Soldier Blade

"One hell of a fine shooter!"

Soldier Blade was the last game in the 'Star Soldier' series to make it to the PC-Engine, (unless you count Star Parodier, but that doesn't really count...) and it's quite obvious that Hudson Soft really put their heart into this one. This game is just fantastic, being great in all aspects, and seemingly having a dumptruck of gameplay crammed into a tiny hucard. Let's take a look.

Graphics: 10
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From the intro to the end, this game has superb graphics.
The sprites are very well drawn, and have quite a bit of animation in them, and the bosses... amazing! They're all gargantuan, and have loads of detail. The backgrounds aren't bad, either, and are usually flowing with personality. Quite a step up from Final Soldier, which was mediocre graphics wise.

Sound: 9
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Soldier Blade is a spacey game, and for spacey games, you need spacey music. The music is very catching, as well as being fitting for almost every area of the game. Not once will you think ''What was the composer thinking there?!''.
As for the sound, it's your usual explosions and laser blasts. Although there are some neat samples (your archnemesis' ''I'll be back!'' stands out in my mind).

Gameplay: 10
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Instead of going for the usual weapons system that's been in the past 2 games, there's a new one in town, and suffice to say-- it works!
You can pick up 3 weapons, but instead of being able to switch between them, they're more of reserve weapons. Instead, you get a little robo-buddy, and at any time (as long as you have a weapon), you can press I to fire a huge super weapon, which gets rid of the weapon currently used, and goes to the next one in reserve. Each one is good for different uses, and there's a bit of strategy in deciding when to use a weapon, when to dump a weapon to move to a more appropriate one, and when to save the ones you have for a bit.

There are 7 stages, each of which is very long, and every one of them contains at least 2 huge bosses! You've also got a sort of arch-nemesis who you fight throughout the game, each time he(it?) gets some new tricks to fight you with, until the bitter end(?).

Control: 10
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It's just your standard 2 button control. Move 8-ways and shoot.

Final Grade: 10

There are very few games even today that can touch the marvellous greatness of Soldier Blade. 90% better then the rest of the series ('cluding Blazing Lazers/Gunhed), and 100% more filling!

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