Tell me about: Steel Dragon Ex PS2

Rob79 · Post by **Rob79** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 8:41 pm

Just found this shmup. Anyone have any experience with the game ?

http://www.thumbbandits.com/review_view ... category=1

jpj · Post by **jpj** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 8:59 pm

it's too easy

sven666 · Post by **sven666** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 9:00 pm

yeah.. as dull and ridiculously easy as it is i once sat down and tried to "figure it out" hoping there would be somekind of scoringsystem or something hidden away inside (the ending credits sort of hint at it).. well.. there isnt.

Rob79 · Post by **Rob79** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 9:01 pm

oh ya..
I hate the 3d graphics on it

Post by **Ghegs** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 9:03 pm

sven666 wrote:yeah.. as dull and ridiculously easy as it is i once sat down and tried to "figure it out" hoping there would be somekind of scoringsystem or something hidden away inside (the ending credits sort of hint at it).. well.. there isnt.

Bzzt, wrong. There is a scoring system and there are two hidden levels to unlock.

See review by bloodflowers. Note that the PAL version is even easier than the JPN one.

There's a high-score thread here. Breaking 300 million is not that easy.

ForceDevice · Post by **ForceDevice** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:27 pm

Yeah, it's ridiculously easy, but that doesn't mean it's bad. I personally liked it a lot. It borrows some nice concepts from other shmups (like Dodonpachi's "bullets-turn-to-stars" thing and having three different kinds of shots, for example) which make it quite interesting. And some of the levels, like the one which has a tower scrolling diagonally on the background, are so amazing you won't even care about the crappy graphics.

Definitely worth a try, even more if you liked the first one.

MX7 · Post by **MX7** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 12:18 pm

I've seen it for as little as £3 ($6) in some shops. Next time I catch sight of it, I'll have to snap it up. Even if I play it for an hour then leave it on my shelf for all eternity, you can't argue with that price.

Post by **spadgy** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 12:33 pm

MX7 wrote:I've seen it for as little as £3 ($6) in some shops. Next time I catch sight of it, I'll have to snap it up. Even if I play it for an hour then leave it on my shelf for all eternity, you can't argue with that price.

I got it for exactly that amount, and it's a little dull, but worth a rainy day.

Personally I hated the way it looks, but I'm interested to read Gheg's comments on there being something deeper there.

Not a patch on the original Shienryu though. Isn't it meant to be a -re-worked' Shienryu and an apparent 'sequel' to that reworking?

Kaiser · Post by **Kaiser** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 2:08 pm

If it's ridicoulously easy, set difficulty to Hard, enjoy the later bulletfest, it will ANNOY the shit out of you to score high

(I did 1cc Hard, it was 3 times harder than normal at least)

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 5:16 pm

spadgy wrote:Isn't it meant to be a -re-worked' Shienryu and an apparent 'sequel' to that reworking?

In terms of the gameplay it has almost nothing in common with the original Shienryu - pretty much the only "links" between the two that I can recall off the top of my head are the name and the stage-end music. There are rumors as to how it ever got connected with the original while being such a different game floating around, but who knows (could just be a minor MLF moment

).

As for the game itself, if you can get it cheap it's not bad (speaking from having played the JP version) - it's not hard to 1CC, but it's still fun to try to score well in.

Post by **spadgy** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 6:02 pm

BulletMagnet wrote: In terms of the gameplay it has almost nothing in common with the original Shienryu - pretty much the only "links" between the two that I can recall off the top of my head are the name and the stage-end music. There are rumors as to how it ever got connected with the original while being such a different game floating around, but who knows (could just be a minor MLF moment ).

I knew the fact that its credentials as a sequel were pretty dubious. You can tell by how different it feels to its 'inspiration'...

Zeether · Post by **Zeether** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 7:09 pm

Doesn't this include Shienryu as well? I'm talking about the localized version.

FIL · Post by **FIL** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 8:12 pm

Yes, it has both.

Post by **spadgy** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 8:25 pm

FIL wrote:Yes, it has both.

But it's a remake rather than a port I'm sure. It was ages since I last played the original or the Steel Dragon Ex one though...

FIL · Post by **FIL** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:06 pm

I have it, it has the original Shienryu, they just renamed it Steel Dragon.

EDIT: Its also 50hz and bordered only.

Post by **spadgy** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 5:26 am

FIL wrote:I have it, it has the original Shienryu, they just renamed it Steel Dragon.

EDIT: Its also 50hz and bordered only.

I have both, but I clearly haven't played either for far too long!