Saturday, October 3, 2015

Psycho Soldier

GAME NAME
Psycho Soldier
LANGUAGE
English
RELEASE DATE
NA
GENRE
Action, Shooter, Mini
VIDEO GAME
Link Youtube
DOWNLOAD GOOGLE DRIVE
It takes an awful lot of time for me to review SNK Minis, compared to your usual Mini. I always try to finish the game with just one coin. When you try to finish arcade games by going all-out since you have limitless credits, it takes the fun out of Gaming (yes, the proper noun/gerund). I prefer to finish these classics based on my skills, not relying on infinite tries. Also, Minis releases are sparse at this time, so I might as well take my time and dissect the game more deeply than usual. Psycho Soldier is one of SNK’s arcade classics re-released. This was supposed to be the sequel to Athena, which was also re-released as a Mini. Athena is an awful game, regardless of whether you played it today or back in the 80s. And I don’t quite get what a bored Greek goddess has to do with a high schooler and her boyfriend. Without consulting the Internet, I wouldn’t have known the backstory of Psycho Soldier, but it doesn’t matter anyway. Psycho Soldier is an improvement over Athena across the board. Psycho Soldier is a side-scrolling action-platformer, but this game is more a shooter than anything else. It’s so very basic when it comes to gameplay that I fear that kids these days won’t enjoy this game. It’s all about evasion and shooting down enemy forces before they shoot or tackle you, or before you manage to run yourself into a concrete wall. At the start of gameplay, you arrive on screen as a flying saucer, and for a limited amount of time, you can shoot bad guys in this form without taking damage. This also happens when you are respawning; it’s sort of a creative way of granting invincibility, protecting you from getting killed again right away before you can position yourself out of harm’s way. The game may be basic, but it is rather entertaining, even if you are just bashing the X button to fire your apparently psychic powers. Pushing O will let you use your special powers. Like all SNK Minis, you can remap the controls. The level design is good, though I find the clearing of concrete and dirt blocks, to open paths, rather overemphasized. It’s like playing Dig Dug all over again, or a side-scrolling Minecraft, if you will. The graphics of this game are not the prettiest. It’s basically the same as every SNK Mini, a direct emulation, with everything being exactly the same as it was in its original, arcade form. Well, except for the ability to play with a friend. Such a shame, as I know this game would be pretty much amazing with cooperative play. Anyway, this particular SNK Mini is at its best when played with the game screen enlarged to fit the PSP screen. The graphics may be pixelated, but it’s better to play it that way.