Silhouette Mirage

"Mega Man on shrooms"

Ahh, Silhoutte Mirage. You are one truly ****ed up game. And this is why I love you so much.

STORY:
You play as Shyna, the “Messenger of Justice.” She's a cute little punk who you probably shouldn't mess with. Her main goal is to fight off the silhouettes and mirages and figure out what is wrong with the “Edo System.” It's very simple, but luckily the characters provide an insane amount of humor to keep us interested. The “touching” scenes aren't my cup of tea when a game looks as effed up as this, but overall a decent job.
STORY: 7/10

GRAPHICS:
Well, the game is colorful, I'll give it that. And everyone looks messed up, for better or worse (I think it's for the better). If you think Shyna's funny-looking, wait til you see the doll-fish monster. Now that's messed up. While the detail is nothing to write home about, it can be pretty to look at, and the overall style is very entertaining.
GRAPHICS: 7.5/10

SOUNDS:
Not gonna lie, the music can get aggravating, especially the annoying vocal track you have to sit through during the credits. Imagine Mega Man music, only on a few extra drugs.

The sound effects are also a bit obnoxious, which matches the animations on screen very well. Still, after awhile, you might be turning your sound down…

ESPECIALLY after dealing with so many annoying voices after awhile. Shyna's wouldn't be too bad if you didn't have to hear her scream “BAM!” every ten seconds. While they are appropriately quirky, and some of them sound great, you might get very annoyed after awhile.
SOUNDS: 6/10

GAMEPLAY:
So Shyna fights two types of enemies: silhouettes and mirages. She has two core types of attacks: silhouette and mirage. Do you see what I'm getting at here? To deal damage to silhouettes, she must hit them with mirage attacks, and vice versa. It's not as easy as it sounds—which attack Shyna uses depends on which direction she faces. As you begin playing it, you will probably not appreciate this unique way of gameplay. But persevere! Eventually it will become a habit to have her face the correct way, and will ultimately prove to be very fun.

There's more—attacking a silhouette with silhouette is not a bad thing, either. What happens when you do this is you strengthen Shyna's power while weakening the enemy's. Very clever and adds a ton of strategy.

As you progress, you will be given the opportunity to buy new types of attacks. Not only are these new attacks fun to watch, they also are just plain sweet to use. There are quite a few, and you will want to use all of them just to see how effective they are.

But you'll need money to buy those new attacks, and the best method of increasing your budget is by beating the crap/cash out of enemies. You will grab them, and repeatedly bash them senseless until they have no money left to give. But grabbing isn't just for getting cash, you can also toss them in any direction and then proceed to shoot ‘em up til they're dead as doornails. Aside from attacking and grabbing enemies, Shyna can also perform a dash and a super move, which will both find their necessary uses at certain times.

To sum up, SM is a nonstop chaos-party. Crazy action, amazing level and boss design, and an incredibly new way of gameplay make it one of the most successfully unique PS1 games you'll ever play. If there were any downsides, they would be the sometimes frustrating difficulty, the long dialogue scenes, and the occasionally odd pacing. Other than that, SM is a fresh 2-D sidescroller.
GAMEPLAY: 9/10

LASTING APPEAL:
The main game will last you a very long time your first time through. Replays will continually become shorter and shorter as you keep on figuring out better strategies (and find secrets). Not to mention how the multiple paths (and multiple last bosses) in the storyline will keep you coming back. Overall, you should buy this game, since you will be probably be replaying it over and over again.
LASTING APPEAL: 9.5/10

OVERALL:
It's unique, it's silly, it's obsure, it's completely messed up. Any sidescroller fan who needs a change of pace will no doubt find lots of fun in Silhouette Mirage.
OVERALL: 9/10 (8.7 with decimals)

Thanks for reading =)

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/13/07