Since the end of the 16-bit era and the decline of the American arcade, quality 2-D games have been increasingly hard to come by outside of handheld consoles. Two-dimensional scrolling shooters, beat-'em-ups and fighters have all but disappeared from current generation hardware, much to the dismay of old-school gamers.
Luckily, Archangel Studios' recently released PS2 effort, "The Red Star," proves not everyone has forgotten about that glorious age.
Based on the graphic novel of the same name, the "The Red Star" pits players against hordes of varied enemies, each type requiring different combinations of melee and ranged attacks to overcome. The camera adopts a slightly angled overhead perspective on the action, pulling back further to give a more perpendicular view during boss encounters.
These fights generally take the form of shooters, forcing players to bob and weave through an arena awash with enemy projectiles while simultaneously returning fire. At the end of each level, performance is graded and the game awards experience points which are used to purchase armor or weapon upgrades. This allows for a fair amount of customization and lends the title some replay value. Unless the highest rank is achieved every time, it is impossible to obtain all the power-ups offered to each character in one session.
Speaking of which, "The Red Star" features three playable characters, each controlling uniquely enough to enable gamers to find one that suits their style, while also offering incentive to play through multiple times.
Additionally, it utilizes a robust two player cooperative mode throughout the entire campaign, which greatly enhances the experience. Unfortunately, a co-op game can only be selected from the outset, rather than allowing players to jump in at any point.
While this is somewhat understandable given the upgrade system, "The Red Star" benefits so much from having two players that it becomes an inexcusable oversight. Archangel should have included standard, usable characters of various levels so as to ensure that neither partner becomes dead weight.
Sadly, this is not the game's only flaw. A story is unnecessary in an arcade-style, action-heavy title such as this, yet the burden of the license dictates that it must present one. That said, the plot is entirely forgettable and seems to otherwise exist only to mask loading times. The text interludes can be skipped, but the pauses between stages still break up the action too much.
Levels themselves are overly long and numerous, without enough variety to remain engaging. These types of games are meant to be short, sweet and hard, offering incentive to master the tight game play and steep difficulty through well-crafted encounters and excellent pacing.
Ultimately, "The Red Star" lacks these qualities, as well as the overall polish of an arcade classic or a game on Treasure Co.'s label.
Visually, the game is nothing special. The graphics serve their purpose without being distracting and enemies are mostly easily identified on sight. The frame rate holds up well with only a slight slowdown during the most intense battles, a necessity when the smallest movements mean the difference between surviving and having to restart a level.
The game's sound design is similarly utilitarian, with serviceable sound effects and music that barely registers most of the time. Despite these complaints however, the presentation does not really hold it back.
"The Red Star" regrettably does not herald a second coming of 2-D or the rebirth of the hardcore.
It is, however, a loving, if flawed, homage to old acti on games and, at $20, definitely worth a look from beat-'em-up and shooter fans.
