So-lar So Good (Solar Striker (GB))

Member Name: scream4bruce

Product:	Solar Striker (GB)
Date:	22/12/08 (49 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A pure and competent shmup, cannot fault controls

Disadvantages: Lack of scope for scores, harder difficulty not immediately available

Solar Striker is a vertically scrolling shoot-em-up by Nintendo. It's shooting in a pure form - no screen-filling firepower or the likes of smart-bombs simply shoot straight ahead. Only a single type of powerup to collect which upgrades the ship's firepower - should you lose a life then play resumes with only a step back in firepower so it's not too punishing. There's no faulting the control of the ship as well; autofire present but not always efficient.

Everything about the game looks clean and tidy, the designs neat. The backgrounds for each of the six levels are refreshingly different, and the sound effects for each type of common enemy being destroyed differs too. The music is decent. Performance-wise, while there is the slightest of sprite flicker, the game tends to suffer some slowdown - this is noticeable when playing the harder mode which is available after completing the game.

The six levels are of a right length, and the difficulty nicely dials up across them. There is a boss to battle at the end of each level. The game takes about half an hour to complete. The level four boss is perhaps the toughest moment, the points for racking up near the end yields a couple of lives. However, there's not a great deal of scope for high scores, since the game does not loop and everything bar the bullet patterns is set in stone. It took me a couple of attempts to complete Solar Striker, it is challenging, but it would have been nice if the harder mode was immediately accessible. Still, it's a solid, if unspectacular, short and sweet shmup. Yup!

Summary: Solar Striker for GB