First Impressions: Star Ixiom

Namco, the company famous for its Ridge Racer, Tekken, and, most recently, its Soul Calibur series, has just released a Colony Wars/Blast Radius-style space shooter in Japan, and we've got screens and impressions of this unique title.

Star Ixiom takes the user-friendly gameplay of Blast Radius and thrusts gamers into a strangely familiar deep-space environment that anyone familiar with its closest counterparts will find immediately appealing.

As in Colony Wars or Blast Radius, you control your ship in a third-person or cockpit perspective, with analog control at your disposal. On a gridlike map, you move from battlezone to battlezone, attempting to destroy all enemies in the field. There are asteroid fields to watch out for, as well as side missions to accomplish. The cool thing about many of the enemies in Star Ixiom is that they come from classic Namco shooters such as Galaga. Perhaps some really famous Namco icons will pop in as boss appearances. Unfortunately, we haven't gotten that far.

Between missions, you can head to your base of operations and upgrade your ship, switch to a different ship, walk around prerendered environments, and interact with the polygonal crew, RPG-style.

Although we are uncertain whether Star Ixiom will make it to US shores (after all, Namco's superlative tennis game, Smash Court, never did), it would certainly hold up well against the other shooters on the market, due to its high-production values and rock-solid playability. Look for the full review soon.