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

[Thunder Force]

After playing this now (well, the majority of the levels) I'll say it's not really Naomi-ish after all.

Biggest surprise was just how easy and responsive the PSP D-pad controls are in vertical mode, I think it's actually easier to hit the diagonals on the PSP d-pad while holding it in Tate. So no control issues to speak of.

But the game itself it not of an overly high standard. It's not a terrible game by any means, it's a fair portable shmup, with a nice aspect ratio, but not any kind of essential purchase. At times it almost feels like playing a western PC shmup in the way you can feel like you're just going through the motions when playing it, and there isn't really an emphasis on bullet dodging since you secondary weapon clears bullets so easily - and can be used constantly.

It's a fun way to kill time, but hard to obsess over like the big name shmups The savior of the game might just be the 2 minute and 5 minute caravan modes, which I haven't messed around with much yet. That might be where the depth is at...

[iatneH]

Did anybody else notice that 2-minutes and 5-minutes in the score ranking chart were spelled as "nimutes"?

My biggest problem with the game is enemies coming quickly from the side of the screen and crashing into me. Sometimes I think I'm above or below the entry point of the enemies, but somehow they always seem to get me -______________________-;;;;

[DavidHolliss]

still waiting for my copy to arrive (in the UK), score wise how "god like" are the scores on the official ranking pages ?

http://ws35.hudson.co.jp/gamenavi/psp/s ... rank2.html

Cheers.

Plus I see people have now entered scores using the fourth ship, any ideas how it's unlocked ?

[Titus Andronicus]

I got my hands on Star Soldier a couple of weeks ago and I've been enjoying it quite a bit since. It moves pretty fast and requires some swift reactions, especially to avoid those damn ships that fly in pairs, one from either side of the screen (as one poster mentioned above). The graphics are good and sharp but I'm kind of turned off by the artwork, it's so bland and generic. It lacks any kind of character. So the graphics, while technically good, could have been much much better if the artwork was more inspired.

Gameplay-wise I really like it though, the challenge is perfect for me. The fact the one has to start over from the beginning of a level upon using a credit makes it much harder to credit feed through the game. To tell the truth I've only managed to play my way as far as the 9:th level boss, which I believe is the second to last one.

As far as using the PSP in TATE mode goes I'd say it works really really well. I took my just a couple of minutes to adjust and it soon felt pretty natural, I dearly hope to see lots of cool shooters using this "function" on the PSP.

[marzzmatrix]

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

There's actually a PSP bios downgrader somewhere, lemme find the link real fast...

http://www.sonyxteam.com/ read here first, then

http://www.sonyxteam.com/downloads/%5BM ... grader.zip

That's your downgrader.

[DavidHolliss]

been really enjoying it also, really shows how hi-quality the PSP screen is, soon get used to holding the PSP TATE'd, just need to chain some more Z blocks for some decent scores

Let hope there are many more PSP Shmups on the way....

[dave4shmups]

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

Thanks so much for taking the time to do this; I just downloaded it!

[DavidHolliss]

With the help of Venom743 translating the official JPN site for PSP Star Soldier, worked out that to unlock the fourth ship, you need to play on Normal Mode (Normal difficulty) and wait for the Level 8 Boss to leave of his own accord, (not sure if he needs to be in first or second form) I've tried and managed to hang around for almost three minutes and no joy, only way to survive is to shoot his fire and in time him, any takers on giving it a try ? or prehaps soneones already done it .....

[Zeether]

Personaly, I think they should have made it for Nintendo DS.
2 screens=instant TATE mode.

[DavidHolliss]

the inch between screens is just too big for a shmup, works OK for Bomberman DS but can't see it happening for a manic shmup.

[visuatrox]

Got both Sengoku Cannon and Star Soldier today. And I can tell that star soldier rocks without a doubt, just have to get used to the slightly awkward way to hold the PSP.

I surprisingly enjoyed Sengoku Cannon too, although mainly played on easy difficulty. The problem with normal mode is the amount of bullets that are too difficult to see, they get lost in the 3D backgrounds, so when you die it never feels like your fault

[FRO]

Personaly, I think they should have made it for Nintendo DS.
2 screens=instant TATE mode.

I think that would be somewhat disorienting though to have the ship move from one screen to another & constantly changing angles of view when moving from one screen to another. I'm not one of those people who has epileptic fits when playing games, but that might cause some serious naseau...

[biocat]

Personaly, I think they should have made it for Nintendo DS.
2 screens=instant TATE mode.

I think that would only be able to work if the action was REALLY tame.