Solar Shifter EX is a fresh new take on the classic vertical
scrolling shoot-em-up that twists the genre a bit with some interesting
ideas. What kind of new ideas? Well, for starters, staying perfectly still
rather than dodging all over the place like in other shmups is a key gameplay
tactic here. For all the good new ideas
Solar Shifter EX brings to the table, however, it is hamstrung by some core
issues that make it just not all that much fun to play. See all of the details here in our full
review.
Game Details
- Publisher: Headup Games
- Developer: Elder Games
- ESRB Rating: “E” for Everyone
- Genre: Shoot-em-up
- Pros: Great graphics and sound; interesting twist on genre
- Cons: Extreme difficulty; load times; camera movement; hard to see what’s going on
- MSRP: $10
Solar Shifter EX’s story is a sci-fi romp about an alien
race that is going to destroy the Sun, so the last vestiges of mankind are
fighting each other as well as the aliens to try to escape the solar system
before the sun blows up.
You control a special space ship that has the power to
instantly shift position around the battlefield. From a gameplay perspective, this allows you to dodge out of the
line of fire or even through solid lasers in order to avoid getting hit. Using the right analog stick lets you shift
precisely where you want to, which is highly recommended over the other control
method which uses the “X” button and left stick but isn’t nearly as accurate.
In addition to the shift mechanic, Solar Shifter EX also has
another trick up its sleeve that separates it from other shmups. Mainly that it really doesn’t play like a
normal shoot-em-up. Instead of having
to dodge around to avoid enemy fire – which usually gets you killed here – you
have to find safe zones where the enemy fire can’t hit you. Each enemy encounter, regardless of how many
enemies and bullets are onscreen, has some safe zone where you can just sit
perfectly still and hold the fire button to kill everything. You can sit still for, literally, 10-15
seconds at a time and never get touched by a bullet once you find the safe
zone. Not only are you safe, but the
enemy patterns are done in such a way that they’ll almost all fly right in
front of you so you can kill them all while not moving. As long as you’re holding the fire button,
after that 10-15 seconds all the enemies should be dead and you move on to the
next encounter where you re-position and do it all over again.
This makes Solar Shifter EX almost impossible to play if you try to play it like a normal shmup. You die early and often if you try to dodge around too much. Instead it is more like a puzzle game where you find that hole in the enemy fire in each battle so you can move on to the next one. This gives the game a totally different feel and can be a lot of fun once you get into the rhythm of things.
Finding that rhythm can be a challenge, though, because even
if you know how you’re supposed to be playing it, Solar Shifter EX is
extremely, brutally, crazy difficult.
The game has checkpoints a few times per level, which eases the pain a
little bit, but it all boils down to a lot of trial and error and dying until
you figure out the pattern in each series of encounters and can make it to the
next checkpoint. This wouldn’t be so bad
if the game didn’t have to load every time you die, but every death is
accompanied by a loading screen. Sure,
the load time is only 8-10 seconds long, but when you have to do it over and
over and over and over it gets very annoying, very quickly.
Part of what make Solar Shifter EX so difficult is that it can be hard to see what is going on through the swarm of enemies and effects onscreen. Everything sort of blends together and you can’t distinguish bullets from the background and you die a lot. I’m also not a fan of how the camera pans around and zooms in and out to make the game more cinematic. These camera shifts make the game harder to play because it is even harder to see.
With that said, however, Solar Shifter EX does actually have
very nice presentation overall. The
game looks good and has nice special effects and the levels set out in space
are stunning. The sound is also pretty
fantastic with great sci-fi sound effects and a truly awesome soundtrack.
Disclosure: A review code was provided by the publisher.
