If you're a fan of PsiKyo games or even shooters in general, this definitly will not dissapoint you.
Gameplay
This is where I think the game shines. Actually, this is where most PsiKyo games shine in my opinion. So long as you play smart and have decent reflexes there is nothing in this game that is impossible to avoid. It's a strange game to describe though because it both follows, and doesn’t' follow the traits of most PsiKyo games I've played. For starters this is a horizontal shooter, most of the games from these people I've played were vertical shooters. This game seems to rely more on physically throwing enemy's at you instead of filling this screen with enemy fire to avoid while you're on your way to the boss. Mind you, once you get to the boss, you've got more than enough fire to dodge to keep you happy if you're used to the traditional approach found in Gunbird, Gigawing and Dragon Blaze. But sticking with the tradition, your "smart bomb" attack in this game also negates all enemy fire on the screen, thus giving you several seconds of breathing space.
One interesting feature they've put in is the "Cannon Shot" attack that this game gets it's name from (Sengoku Cannon). When you kill an enemy with the cannon shot it adds a bonus multiplier to the score you get, also, if your enemy is firing some sort of shot at you when you kill him with the cannon all fire from that enemy that’s on the screen disappears and turns into bonus points. So if you want to rack up a high score, you actually have to let your enemies shoot at you before you finish them off. Also, this canon shot works on bosses in a similar way. If you kill a boss with your canon shot you score an over kill bonus.
On top of this, you have two modes of standard fire. One mode that allows for quick maneuverability, but highly sensitive movement controls, and another mode where you deal greater damage, but you move much slower, yet have much more control over your characters movement. I find that this second mode gives you the right level of control over your character that makes maneuvering between tight gaps between fire a much easier task than trying to do the same thing with a character that moves too fast.
Graphics
The graphics on this game were fairly impressive to me. I'm used to seeing things on my GBA, so this was a very unexpected, and welcome surprise. Over all I’ve been pretty pleased with how this system handles sprite based games. The game's frame rate only slowed down on me once during the last level. There was a very strange background that was rotating and scrolling at the same time and I was dealing with a bunch of enemy characters materializing out of thin air, shooting at me and disappearing again. The chunk of the game that slows down was only about 7 seconds long too. Not too shabby if you ask me.
Sound
There was nothing wrong with the sound. The music was clear, the character voices were very clear as well, no pinging or distortion. If I understood more than a few words of Japanese I'm sure I'd have had no trouble understanding what they were saying. The reason the sound scored a 6 was because of the music. As I’m writing this review, there weren't any tracks on this game that stood out in my memory. They were great fitting tracks, but they just don't stay in your memory like Castlevania's "Bloody Tears" or Metroids "Brainstar Theme". Other than the music, the sound was great though.
Value
You may not think a shooter can have all that much value, but there are two obvious unlockable character you know of right off the bat, and difficulty modes to complete. If you want to unlock everything all then it will take a lot of practice to hone your skills to the point that you can unlock everything. Plus this game is probably the best PSP game I’ve played, and if you're a fan of shoot'em ups, you'll probably agree with me.
Tilt
Yea, i'm somewhat biased. I really like PsiKyo from their previous work and in my eyes this game didn't fail to live up to what they've done before them. Some peopel will complain that these games are based off recognising patterns and and reflexes. Well guess what, most games out there are based on that to an extent. If you appreciate the shooter genre and enjoy the gameplay quirks of each individual game out there then you'll no doubt have the asme appreciation for this title i do.
Tips
Two things I’ve noticed that will probably make things easier for you.
- One, Play through the game with each character in easy mode first. This will unlock all the stages in practice mode for them in normal and easy mode. If you do this you'll be able to practice any stage you want as much as you like with each character.
- Second of all, remap the controls. Change your cannon shot to the X button and your Special attack to the O button. You'll be needing to use your cannon shot a lot, and if your thumb is on the square button you won't be able to reach it in time, and you'll also waste a lot of your special attacks by accidentally hitting the X button if you use the standard control layout.