Did
you ever have a spinach and tobacco ice cream sandwich?
Probably not, but at least you will admit that it's
different. Being different doesn't necessarily mean
good. Take me for instance; people tell me that I'm
different - but I'm no good. Many of those people
aren't alive now but that's beside the point.
Take
Sigma Star Saga (dig the alliteration), it dares to
be different but it doesn't take it much further.
Just forcing a few genres together, in this case space
shooting and RPG, doesn't guarantee success. The gameplay
must be carefully processed and blended in such a
way that we're left with what feels like one new hybrid
genre. Like a choir, you want to hear all of the voices
mixed together not a bunch of individual tones. Okay,
who in their right mind wants to hear a choir other
than in the soundtrack of a horror movie?
SSS
combines side-scrolling shooting with RPG elements.
Both elements occur separately as you toggle between
them throughout the game. The game goes on way too
long and doesn't cover much new ground. The only thing
that breaks the repetition is the going back and forth
between genres, which is basically the source of the
repetition in the first place. I don't know if you
call this a Catch 22, a paradox, or if it's a version
of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principal. See, I don't
have to be smart if I'm different.
I
want you to contemplate one thing while you're reading
the rest of this review: If it weren't for subatomic
particles, there would never have been a Jerry Lewis.
Ian
Recker takes center stage in this drama. He's enlisted
to fight an alien race know as the Krill before they
destroy six human-inhabited planets in the galaxy.
As you probably already can guess, one of the preferred
methods of combat is space shooting which takes place
in a side-scrolling format. Piloting a space ship
you will be able to upgrade weapons, armor and performance
by shooting down enemies and collecting the experience
bubbles they leave behind. There is lots and lots
of shooting, most of which can't be avoided and you'll
also have plenty of backtracking to do as you follow
the storyline in an effort to complete your objectives.
The
other method of defeating the enemy is to infiltrate
them. Through interaction and exploration you will
discover their secrets and send that information back
to the Federation. You do this by donning a parasitic
style of body armor that is composed of organic matter.
It not only provides protection but it helps to disguise
you from the Krill.
The
shooting is fun but it goes on too long. Eventually
you can level your ship up to the point of invincibility
thereby taking the basic challenge out of the game.
Until you reach that point however you will want to
collect "Gun Data" which are essentially
power-ups that can be combined with other such data
to upgrade your capabilities in different ways depending
on how you combine them. You can increase the power
and speed of your cannon and even earn double the
amount of experience points for each shot. Experimenting
with the different combinations of Gun Data is arguably
the most addictive aspect of the gameplay.
Using
an anime style, the graphics are large and well defined.
They aren't Earth-shattering but they get the job
done. The enemy appears as detailed as blips on a
radar screen during the shooting segments. The bosses
help to make up for the overall lack of detail with
larger, more imaginative crafts. Certain characters,
backgrounds and textures repeat after a while as does
the music. This game could have easily been cut in
half, and should have been to maintain whatever level
of quality that this game possesses. Once you play
through it there's little incentive to replay it.
The lack of a multi-player mode relegates SSS to the
rental category.
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