Einhander

"Nicely done."

-Visuals 8/10-

In the tradition of all shooter type games everywhere, this one breaks the mold in the form of it's camera angles and how the game's backgrounds flow, or rather, fly, across the screen.

The basis of the game, is to pilot your fighter ship, a small, single piloted warship, through several enemy territories, and then escape the planet. Everything is well drawn and moves swiftly with no visual glitching to be found.

Every stage is unique in how it's drawn, from the neon cities you start in, to the final stage of twisting and turning in the deep reaches of space. Most of the stages also interact, allowing you to blow through some pieces, to find alternative routes around.

Enemies in the game are all unique, and have special effects, such as flashing police lights, or canisters that fall when a cannon round is spent. Nothing was spared in the visual making of this game, and would have recieved perfect score, save for the fact that some of the places in the game have too much detail, and you can't appreciate the quality, due to the fact that the stage is racing by, and everything is miniture in scale.

-Sound 9/10-

Explosions that rock your desk and ears, bullets that connect with the ground, to the spinning of the chain guns. Nothing was left untouched in terms of the sound effects here. But, with all of these sounds going on, it sometimes becomes muddled together in a big noisy soup.

The action that you find will take you away from thinking too much on that aspect, and will draw you into the music. Each of the stages has a score set to itself, and matches perfectly. From the somber mood of the canyon at night, to the full daylight assault of the military base.

German voice overs! The bosses all have them, and even though you can't understand them (I took two years of German, so they translate) they still sound mean and menacing. It's strange to hear this is an action game that is made by a company based in Japan.

-Control 8/10-

Near perfect. If there was a joystick option for this game, it probably would have been a perfect score! Your ship moves according to what direction you press, so, if you're quick with your thumbs, you can get yourself out of a swarm of fire that is coming at you.

The switching of weapon is easy, nothing much to it other than a simple press of the button to switch around your weapon configuration. As for firing, just hold the fire button down, but watch your ammunition count. If it goes out, you're down to your default guns.

-Gameplay 8/10-

Intense. Fast paced, and intense. You'll fly into and out of a brisk firefight, and you're always on your toes. Some of the stages can get exceptionally hairy at times, but if you're skilled, you'll pull yourself out without a scratch.

The game offers up secrets, plenty of them, but it's up to you to find out what they are, and how to attain them. Options gallore, you can view weapons, ships and other parts of the game in a directory. Nice little bonus, and a nice little inscentive to play through the game a few times.

Replay value is here of course. You'll spend hours trying to unlock secrets, and get the best all around rating that you can before you stop playing for the night. There is no two player option however, this is a strictly one player only type of game.

-Overall 8/10-

This game from Squaresoft has the makings of another classic. Adding in the old-school feeling of the space ship shooter, along with stunning visual detail, excellent sound, and an awesome coupling of gameplay and controls, this is one of those sleeper hits that should have made it big.

This game isn't a rental, it's a purchase choice. You'll want to add a masterpiece like this to your collection, and you won't regret doing so. But, this has to be your cup of tea...if you like a ship-shooter game, then you'll enjoy this, if it's something that you like to do every once in a great while, then rent first..

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/24/00, Updated 03/24/00