- PRESENTATION
The presentation for this game is very nicely done. It reminds me of the graphic and artwork changes that occured when Bust-A-Move moved to the PS2 (a game I still have), very cute characters, thick dark outlines to accentuate their designs, bright and pastel colours. The packaging is very sickly-sweet, but very eye catching - the front cover of the manual also doubles as a poster if you're willing to take it off the staples.
Inside the manual is a lot of nice artwork, nice graphic design using fonts that are reminiscent of the kind of stuff at Japanese font foundry Gray Graphics.
The new design changes are reflected in the in-game titles and menus, sharp design, very crisp and bright. I quite like it. - IN-GAME GRAPHICS
The HUD is clean and similar to the original. There's no large bits of info obscuring the action, and everything is presented nicely.
As most will know, the in-game graphics have changed from prerendered sprites to full polygons, and I personally don't think there is anything wrong with it. The characters are fluidly animated, and with little touches like moving clothes and hair, and they themselves move when you use power attacks - like pointing their fingers before launching a fireball - or when they get hit.
The backgrounds are also polygonal, and very bright. Some would say that this might obscure the actual happenings on screen, but since you're not actually dodging tiny bullets, but rather, large fireballs, bosses and Extra Attacks, it's a moot point. There are nice touches in the backgrounds as well, like people on the ground below running around, waterfalls, trees swaying and stuff. It's like you are in a different world - one where they fight each other in a versus shmup
Even the Extra Attacks and Bosses are fluidly animated. Bystanders watching a battle in action may be impressed by the look of the in-game design. - SOUND AND MUSIC
The voice acting for the characters is typical cute-em-up stuff, so nothing to report there. The announcers don't sound much different from the original game, so fans will be familar with shouts of EXTRA ATTACK! and REVERSAL!. Sounds great during a heated battle with Extra Attacks and Reverses flying around all over the place.
The music is brilliant. I love the remixes of some of the original themes, such as Rosselian (Re:Birth Mix) [Dark Ran's Theme] and Love Me (Lovely Mix) [Tinker&Linker/Schmidt's Theme] <both MP3's 6MB each>. It's quite nostalgic hearing them, and they sound great updated for the new game. The new tracks for the new characters and stages are also very good stuff, and again, reminiscent of the original TSS, so fans of the first won't be disappointed. - GAMEPLAY
The most important point: does it play like the original?
Nothing seems to have changed from the first TSS gameplay wise, it's still the same fast and furious fireball war that it always has been. You still have your Shot, which has three levels of Charge - PowerShot, PowerShot with Extra Attack and Boss Attack - and a screen clearing Bomb. Everything moves just as fluidly as the characters do.
I have noted that the fireballs that appear after successful chaining and from reflecting opponent's fireballs seem to move a bit slower than they did in the original, which might make the game somewhat easier for those not familiar with the game. You still get massive waves of fireballs at later points in battles though, and like the original, you can still bounce them right back with good Charge attacks and successful chains.
The Overdrive Orb is also in there, and like the original, it powers you up for massive fireball waves when you create big chains. Someone previously noted that you get a little pause before the Orb activates, and that is exactly like it was in the first game. This time though, you get a little graphic telling you who has activated the Orb, similar to something you see in a fighting game before a player launches a Super. shinkuu... HADOKEN!
Some players might have difficulty discerning what's good for you from what is bad when they are playing, due to the brightness and colourfullness of the backgrounds, but when there are tons of fireballs flying around, you don't really have time to get distracted by the background
There are plenty of old favourites available to select - including Load Ran, Dark Ran and Memory - as well as several new faces, each with their own attributes, Extra and Boss Attacks - so you can spend ages having fun mastering a character. There are also three unknown spots as well in the Character Mode select screen. Three secret characters? - EXTRAS
You get a nice little double Gallery option in this game - one is for concept artwork, quite nice to look at, and one is the music Sound Test with all the available in-game tracks - and it's very welcome. I believe that you can unlock the original game as well, but I have no idea what the requirements are
If you can, then this is a neat little package of a game to have. - ISSUES
1. Backgrounds are pretty bright and vibrant, which might make the action a little tough to see.
2. Not everyone will like the design of the game, quite cute and cuddly (and most shmuppers here probably like their games dark, edgy and badass)
3. The control config menu is in Japanese, making it hard to config your buttons without testing out what button does what first.
4. One-player modes don't have much replayability after a while, which was a problem with the first TSS - this is a game made for versus modes.
5. I doubt netplay will be available outside of Japan uness someone makes a World server for import-savvy players to use.
6. Character Mode is very short. Six battles long
- OVERALL
This is definitely a package worth owning for TSS fans. Other players might not like the way it plays, but grab a friend anyway, and prepare to lose hours of your life blasting each other in a great, vibrant, enjoyable versus game
The game's main failing is that the one-player modes are very short, but if you can live with that,then it's a blast, great to pick up when you're drained out of Cave/Raizing/Psikyo/G.Rev energy
(Until Senko no Ronde gets ported of course.)
have to quickly restart).
