Phalanx

"Decent on its own, but better ones out there"

Don't let the old guy with the banjo on the game's box fool you; this game is quite fast-paced, and your fingers will be racing on that controller faster than fingers on a bluegrass banjo.

As far as most SNES shooters go, Phalanx is more mediocre. The power up system is as uninteresting as Super R-Type's, but don't think that means it's easy to do! You're constantly in search of anything to juice that craft up, and it's easy to find yourself crippled with your pea-shooter if you get dusted once. When you do get powerups, you'll be asking yourself "is that it? I want something more destructive than that!" The system consists of your small handful of weapons, with you can cycle through with the X button, which is good because you'll get bored of each one awfully fast. This is superior to old NES shooters, but other games on the SNES like Gradius III or E.D.F. completely blow it out of the water.

The saving grace is the ability to adjust your speed right off the bat, which comes in handy when the game slows to a crawl where there's over 5 guys on the screen! Enemy "bullets" are far slower than in most shooters, and easily dodgeable, especially since your ship is so tiny.

Enemies are largely mechanical, and not really creative when pitted against similar games. The one level "Bio-Cave" especially disappoints me, as their idea of biological monstrosities are little white worms and the "horrible monster boss" who's little more than a few bubbles floating around. Even games several years older than this like Abadox or the R-Types for the NES draw more interesting enemies.

7 levels of alien-blasting madness plus two "secret" levels make this game far too short. The difficulty on "easy" is already moderately difficult, and I wasn't able to even see the first boss on hard mode.

Graphics: 7/10
The graphics are good, but compared to other shooters on he SNES, again mediocre. R-Type is king of this category.

Sound: 8/10
Sound crisp and clear. Some catchy beats.

Control: 7/10
Would be perfect 10 if it weren't for the slowdowns.

Challenge: 9/10
A fast trigger finger and lightning reflexes aren't enough to beat this game. You need to do some memorization to patterns beforehand. A FAQ would be great, but presently, there are none...

Replayability: 3/10
This game was painful to beat. Many enemies require you to memorize that they shoot without warning, making the first-time playthrough agonizing.

Fun Factor: 5/10
Lots of better shooters out there. Play Gradius III or U.N. Squadron for some real fun. I love shooters, but this one is nothing noteworthy.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/16/05