Any impressions of PSP Star Soldier yet??...

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 10:04 pm

Just curious, the release date is today.

Can't wait to hear some impressions of Sengoku Cannon when that comes out!

qatmix · Post by **qatmix** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 10:48 pm

also does it update the bios? if so I need to know or you guys will not have a psp shooter to play

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 11:38 pm

I saw it at the local game store, but it's just too expensive (4300 yen after the store's discount) for me to care about it. I already experienced playing a PSP game in "tate" (Space Invaders) and I -hate- it. I can't imagine a more uncomfortable way to hold the system. Thus, I'm passing on this one. I'm also still not sure if it's a port of the PS2/GC Star Soldier that came out a couple years ago... it -looks- similar, but there's no way to tell with just screenshots.

Sengoku Cannon, however, will be mine.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 2:01 am

Cthulhu wrote:I saw it at the local game store, but it's just too expensive (4300 yen after the store's discount) for me to care about it. I already experienced playing a PSP game in "tate" (Space Invaders) and I -hate- it. I can't imagine a more uncomfortable way to hold the system. Thus, I'm passing on this one. I'm also still not sure if it's a port of the PS2/GC Star Soldier that came out a couple years ago... it -looks- similar, but there's no way to tell with just screenshots.

Sengoku Cannon, however, will be mine.

*shrugs* It doesn't look that uncomfortable to me.

I just wonder, though, if PSP Star Soldier will be EXACTLY the same as the PS2-remake, or if there will be any extra stages, weapons, etc. There's an official site for the game here:

http://www.hudson.co.jp/gamenavi/psp/st ... index.html

but I can't read Japanese at all.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 3:03 am

I'm wondering about whether there is forced firmware update for Star Soldier and Sengoku Cannon also.

Ah well, the testing units at work are all up to date, I'll just play them there (and it'll look like I'm doing work too :P )

al138 · Post by **al138** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 3:14 am

I'm with Cthulhu on this one. After looking at the website and reading what I could, Star Soldier just doesn't look like its worth the effort. While I hope someone with the actual game can elaborate, for now it looks like just another pass title.

NOTE: Unlike many, I DID like the N64 version of Star Soldier. Yes, it was easy and a bit simplistic, but once you learned how to use the the shielding system to your advantage, it was quite nice. I'm a fan of the series, but I'm just not sure about this one...

biocat · Post by **biocat** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 9:58 am

I bought it along with Mushihimesama today. I only played it once but got to the 6th stage with little trouble. Pretty easy so far. The PSP version has three selectable ships. Did the PS2 version have those? I don't know. Everything else seemse the same but I only also have the GC version and honestly haven't played it much. The tate is actually done pretty well, I think. It's not hard to hold at all.

(edit) Oh yeah, I wanted to add that there is hardly any loading in the game. Most of it comes up pretty quickly.

Post by **Ghegs** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 10:21 am

biocat wrote:The PSP version has three selectable ships. Did the PS2 version have those?

Nope, there's only one ship in the PS2/GC version. Also, some of the screenshots show levels that aren't in those versions. Maybe the PSP version is a remix of sorts?

biocat · Post by **biocat** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 11:06 am

It might be. They both have ten stages but the bosses do seem to act a bit different than I remember and I think some also look different. I just looked a video of the GC 2 minute mode since my GC isn't hooked up and it really just looks so much better on the PSP. The GC version looks really cramped where as the PSP tate version gives ample room to move around. I think the levels must have been reworked as twice the space is now viewable compared to that of the GC version. I'm enjoying the game much more on the PSP than I did on the GC. Now they just need to release Soldier Blade for it.

Some more info:
-There's 3 unlockables in the menu.
-The sub weapon is mapped to a different button so there's no tapping on the PSP. You can remap all the buttons as you please.
-The three ships all have different main and sub weapons
Original ship - seems the same
2nd blue ship - fire focused mostly to the front. Sub weapon is a short-range double flame thrower that doesn't seem very useful.
3rd purple - fire focused mostly behind the ship =X. Sub weapon is a giant beam out the front which recharges pretty fast.

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 11:44 am

I really like the GC version, so I kinda want the PSP game... but I just can't stand the way the PSP feels when you hold it on it's side.

Ahh well, glad to hear it's good if you can get used to that.

biocat · Post by **biocat** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 11:45 am

I just spent some time with the purple ship and I have to say it's crazy. It seems that the sub weapons all have the ability to destroy bullets, but the purple ship has the only long range sub weapon. This means you can just periodically clear the screen of bullets by just swiping it with the beam. It makes some of the bosses super easy. The stages are still a bit difficult because there's only a small pea shooter for the front besides the beam weapon making swarms of enemies a bit difficult and swarms of bullets a bit easy.

As for the blue ship, it's slower than all the other ships and slows down even more while shooting.

Oh yeah. One more thing. There doesn't seem to be an initial entry for high scores. I don't know why. It just records the highest for each ship and each game type and that's it. They do give you a password whenever your get a high score, though, which I assume is for some web ranking system.

qatmix · Post by **qatmix** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 2:19 pm

does it upgrade the bios?

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 2:43 am

biocat wrote:It might be. They both have ten stages but the bosses do seem to act a bit different than I remember and I think some also look different. I just looked a video of the GC 2 minute mode since my GC isn't hooked up and it really just looks so much better on the PSP. The GC version looks really cramped where as the PSP tate version gives ample room to move around. I think the levels must have been reworked as twice the space is now viewable compared to that of the GC version. I'm enjoying the game much more on the PSP than I did on the GC. Now they just need to release Soldier Blade for it.

Some more info:
-There's 3 unlockables in the menu.
-The sub weapon is mapped to a different button so there's no tapping on the PSP. You can remap all the buttons as you please.
-The three ships all have different main and sub weapons
Original ship - seems the same
2nd blue ship - fire focused mostly to the front. Sub weapon is a short-range double flame thrower that doesn't seem very useful.
3rd purple - fire focused mostly behind the ship =X. Sub weapon is a giant beam out the front which recharges pretty fast.

WOW, thanks for those impressions biocat! Almost sounds like Hudson's breathed some new life into the Star Soldier series!

I know, I'm gushing, but Hudson is my second fav. shmup developer to Compile.

biocat · Post by **biocat** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 4:52 am

I'm glad you like the impressions, Dave! Yeah, I'm hoping they port some more of their shooters to the PSP. Imagine Gate of Thunder on it...

qatmix wrote:does it upgrade the bios?

Yeah, there's an upgrade on the UMD to 1.5. I'm assuming it would ask you to upgrade if you didn't already.

qatmix · Post by **qatmix** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 10:13 pm

sa long as its 1.5 not 1.51

can you confirm that? Sorry to be a hastle but im enjoying paying my pc engine games on the move atm

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 10:30 pm

What do you guys mean by upgrading your bios?? Do you have to do something extra to play PSP Star Soldier?

Also, are there any videos of this game yet? Didn't see any on the official website.

angrycoder · Post by **angrycoder** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 10:37 pm

dave4shmups wrote:What do you guys mean by upgrading your bios?? Do you have to do something extra to play PSP Star Soldier?

Sony keeps upgrading the PSP bios to prevent people from playing homebrew software on it. Currently the various homebrews & emulators will only work with the 1.0 and 1.50 BIOS. Certain retail games will upgrade your PSP bios to the latest version and thus bork all your homebrew games and emulators.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 10:41 pm

angrycoder wrote:
dave4shmups wrote:What do you guys mean by upgrading your bios?? Do you have to do something extra to play PSP Star Soldier?
Sony keeps upgrading the PSP bios to prevent people from playing homebrew software on it. Currently the various homebrews & emulators will only work with the 1.0 and 1.50 BIOS. Certain retail games will upgrade your PSP bios to the latest version and thus bork all your homebrew games and emulators.

Gotcha, thanks!

druuna · Post by **druuna** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 12:28 am

Interesting...I've the ps2 version of Star Soldier and I didn't enjoyed it very much.
Everything in the game is really boring: from music to graphics and even sound and music seems very unispired.
I love the Star Soldier series but this game is not worth the purchase.
I didn't played the PSP version but seeing those screenshots the game seems very similar to ps2 and ngc versions.
I have also to disagree with the psp tate ergonomics, the console ,unlike the wonderswan for example, is not intended to play in tate so I think that the game is not easy to play

Any video of this game?
Can someone record a movie for us please?
I'm really hoping for something good from Hudson but it seems that they are not able to take example from their past masterpieces

biocat · Post by **biocat** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 4:39 am

The upgrade is to 1.50, not 1.51. I checked it.

drunna: I too felt the GC port was boring but I've really enjoyed the PSP version thus far. I think you should really try it before you start making any judgements. Playing in tate is really not that bad at all. In fact, I have Judgement Silversword for the Wonderswan and I always feel like the controls are just too cramped to play comfortably, whereas I don't get that feeling playing Star Soldier on the PSP.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 6:13 am

Yeah, the game can still be played as a horzi, since for example the 'tate' Up is the 'hardware' Right, and still moves the ship in the 'true' Right direction.

However, I've tried playing OutZone on a non-tate'd television like this (I have a joystick with rotatable controls) and it's quite disorienting.

druuna · Post by **druuna** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 1:35 pm

Thx biocat....I'm happy this game is different from the PS2 and NGC version.
I hope someone will write a review or something here.

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 2:33 am

biocat wrote:The upgrade is to 1.50, not 1.51. I checked it.

That's good to hear.

Any thoughts on how this installment compares to, say, its PCE cousins Soldier Blade, Final Soldier & Super Star Soldier, in quality of graphics/music/gameplay?

UnscathedFlyingObject · Tue Jul 26, 2005 2:49 am

My friend got the PSP Star Soldier, and I got to play some of it. I don't know how the other versions compared, but it was pretty good. And yeah, it's weird to play it vertical (only way as far as I know.)

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 8:53 am

I read that the soundtrack has been improved for this version (?)

It sounds like it's worth picking up anyway as the first ever 9:16 "super tate" shmup

looks mighty tempting.

...wonder if "normal" tate will feel short after we get used to this

biocat · Post by **biocat** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 1:31 am

Thunder Force wrote:
biocat wrote:The upgrade is to 1.50, not 1.51. I checked it.
That's good to hear.

Any thoughts on how this installment compares to, say, its PCE cousins Soldier Blade, Final Soldier & Super Star Soldier, in quality of graphics/music/gameplay?

It's definitely more manic than any of the other previous installments. The
"super" tate is just awesome. I love it! I don't think I could play the other ports after playing this one. Yeah, I've heard the music has also been re-done, but I haven't played the GC version is so long I can't remember.

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 4:07 pm

There's a blurry 90MB video of Star Soldier PSP temporarily mirrored HERE. (limited number of downloads)

it reminds me less of its 8-bit brethren and more like a Naomi-ish shooter, so it looks like I'll be getting this.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 4:44 pm

Thunder Force wrote:There's a blurry 90MB video of Star Soldier PSP temporarily mirrored HERE. (limited number of downloads)

it reminds me less of its 8-bit brethren and more like a Naomi-ish shooter, so it looks like I'll be getting this.

Thanks TF, much appreciated!

Edit: Just watched it, and Holy Cow does that look fun!! $250.00 might just be worth it for this Hudson fanboy!

DavidHolliss · Post by **DavidHolliss** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 7:50 am

Thunder Force wrote:There's a blurry 90MB video of Star Soldier PSP temporarily mirrored HERE. (limited number of downloads)

it reminds me less of its 8-bit brethren and more like a Naomi-ish shooter, so it looks like I'll be getting this.

I've converted it to DivX, got it down to 16mb and reduced brightness slightly here for anyone who didn't get it first time around (right click and save as)

www.trizeal.co.uk/venom743-SS.avi

dynagod · Post by **dynagod** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 6:09 pm

this game is kick ass, theres no need for a bios update, theres not a single game that does, thats all BS..
By far this game more use than any of my other PSP games, the tate orientation is extremely natural and intuitive despite the appearance.
i would like to see more shmups in this aspect ratio for the PSP. we can only hope the DS's dominance in japan doesnt overshadow the psp's shmuping potential.
ive only gotten the third unlock so far, which is boss mania mode.