Sol-Feace

"An average, but decent, shooter"

Sol-Feace is actually a port of the equally unkown Sega Genesis shooter Sol-Deace. I'm not sure why they changed the name; heck, even the cheat codes are the same in both versions.

Graphics: 7/10

Not up to, say, Super R-Type 3 or Axelay, but better than you might expect. They haven't been upgraded much for the Sega CD, but the colors are a little better than on the Genesis, and the animation is nice and smooth for the most part, although there is a little flicker in a couple stages (what, on the all-mighty, unbelievably-powerful Sega CD? *snicker*...ok, sorry).

Control: 7/10

Pretty much your average shooter controls; basically, you can move up and down with your average side-scrolling shooter right and left limitations. On the other hand, the controls do pretty much what you want, when you want. And you do have some control over your aim, besides the normal, as moving the D-pad while normally flying allows you to adjust the angle of your add-on weapons. Gameplay: 5/10

You do get a decent array of power-ups; you can have up to three equipped at any time to replace your lousy default pea shooter. Among the power-ups are lasers (which do the most damage and really put the hurt on bosses, and so pop up the least), and missile launchers (much more common, but okay).

Difficulty: 5/10

This thing is hard, like all shooters (four lives and that's that on the normal setting), but inconsistently so, and that's the problem. The second to last boss is nearly impossible to defeat; however, all the bosses in the last stage are so incredibly easy that you would have to fly across the screen and ram one to get killed. The last boss is the easiest boss in the entire game, if not all video-game-dom! It's so easy that it even makes its pathetic predescessors look hard. All it does is fling pieces of a wall at you, then--dramatically!--it slowly lurches across the screen at your ship, and... gets stuck less than halfway through the room. All you have to do is sit in one place and shoot at it until it explodes. This is not what I'd want or expect at the end of a challenging shooter. Or any video game, for that matter. It's a total anti-climax and leaves you feeling more than a little deflated.

Music/Sound: 8/10

Easily the best part of the game. Any decent shooter has to have a great soundtrack, and this game certainly does, with the exception of a couple boss tunes that are unremittingly tedious and repetitive. The sound effects haven't changed at all and still sound as if you'd just thrown a rotten tomato at a tile wall in a public restroom every time you score a hit; however, the music was totally remixed and redone to take advantage of the CD storage, and it's redbook! You can throw this puppy into almost any CD player, and--as long as you skip track 1, where all the program data that wants to destroy your speakers lurks--you can listen to it, track by track, and revel in the full stereophonic glory of a good shooter soundtrack.

obligatory Sega CD "Movie" Clips: n/a

These are, well, awful. The credit sequence is really cool, and reminiscent of the credit sequences in Superman (the first movie, not the godawful sequels). The intro "movies," complete with corny narration, moving stills, and voice "actors," are best skipped. They amuse me, but they've been none to enrage and otherwise negatively effect normally sane people. So, let's not go there anymore.

Despite its myriad flaws, I like this game. Not enough to recommend it highly, but I do think it should be given a chance by the curious. Most of it is decent enough to overcome said flaws, and at any rate, how many good shooters are there for the Sega CD? Another cult classic from Wolfteam/Renovation software.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99