Einhander

"Challenging, but only sometimes frustrating!"

Einhänder is a horizontal shooter - you don't have to flip your monitor over to play it correctly as with, say, Ikaruga, or the Strikers series. While the environments are in 3D, the gameplay is thankfully in 2D, though you can use the Wasp homing missiles to shoot enemies on the side. The changing camera angles keep things fresh and exciting, without ever confusing the player (save for this one minor part in stage 4 which is hardly a threat at all). You can change your speed on the fly with 4 different settings. You die with a single bullet or crashing into walls or ceilings, though you can touch walls and ceilings briefly and not get destroyed. Instead of continuing where you left off, if you die, you restart at certain checkpoints. And finally, there are no screen-clearing bombs. There are 7 levels, most with mid-bosses, and beating them in 30 seconds or less gives you the highest point bonus.

The graphics are nice and generally very colorful (except for stage 2; think of the worst, most boring sewer / cave level in RPGs and you're almost there), sounds are plentiful and appropriate, and the soundtrack is awesome techno. No shame in pumping up the volume when playing the soundtrack in your car! You can order it online at various import stores, but thankfully you can rip it from the game itself. It's not redbook, but it's possible.

The game's gimmick is that you can steal enemy weapons (gunpods), and you'll have to, since your standard machine gun and Manipulator Arm aren't very powerful. These weapons have limited ammo, can shoot in various directions (depending on the position - either above or below the ship), can absorb bullets for you, and can be destroyed themselves, so eventually you'll come up with your own strategies of shooting, stealing (and not stealing) weapons for either an all-out assault or an all-purpose balanced attack, which is varied further with the ship selection.

The Endymion 2 allows you to store up to 3 weapons, though you can only use one at a time, plus the standard machine gun. The Endymion 3 can only store one weapon at a time, but gets 1/3 more ammo per gunpod stolen compared to the Endymion 2 and has a double machine gun. The Astraea 1 lets you use two weapons at a time (one gunpod replaces the machine gun) and also gets 1/3 more ammo per gunpod stolen compared to the Endymion 2.

Playing the game presents you with certain scenarios that are best dealt with a certain weapon, and some S. Bonuses are only available with a certain weapon, so to play the game well, you'll need to plan things out. Memorize. Shooters always have an element of memorization, of different things and of varying degrees. Psikyo shooters like Gunbird 2 have short, sometimes challenging stages, but also hard bosses that have several forms and attacks. Dodonpachi (and especially Dai-ou-jou) makes you memorize where enemies come from and exactly how to shoot them from exactly what place so you can continue the chain (which unfortunately ultimately is a part of survival with the addition of the Hyper Item). And Ikaruga is arguably only played ''correctly'' with nothing short of memorization for 3-colored chains. Einhänder is somewhere in-between: sure, you'll have to make a note of what enemies carry what weapons, and the frequency of what weapons appear (would you really want to trade your 5000-ammo Vulcan for a mere 30-ammo Cannon?), and when and how to use them, but that's it. The situations present themselves pretty well as to what weapon probably works best (or at all). Unlike Dodonpachi Dai-ou-jou or Ikaruga, I don't find myself wanting to restart if I break a chain in stage 1; there's a lot to the game, but it's not super, super technical, so you can relax and have fun with shooters again with Einhänder.

In my opinion, the stages and bosses don't get hard until the third level. Also, the game seems to prefer filling the screen with moderate-speed bullets (like Dodonpachi) rather than throwing really fast bullets that you have to dodge, either by steering clear of them entirely or finding clever hiding spots (like Strikers). There are some surprises, like the beginning of stage 4 and certain boss attacks.

The game seems to hand out extra lives, but you can only get them at the end of the stage when the game shows your stats. Starting in stage 2, if you played through the stage without dying, getting a good number of gunpods, and with a good boss time, you can count on one more extra life. Can't complain, especially on Hard.

There are plenty of secrets: 3 ''S. Bonuses'' per stage are awarded by destroying an enemy in a certain way, destroying enemies quickly, or destroying a lot (or all) of a certain enemy. There are two secret fighters - one is a souped-up Astraea (9999 ammo per gunpod!), and one changes the gameplay entirely by requiring you to power up with gunpods (up to level 20), almost making it like a standard shooter. Both secret ships have to be earned, which isn't easy. There are also four secret weapons (for a total of 12), most of them earned by means of S. Bonuses. The Juno (a more powerful Vulcan) appears the most out of all the secret weapons, and that only shows up a maximum of three times. Others, once or twice.

Now for the flaws:

If you die, your game gets pretty screwed. (''If I died there before, how could I possibly beat that same part without all the weapons?'') You'll only have the weapons you chose in the beginning of the game (you can't choose weapons when you first play, though, since you didn't get any yet!), and at their original ammo settings. Major bummer if you die at the boss and you chose the Vulcan with your Endymion 2 - you'll likely run out of ammo before the support fighters come (conveniently carrying gunpods for you to steal). And you can forget about getting some S. Bonuses too, for the same reason. I recommend choosing a powerful weapon like the Grenade (or even the Mosquito or Flash) when you start for ''insurance'' - you'll have a decent chance with the stage and the boss before you replace it with the usual Vulcan-Cannon-Wasp combinations (since those are the most common).

Also, I tend to run into enemies and objects more often then bullets. Sometimes the game doesn't show your whole movement area in a single screen, making it scroll, and you can fly into an enemy. You can minimize this by lowering your speed, but it can still happen. Off the top of my head, this happens with the ''train'' section in stage 2, the part after the mid-boss in stage 3, and pretty much all of stage 6. You'd better keep those Wasp missiles handy just in case!

The Astraea has a big problem, too. Let's say I have a Cannon on the top and a Vulcan on the bottom, and there's a Vulcan gunpod on an enemy I just destroyed waiting for me to grab it. I can swoop down to grab it, but I might just end up with two Vulcan gunpods instead of one Cannon and one Vulcan with more ammo! I don't know how this could happen, but this alone made me default to the Endymion 2. Apparently, other people have this problem too, but some say it really doesn't matter if you're grabbing each gunpod anyway. Hmm.

Finally, I don't like checkpoints in shooters. I don't know who does, really. I just want to start where I left off, thanks.

Still, it's a very nice shooter with an excellent balance of twitch and memorization. It has a story better than most, and let's not forget about the soundtrack! I'll keep my original score of 9 - it's a fantastic game with very few flaws, and you can eliminate most of them with careful planning. Because of the way the game is structured, there are no ''good'' runs, only ''great'' runs, and it is the feeling you get from those great runs that keeps Einhänder as one of the top shooters everyone has to play.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/08/00, Updated 06/20/03