StarSoldier1's Full Review: Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth for Nintendo 64
After six years of nothing, we finally get another Star Soldier game in the long running series. Special thanks mainly to Electro-brain for releasing it over here from Japan especially since these games don't always do so well here in North American. So how does the latest the Star Soldier stand up? Let's just say; "I love this shooter!"
The story behind this game is the Zeograd Army from Soldier Blade (a Turbografx-16 game) is back and is ready to destroy the earth (or at least vanish it), but you got three StarSoldier ships to choose from this time. The first ship is the standard Red craft, this ship is the only one that can fire from behind with enough power ups. This game is the official sequel to Soldier Blade despite its return to the Star Soldier name, there are 7 all new stages +3 hidden special levels with the usually 2 or 5 minute games that Hudson soft is famous for. The game has several all new features like the reflector shield that sends your enemies bullets right back (I really like that), plus there is new a combo system that can help increase your score. Another cool thing about this shoot them up is the Save feature, all your scores will be saved this time right to the game, and you don't even need a N64 Memorypak.
This Star Soldier may look similar to many other shooters of the past but it's all in 3-D this time with an overhead perspective. The graphics are now in 64-bit and they look pretty decent in 3D, but the graphics also lack the realisms of other new age shooters like Einhander and G-Darius for the Playstation, also up close some ships look blurry and messy thanks to the N64's poor texture spacing. However, the game still looks pretty colourful and there's plenty on screen enemies with no slowdown what so ever, plus these weapons look way better than Einhander's (you have to see that giant laser from the blue ship).
The music and sounds are pretty good as well..... if you like futurist type music that's upbeat and stuff. The sound effects are good enough to gets it's point across with it's impressive selections of sound effects which includes various voice samples with loud explosions and robotic voices, but it's nothing too special.
The game play in Star Soldier V.E. is easily the game's coolest feature. This game can be played both offensively and defensively thanks to your new reflector shield (R button). Each ship can perform the shield move and you can use it as much as you like but there is a 5 second delay before you can use it again, timing is very important. Plus we can't forget about Star Soldier V.E.'s interesting Combo scoring system, if you combo meter doesn't break then the more enemies you destroy them the bigger the bonus you'll earn, the combo system helps add replay value as your skills get better which especially works well in the time trials modes.
On the downside, I don't know why but there is a lack of changeable weapons meaning you can't change your ship and weapon set in the middle of a game. There's no multi-player mode either so your friends have to stay home, but the Star Soldier series never were like that anyways so this shouldn't be a big deal.
You will like this game if you like the classic style shoot them ups of the past where the score is more important than anything else. You will hate it if you don't like the original arcade-like shooters in general. There's something else I must bring up here, it's nice to more game modes like the time trials in a shooter, this is something that others like R type Delta and Einhander were missing. If you do get the game, you'll realize that Star Soldier Vanishing Earth is full of more replay value than most games in the discount bins, so don't pass it up!
StarSoldier Vanishing Earth overall rating: 87/100
Publisher: Electro Brain
Creator: Hudson Soft
Original release: Fall 1999
For 1 player only
Rated (E) for Everyone
graphics: 6/10
sound: 6/10
gameplay: 8;10
replay: 8/10
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