Project S-11 Preview

To say that the Game Boy Color has a dearth of top-down scrolling shooters is an understatement. Capcom's 1942 and the Galaga series are the only representatives for the genre on Nintendo's handheld, a situation that chagrins most shooter fanatics. Seeking to change all this and fill a painful void, Sunsoft has some upcoming medicine in the form of a top-down scrolling shooter, entitled Project S-11. In it, you play as part of a secret project, Earth's last line of defense against alien attacks. Recently, it has been discovered that an alien race is building a weapon powerful enough to destroy all of Earth's armies. Your mission is to pilot a specially outfitted spaceship, penetrate behind enemy lines, and eliminate this newfound threat.

Developed by Paragon 5 - the same people responsible for last year's impressive Beyond Tracker GBC Demo - Project S-11 will feature eight levels of alien-slaying mayhem packed onto a 4-megabit cartridge. Across each level, you can acquire five unique weapons, each with four levels of strength. Bombs, shield boosts, and extra lives round out the in-game goodies you'll gather on your quest. Similar to 1942, the game also features a password save feature for recording progress.

Visually, Project S-11 seeks to impress with colorful interplanetary backdrops, multiple enemy sprites, and screen loads of explosions and engine smoke effects. As they are no slouches on the GBC programming scene, Paragon 5 has managed to do this with zero hint of flicker or slowdown. While playing the game, you are oftentimes taken aback by your seeing 20, even 30 onscreen sprites at once, and the Game Boy unit never bogs down. Combine this with a bass-laden rock soundtrack that defies the Game Boy's usual reputation for sound, and Sunsoft's Project S-11 has a chance to revitalize the handheld-shooter genre.

Currently, the game is roughly 99 percent complete, with only weapon strength and power-up distribution left to tweak. Sunsoft expects to have the game out in time for the beginning of the Christmas shopping season this November. For shooter fans, this development couldn't have come too soon.