've very thoroughly explored and I'm at a point where I've played every notable game in the library. I'm at that point now, Digging into the deepest most obscured parts of this console to find what's left.
I'll try just about anything as long as it's different enough. Strange, Abnormal, Surreal, Ambitious, sometimes just terrible, generally speaking in just the last five years I've broadened my game preferences so much and found so many unforgettable and unique experiences that I would have ignored years ago.

I want to explore more creative outlets myself and put my own vision out there somehow but I've always struggled with thoughts that some ideas I have are too unusual to succeed or too much of a risk, and that everything I try will be misunderstood and ridiculed. Games like these inspire and motivate me with ideas that there is no real limit to concepts or ideas within any art form and that any idea can be done right with the right approach and execution.

There's this very specific kind of off-beat experimental vibe that comes with these games especially in this Snes/early PS1 era, there were people that wanted to just put their vision out there regardless of trends, an unfiltered and unapologetic raw experience. It seems like just about any idea could be approved and sold to the masses no matter how niche, small scope, or eccentric it was. I'm grateful for the indie space because games like this otherwise don't really have this kind of presence anymore and I kind of miss that, there were so many games from the 90s and early 2000s that were really pushing boundaries, it felt like anything could be a game and anyone could make them if they just had the passion and ideas for it.

I was ready to agree this was the best of the GB Mega Man series, the main levels and weapons were really solid and the level design was decent up to that point. There's great weapon variety, unique level gimmicks, a new original line-up of bosses and some nice detail in the environments and backgrounds.

If it wasn't for the last few levels I would rank it with the very best of the classic series.

The typical forced Mega Man boss rushes are usually the low point of any Mega/Rock Man game for me but here it was more tedious than usual, it's very easy to get a game over and have to do the entire 20+ minute marathon again, and there's some really badly placed spike traps right after a falling screen transition in several spots.

Every secret is blocked behind the same two weapons, and one of those is a charged tackle move, you have to collide with the enemy to damage with it, why does this get a pass when the Spin move in Nes 3 and charge kick from Nes 5 are heavily criticized for the same thing?

I'd heard about a flying shooting section near the end is, but it's so simple and repetitive and ends with giant lasers that just blast by the screen with no indication where they are going to be, dying means starting the boring slow level again.

The checkpoints in most of the game were placed badly in that they were too far into the level, most bosses and enemies have very annoying invincibility states, and the rocket punch upgrade often gets blocked or can't to extra damage because of this, it just didn't work most of the time and takes too long to travel across the screen.
The things that annoyed me about this game are very reminiscent of Mega Man X3 like the upgrade being worse than the normal charge shot and invincibility states being overused.

Wily was not just super slow, it was also really boring to fight. There's so much unnecessary waiting around for a chance to attack and most special weapons were useless against him, it was unique but I did not enjoy it. Also Mercury stole all my W and E tanks I spent all my chips on in the refight, that's just obnoxious.

It's alright. IV while more challenging and suffering from it's own specific problems felt like it had more thought put into the level design and didn't have all the bosses and enemies put up shields or force fields that block everything. It was still worth the time I spent on it and fun to replay and I'd still rather return to this than some of the Nes titles.

Super Mario RPG (the Snes original) wasn't just well made, it was creative and ambitious and mixed genres to make something unique.

Very little if any of my perspective on the original game comes from nostalgia, it's not just a memory or a bias for the past, maybe it was for many other people. but it isn't for me.
I replayed the original game just a few years ago and still enjoyed it as much as I had before even though it was probably the fifth or sixth time I've played through it, the game still felt compelling and I appreciated some aspects of it more than I had before.

So considering my appreciation for the original it's no surprise this remake was my most anticipated game this year, not just this year but in a long time.

The respect for detail and most of the original translation is commendable, and adding a new soundtrack to go with the new look was a good choice, and having an option to switch to the original music is something I wish every remake did. Most of the charm and character is unchanged and the look and sound is accurate if not better.
There's a lot that can go wrong with remakes (and it often does) so it's a relief that it turned out the way it did.

New features like post game content, bestiary, options menu, autosave, team attacks, and fast travel are a nice addition and though not necessary they improve things overall, I have no complaints with the these things. They did try to make it a smoother experience and these are all good additions. They are the kind of changes that remakes should have; additions that don't take away from the experience or appeal of the game, but are significant enough to make a positive change.
If only all the changes were like that.

The original Super Mario RPG has three distinct identities, Platforming and exploration, side games, and the battle system.
These three aspects are mostly separate from one another but compliment each other extremely well while breaking up the pace, this made the gameplay stand out from everything else and is part of what made it so great, it's packed with unique and creative scenarios.
After completing the remake, a lot of it lived up to my expectations. The remake does two of these aspects just as great, but the third...

As much as I can praise this remake, even if it still is mostly the same game, story, characters, and really fun side games and excursion with most of the style intact, there is something that really holds it back.

For the first 6 hours playing this remake something really didn't feel right. the game looks great, plays fine, and still has great music, and yet I didn't feel anything at all. I couldn't figure out why.

I've played many newer and deeper games in the genre since then, maybe I couldn't appreciate this anymore, I wondered if my standards had just changed since then, but that's not the case.

While I did enjoy several parts of the game, I thought I'd feel the same kind of joy and innocent wonder the original game still gives me but outside of a few moments that didn't happen.

During my entire time playing I had this feeling like the game felt so small, and insubstantial in odd ways I never experienced playing the original, yet it took the same time to complete and the maps are identical.

The game really is small.
Take Rose way or especially Booster pass for example; they're no more than a few small connected rooms, even several of the main areas aren't larger than most beginning dungeons in any typical RPG, I'd just never noticed before.

It took me awhile to realize why I wasn't enjoying it. It's not that the scope of the game had changed it was how long I was taking in each area.
Those places felt larger because I was fighting enemies for longer. needing to try and make an effort to avoid losing, using real strategy, items, special moves, ect made everything feel more substantial.

That's the main problem I have with this remake, by changing the battle system it affects the pacing of the game and makes most fights an afterthought, not only did I have less incentive to use all of my resources and instead just mindlessly attack and perfect guard, I was blowing through every encounter.

The splash damage, super attacks, and perfect guards make this easy already, but now party members can be swapped in a single battle, there's no tension when I can switch to peach to heal/revive any time, or use Bowser/Mallow to absorb damage and switch back.
There was a risk reward to choosing power over defensive characters, or sticking with magic types while trying to outlast a dangerous boss, most bosses didn't even get to use all of their attacks or have any chance at all to pose a threat.

And all of this happened in my playthrough where I forgot to buy gear for the first 4 main areas in the game, I was using starting equipment, and went out of my way to avoid most enemies and level ups and I STILL defeated bosses in half as much turns as the original game.

I won't call the original perfect, but every attempt to modernize it comes with some risk of taking something away, and over-correcting. Part of the appeal just isn't there anymore, it was already easy for the genre, that was the most significant flaw, instead of fixing that it's just worse.

My problem isn't just that it's different, I know if I didn't have the context for the original game I'd still think this remake is overly easy.

I have some mixed feelings on this game, some parts are better and really well executed, while the main part of the game is changed in a way I don't think benefits the game at all.
So it's not all bad, but its not as great either, I did end up having a good experience with it once I got to the sunken ship and onward and the post-game finally provided some real battles.

It's not really unpolished at all or poorly designed, despite everything there's enough here that it was worth my time, it unfortunately does not replace the original game, but it has a different appeal (added features and visuals) that the original can't replace either.

Still great for beginners, especially anyone that might have struggled with the original, there are still some fantastic aspects of this game.
Fans of the original or anyone interested should still try it out.

The developers had some respect/restraint with the source material. I don't think it's as "faithful" as everyone says but it's no disgrace to the original game either.

This is a game about breaking away from a controlled world without free will. It's a game about taking a risk to find something meaningful and almost every aspect of it embodies that philosophy.

Some might see the character art and assume this is no different from so called "mascot platformers" of the time.
Instead of the usual colorful vibrant worlds and carefree settings the game features barren wastelands, abandoned spaces, and landscapes almost void of life.

Venturing into an unknown abandoned world. More than anything it really captures the feeling and atmosphere of discovering left behind landscapes and hostile ruins untouched for hundreds if not thousands of years. It is a game filled with the sense of mystery and discovery, within a game that itself is nearly forgotten and undiscovered.

The plot has more thought put into it than I expected, it's not exactly deep but it explores ideas that I don't often see in games and it's not a clear cut premise about saving the world, revenge, defeating an evil antagonist, ect.

There aren't many characters in the game but they get plenty of screen-time and are distinct from one another, the game is fully voiced in English and this helps the personality of each character come through, it's not bad acting or script either it's competent overall but not amazing.

Whether it's the of often obscure secrets the game holds or the odd and surprising unique visuals in certain areas it feels mysterious to play, it starts off with dull brown rocky textures of an underground network of caves, into an expanse of broken down abandoned metropolis to some egyptian inspired ruins and tombs.

These areas are populated with undead monsters the game calls ghosts, which are the previous residents of these levels. The game leaves this a mystery, it makes one wonder what happened to these places and why is everyone living in this one structured city underground, it brings to mind games like Panzer Dragoon and various dungeon crawlers with it's setting, it somehow feels like a perfect fit for a Saturn game.

What makes this game so unlike "mascot platformers" of it's time is it's subdued
approach to level design, if I had to describe the feel of the game in one word "subdued" would be it.
The starts of really slow almost quiet and slowly eases into more dense visually striking areas, It seems like it's not out of laziness or lack of creativity but restraint.

The game plays in a unique way too, there are fully 3D environments with a top down fixed angle and what makes this game special is full camera rotation, it's the one thing mechanically that the game uses the most. It makes jumps much more manageable and deals with depth perception better than purely isometric games.
Often puzzles and navigation are centered around looking at things from a different angle, at times the environment and camera are used in very interesting ways.

Like many Saturn games all characters, enemies, and objects are flat 3D rendered images with multiple variants for each camera angle, and it works well here.

The enemies are very simplistic looking but there is some charm to their design even if they could be a lot more detailed and are at times goofy-looking, enemies are the one thing ingame visually that doesn't mesh well with everything else.

Truth be told I like Sonic 3D Blast, I always have, it's flawed but still charming and fun overall especially the Saturn remake, despite its limitations it's a game I enjoy and appreciate...
But what if it was better?

Essentially this is if that game had been given the time and budget to be fully realized, improved, and given some actual plot and character.
In other words while Sonic 3D is good, W.W. is everything it could have been.
For a game about the theme of "freedom" it feels like the developers had exactly that, and were able to make basically anything they wanted, as a result it ends up being experimental, creative, and inspired.


The level design is difficult to sum up because every of the games 6 worlds have a different gameplay focus and pacing, it's full of variety, some worlds are more straightforward, one was focused on running down a winding path to beat a timer much like a racing game, and a later world focused on puzzles more than platforming, and these were inoffensive and fun to solve.

At times it seems as if the developers were influenced by early first person shooter games with small secrets and collectibles hidden everywhere and hordes of enemies that fill rooms all that leave behind a corpse when defeated so you can tell where you've been.
It has its own obscure secrets and a rotatable wireframe map that looks almost ripped out of early Doom, the levels feel as if they had been designed in a raycasting type of 3D engine despite that not being the case.

Willy doesn't jump on enemies to defeat them, instead he uses a short range and fast melee attack or slower long range boomerangs, while there isn't much depth to it on the surface the game uses the environment to make it more interesting whether it's putting enemies in hard to reach or disadvantageous places, or having traps that open up a room full of enemies unleashing them into the play area, often objects and items need to be hit or collected with the boomerangs and often these are their own small puzzles that add variety to the game, enough to never be completely dull and ideas are used as much as they need to be without getting repetitive or redundant.

The player can jump, rotate left/right, and dash in addition to attacking, it's a simple game to play and is easy to get into.

By far the most memorable and striking thing about this game to me is the environment and music, it's not just stereotypical ruins and forests, there's some surprising artistry here, to the point a few times I just had to stop and look around for a bit looking at every intricately designed detail.

The way color and lighting are used is memorable, and genius. often there will be some ruins or slightly generic natural environment and suddenly bright neons and harsh pure white or black surfaces will come up, these often have a number of moving parts, like a switch somewhere will make the floor shift around to form an intricate colorful geometric designs. Things often are intentionally clashing yet somehow they don't feel out of place. There is absolutely nothing else like it that I've seen, it is simply amazing.

And all of this; from the visuals, atmosphere, and plot wouldn't be nearly as effective without the music, it fits every level perfectly often subdued and atmospheric, the more melodic parts come in as the game gets going.

I suggest listening to "Detriam City" or "Ruins of Khuf" to get a feel for what kind of music is used, these are the highlights for level themes and (the sadly unused?) track 11 is also very good.
The music is a good listening experience even just on its own

The game does also have a 90s era theme song and ending with vocals that would not sound at all out of place in any Saturn era Sega game such as Nights, Sonic R, Burning Rangers, ect. It is that exact sound and direction.

I wouldn't call this game hard, but it can get challenging, Willy Wombat doesn't have a lives system, you have one generous health bar, if it runs out the game ends and it goes back to the title screen, where the option to reload the last save is given, if you didn't save you have to redo everything up to that point, it's not too punishing and while saving costs some ingame currency it's one of those cases where the game gives more than enough to save frequently.

The last few worlds focus more on precision platforming, often this risks being frustrating or causing players to give up but thankfully this game is forgiving and almost never used bottomless pits or damaging ground around difficult jumps.

collectibles are part of the incentive to actually explore levels, instead of getting 100 coins for a life, getting all of the collectibles in a level earns a save, and levels can be replayed at any time, beyond that there are items that expand the max health bar and these are important to survive the later more hostile parts of the game, but not essentially enough to ruin the playthrough if a few are missed.

_________________________________________


While there a many positives, I do have some complaints as well starting with the minor stuff;

-enemies are mostly simplistic and don't fit the visual fidelity of the environment or main character

-a few levels are more tedious to get through than fun. Sometimes taking a wrong turn, falling off a ledge, or taking the wrong portal means starting the entire level over. Thankfully this only happens in a few areas and often getting back to the end doesn't take more than a few minutes.

-some environmental sound effects in a few specific places overlap and get very loud and annoying

-some areas get very cluttered leading to the framerate going way down (again only happens in a few specific areas)

-the early levels don't have as much going on and can be a bit boring during a replay

-getting 100% can be a chore since levels often have a sudden point of no return late in the level any missed collectibles means starting over, this happened to me several times


The most glaring problems;

-This game has a run maneuver, keep in mind this is a Saturn game, so there's plenty of buttons that can be used.

6 out of these are already used and while button mapping is an option a 7th input could have easily been mapped to this yet it can only done by tapping a direction twice in succession, it can't be changed

This alone doesn't feel good, however what makes this much worse is when platforming gets precise; often I'd try to get close to a ledget to line up a jump and accidentally press forward again too soon, starting an unintentional sprint right off the platform, it's really annoying.

-completion does nothing, I got 100% but it was more about the journey than the reward (though I could be missing something this game is very obscure with its secrets)

-The worst thing about the game is the bosses. While there are 3 fights, 2 are basically the same and are so easy it's comical, the stun frames on the boss don't work so you can just mash attack and end it in about 5 seconds and the attacks it has are really easy to dodge.

The last boss has 2 attacks and doesn't do much, you push it off the ledge in about 20 seconds once it's figured out and that's it, no extra phases, no special attacks, and it looks really bland and thrown together, it's a really unfortunate way to end the game, but it shows that despite everything else being so good some things had to be cut, this aspect of the game was underdeveloped for whatever reason.

Altogether even with those faults this is a very unique and experimental game, even if it stumbles a bit it's still unlike any game I can think of and one that left a strong impression. The ambition, creativity, and passion still comes through in the level design and visual elements and it has an atmosphere that is well worth experiencing, at times relaxing mysterious and awe inspiring, I was invested all the way to the end

Not "near-perfect" in execution but extremely enjoyable and fantastic to experience, and one that hasn't been replaced.
This absolutely should be enjoyed by a wider audience and I recommend it to anyone looking for something more off-beat, subdued, and accessible from this generation

Incredible, if there was a peak or final form of the single screen arcade style game this is (probably) it.

I find myself asking where has this game been all this time? How could I have never heard of this? I'm surprised a game this good has gone unnoticed.

This is one kind of game that when looking up footage, within minutes I realized I had to play it. There was so much creativity and talent put into this game, it's brimming with originality and ambitious ideas. The levels are often dynamic, changing, and completely unique to this game, playing this was a breath of fresh air.

The easiest way I can describe how this game plays is like if you took Saturn Bomberman (with it's focus on bomb mechanics and ride-able creatures) fused it with Snow Bros, added in throwing mechanics from Mischeif Makers, and gave it the visuals of the best of Parodius and Harmful Park

The spectacle of this game is almost unmatched, there were many games of this type for systems like PS1 and Saturn, but none of them used 3D for backgrounds or visual depth.
Each world has different effects and visual gimmicks that often effect the level itself. there's nice parallax and layering, or panoramic visual effects.

World one flips the screen once in awhile while swapping the background much like a stage play.
World 2 had one of the most inventive use of background effects I've seen in any PS1 game, the level tilts and swivels with the background and effects player movement
https://youtu.be/u2TKbrNGItE
another world had water going up and down the play area with nice transparency, the sound would echo and distort when entering water too.
https://youtu.be/-UrtY6I8FCo
See here the amount of layers moving around
https://youtu.be/Osb6uHqkH0g

There's so much going on visually at times it almost gets overwhelming, there were times where i almost lost sight of my character, it's very chaotic but in a good way. It's very distinct and appealing visually, there's so many small details and always something going on in the background to look at.

Gussun Paradise (Yoyo Puzzle Park) takes place in a theme park, so each world is an attraction such as a boat ride, water park, ect and it all ties together nicely.

The game has you throwing enemies and bombs across the screen, it feels like Mischief Makers, or Gunstar heroes in that throwing is a key part of the game, the key to clearing levels is trying to clump all the enemies together and catch them in an explosion.

Your character alone can use a projectile that can push or stun enemies but not defeat them. It's the bombs that spawn in that need to be used to blow up enemies. This is a more unique approach to clearing out enemies, it requires more thought and planning than usual and adds a lot of needed depth.

In addition to this there are characters and objects that can be found randomly that can take an extra hit and add an ability like multiple jumps, one that draws in all collectibles, a flying one, or the one I liked to use that lets the player fire a full-screen laser at any time to stun enemies.

There's a lot of charm in the characters and their many fluid and detailed animations, the enemy variety stands out too.
There's a great 2 player battle mode in the game or it can be played cooperatively.

Every aspect about this game is well thought out and polished, it gets difficult near the end and a bit frustrating (in a good way) but never too much, and continues are plentiful.
I thoroughly enjoyed this the entire way through. It's just fun to play this in general.

My only complaint is the last few levels rely on either bringing in powerups or nearly memorizing specific patterns or strategy otherwise there was barely a chance to beat them, the enemies can easily get the upper hand and to add to everything going on the last world flips upside-down once in awhile which is very disorientating but still kind of neat, the story is also not interesting at all and feels tacked-on, could have been better but not as integral to this kind of game.

This is one of the most unique and inventive arcade style games I've played, it's packed with fresh ideas and engaging mechanics. was thoroughly enjoyable all the way through, absolutely a must play and an outstanding PS1 game.

A game that defines the phrase: don't judge a book by it's cover. Sometimes watching gameplay or just reading about a game isn't enough to fully understand it, looks can be deceiving and first impressions only go so far.

While this mostly looks and plays like a standard top-down shooting game, this game has an interesting history

This is a Toaplan game, in fact it is the last one the studio developed, It play just like several of their other games and has their distinct design elements and mechanics. It was cancelled and finished up by another company but it was already in beta state before then, it fees like it too since the game feels like a combination old and modern (for its time) game design.

The game play in this is mostly safe, it has the usual three colored powerups, bombs you can collect up to five of, and high difficulty.
It looks kind of ordinary too, it doesn't look at all like a game made for 32 bit systems. It's not that it looks bad, in fact it looks well made with nice scaling and layering effects, the detail is pretty good overall.

Many people note this came out after Batsugun and comapare it directly to that, and to be honest it doesn't compare favorably to it or just about any Saturn Shooting game, it's not nearly as flashy, inviting, or innovative.
It doesn't have the same level of spectacle or ambition, the scaling effects look more like bootleg Mode7 meanwhile you have games like Layer section and Terra Diver that absolutely destroy this games' presentation and effects in comparison. It also plays like a game decades older so it's understandable that people would find this game disappointing.

It's very hard to get into and takes some time to understand, this is another thing that holds it back and adds to the negative reputation this game has.

At first the player will probably notice how sluggish their aircraft is, notice that enemies take really long to defeat, and then get sniped by a fast bullet. Tame presentation and the difficulty together makes this one have one of the worst first impressions in the entire genre. The music is weird Rockabilly and metal with shrill sampled guitar and random vocals (it eventually grew on me). The game is also somewhat short with only 6 levels by default.

There's three weapons, but only one of them (the strongest one) is ever worth using, it's extremely unbalanced in that two out of three of the weapons are technically useless.

The truth is there's a deceptively great game underneath all of this, and taken out of the context of the release date and console specs it's a good game in it's own right.

Feel invincible, get hit once and go back to the peashooter and fight to power back up. It's one of those games, the game isn't afraid to hand out some severe punishment and really it just is frustrating sometimes, a few parts are objectively unfair (enemies spawning from behind for example) but it keeps the game challenging, it requires constant focus and planning and a bit of memorization.

I admit it took me awhile before i really started to appreciate it, this game is designed like late 80s arcade games (big hitboxes, very slow movement, heavy memorization, and fast bullets), but unlike those it has modern sensibilities added onto it, it can be a credit stealer for sure but this time the developers had some restraint and did some things to balance the game so it isn't pure frustration and punishment (it's not Truxton 2 or Grind Stormer).

The game feels impossible at first, especially until figuring out that only one of the weapons is good, but as soon as full power is reached with the right weapon the player becomes overpowered and player bullets cover the screen.

Bosses can barely last more than 10 seconds when at full power, add to this the insanely powerful bombs you can stockpile, these are a shooting game staple. In a lot of top down shooters these do minimal damage and are meant for clearing the screen.
I've never liked this, a bomb with a huge explosion and loud sfx should be powerful, it should feel powerful and satisfying, it takes all the fun out of it when it isn't.

KTII+ is awesome because it actually makes the player feel powerful and bombs can clear the screen and easily turn a losing battle into a winning one, and if that's not enough collecting a sixth one stacks it into an extra powerful longer lasting and unbelievably broken bomb, decimating everything in the players way while giving instant invulnerability.

Even when an unfair death happens, the game gives enough opportunities for recovery with frequent powerups and bomb pickups, sure it's not good design it's a bit cheap and unpolished I can't ignore it, but I still enjoy the game in spite of it.

That's the thing, just looking at the game players deep into this genre have seen it all before, level settings, boss types, ect. The game doesn't do anything new or really noteworthy on the surface, objectively it's very flawed and a complete regression of innovation and game design, and yet...

It's the simple things that make this game worth playing, even over comparable games that look better at a glance, sometimes it's nice to play something familiar, a game that doesn't do anything amazing but does well established older ideas good enough, to keep the player invested sometimes it's enjoyable to play a game that feels like it's from a "bygone era" with all of the quirks and unrefined aspects that comes with it.

It's hard to explain or convey, it's unpolished and has some significant flaws but that ends up making it more interesting and more satisfying to overcome, I really do get into a flow state while playing this one, and losing just made me want to get right back into and to do better the next time.

Looking past all of that I do like the visuals and "cheesy" music, it has a nostalgic feel. very much like an overlooked and dated Neo Geo game.

Call it a guilty pleasure if you want, I know for sure that this is one of my favorite arcade ports on Saturn.

So that's it... for the arcade mode. There's an arrange mode they added when finishing the game up for Saturn, entirely new music (it's not as catchy) re-balanced and less aggressive difficulty, the option to always be at full power, and most of all a new 7th level with a real final boss and ending.

Take everything I said, essentially stack another (better) game on top of it, it makes up for a lot.
I recommend this one, but to only true experts already used to some antiquated game balance, some real patience is needed to get into this, but once someone gets over that hurdle it can be a very fun experience.
It's just a shame it's saturn and region exclusive, with the only authentic way to play costing exactly what you'd expect from that combination, if you have even a bit of interest in this game find a way to try it for yourself.

This was promising at first, there are 4 courses to select with 4 tracks each, and I like the character roster a lot. I thought there would be 16 unique tracks, but they re-use the settings and themes so there's more like 8 tracks with 8 variants.

The lack of different themes and environments was very disappointing. once all four courses are unlocked that's it, getting first on Hard doesn't do anything, there's no cool secret course to unlock, just having 1 new level theme to unlock that wasn't used yet would have made playing through this worth it.

The closest comparison to this game is Mario Kart Super Circuit, and that game has more content, more varied course layouts, and more movement options like drifting.

Despite having less KKR does feel good to control, just racing and doing time trials can be fun at times.

There's also a trial mode that has unique objectives like beating a certain time or doing a course backwards, this added some needed variety and game time to single player.

It was cumbersome and awkward to drift in (2D) Mario Kart but at least it was in the game, in KKR you have to nearly come to a complete stop on some turns, meanwhile the computer players cheat and don't have to slow down at all, while always catching up instantly.

The worst thing about this game is the collision detection, it's terrible.
I'd try to make jumps over pits or cut corners over water and the hitbox appears to be larger that the tile it's on, so it looks like I'd be on land but I'd still fall in, sometimes multiple times in a row since the turning is so bad, the ice level was miserable to play as the edge tiles would count as water and are all over and they are easy to slide into.

hitting walls is not lenient at all just barely touching a wall or obstacle will make the kart come to a near stop, it's ridiculous.

Boosting on a jump and doing a really hard turn to skip part of the level will instantly put the player in last place.
I understand not letting players skip half the track, but even just a little skp saving maybe 1/2 a second is still punished, sometimes I'd even do one by accident and have to start over.
Any kind of creative or fun shortcuts are just not possible here, I don't see any good reason why they did this, it just makes the game even less enjoyable and punishing.

Good character roster, nice remixed music themes from other games, and shadow moses from Metal Gear Solid as a track setting is the best thing this game has, there's also some unlockable characters, and at least they all feel different to play.

I have mixed feelings on this game
It's worth trying for the crossover but it's not as replayable as some other racing games on Advance.

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.

The kind of game I play once and never return to.
I appreciate what they've done here and the snes sound and style is a nice novelty but F-zero was always a skill based game.

FZ99 takes that skill and leaves it up to random players, I've fully completed GX, X, Climax, and the original, so I know I'm good at these games, yet after 4 hours of playing I could not win.

It doesn't matter that much if you race really well, all it takes is a casual player (or bot) warping in front of you and ramming you into a hard turn at the worst time and your run is ruined, the yellow meter can mess with the balance.

It's as if they took F-zero and put the Mario Kart Bullet Bill item into it, a casual party racing item that has no place here, winning feels up to luck.

I can't really complain because it's free and has ok content, GP is by far the best mode relying more on skilled racing and strategy, yet it's only available for minutes at a time, a baffling decision that really holds the game back.

This was neat to try out for a bit, but I'll stick to X or Climax for my FZ fix.

This review is my impressions so far.

On the surface it appears to be a charming and inviting light gun game. A few positives I have so far: presentation is charming and nice to look at, character designs are appealing and the game runs smoothly despite frequent loading, I liked some of the music too. Theoretically the boss fights and gimmicky ideas would be fun. Actually playing it though I was completely unprepared.

I have some problems with this game. The arcade game it is based on really seems to be intended to get more credits out of players, and the PS1 port did not re-balance this.

The first thing I did was go into the main arcade mode and choose the easiest option, I didn't have a light gun yet but the control for a regular controller was surprisingly good, it's smooth and has a nice momentum to it that makes it work really well. There wasn't much resistance in terms of difficulty, first impressions were great.

As soon as I tried the normal mode things fell apart (I had a light gun by this point). Just the NORMAL mode has a massive jump in difficulty, every single mini game suddenly expected near perfection. The difficulty balance is a mess.

Another problem is the kind of minigames the game contains.
Too many of these expect you to shoot one rapidly moving object with no mistakes you get one bullet and that's it, this is a light gun game with no cursor.
This wouldn't be so bad if the hitboxes were better.

There were several times when I could see the hit spark from my shot clearly over an enemy and it wouldn't count, the moving 3D models you have to shoot make these hitboxes nebulous and hard to discern, it should be easy and satisfying but it's not. and as usual the goal score is unreasonable. This is possibly because I am not good at these kinds of games.

Several are just button/trigger mashing fests that expect too much from the player.
I got the impression the game is balanced for 2 players, yet it doesn't adjust the requirements in one player.

The last thing I want to do after a long day of work is to come home and mash until my arms ache while getting a migraine as the game says I didn't hit the button nearly enough or refuses to count my hits, so far this game was pure frustration.

I'm hoping a second player improves this drastically, and that the other modes are a bit more forgiving. Those other modes use the same pool of mini-games so my hopes aren't very high on this one. I might need to just get practice I guess.

A significant part of this games identity is the light gun, and yet it doesn't feel balanced around that kind of playstyle at all. It's just way better with a controller, it's so backwards

I've always seen light gun games as a coin-stealing throwaway novelty, and this game only has worsened my perception. I'll give it another chance and try the other modes soon but my hopes aren't high.