By the end of the 32-bit era the modern shooter was all but gone from the West. While we would occasionally get a home port of the really cool arcade games in Japan in America this once popular genre was all but extinct. When the Dreamcast came around there was a small resurgence. Titles like Giga Wing, Zero Gunner, and Ikaruga were fantastic reminders of how cool these games could be. Among this rush was Silpheed: the Lost Planet, the sequel to the Sega CD classic. Silpheed aimed for the stars with its presentation and while it wasn’t the revelation we were led to believe thanks to an over enthusiastic press it did offer a glimpse of what was to come. Silpheed the Lost Planet makes good on some of those promises and is only let down by its easy difficulty.
Five hundred years have passed since humanity colonized the stars. During this age of peace the planet Solont, a distant Earth colony, falls under attack by an unknown alien menace. Solont’s future rests in the hands of the Silpheed Squadron, the most skilled force man has to offer.
Silpheed was notable for its stellar presentation. Its mix of simple polygonal enemies against prerecorded footage allowed impressive vistas and camera angles. The novelty of polygonal video games had long since passed but The Lost Planet still manages to impress. From its dazzling prerendered cutscenes to its massive bosses it is clear Treasure put the PS2’s muscle to work. The game is incredibly flashy at every turn in a way that only Treasure usually manages. As you soar over a lava filled planet or dart in between ships among an alien armada the sense of spectacle never wanes. Working Designs even went the extra mile and eliminated the slowdown that plagued the Japanese version.
Where the game succeeds visually it isn’t stumbles a bit in terms of gameplay. The options from Silpheed are gone but in their place the number of main weapons has increased to nine. With nine weapons total that can attach to each side of your ship there are a crazy number of combinations. But most of them are irrelevant. Nearly half the weapons are either virtually identical to one another or completely useless. The orbital laser is so powerful there is almost no reason to use anything else. And with the lacking challenge you’ll cruise through the game.
Its disappointing especially as the scoring system was changed to incentivize better play to earn new weapons. Destroying enemies while in close proximity gives a score multiplier, up to a factor of 16x. New weapons are earned based on score, which should incentivize risk and reward gameplay. But the game is so easy by the fourth stage you’ll have everything unlocked. At that point there is no real reason to engage with that system. It’s a shame this system wasn’t explored more as it could have added some real depth to the game.
I’ve mentioned the easy difficulty because it is a bit surprising. Silpheed had a stiff difficulty curve that ramped up pretty quick. Silpheed: the Lost Planet goes in the opposite direction. In making the game more accessible the developers have stripped the game of any teeth. This is done in a few ways. The life bar is not too common in the shooter genre and allows you to make mistakes. The way death is handled is so different it almost isn’t present. You have lives but when your shields run out it a life is used and it replenishes automatically. No checkpoints, no ship explosion, nothing. Its….weird. There are no power-ups but at midlevel you refuel, gaining full life and can change your weapon combinations. These factors make the game dead simple. It picks up toward the end but not enough to make the game all that exciting.
I’ve painted a pretty damning picture but Silpheed: the Lost Planet isn’t a bad game. While it can be a bit rudimentary in its gameplay it can still be engaging. The background is far more interactive than the looped video of its Sega CD counterpart. Enemy spawns feel more dynamic as a result. This is a slower paced game and I do miss some of the spectacle of the prior game. That is made up with the frequent boss battles. As this was partially developed by Treasure the various mini boss and end stage battles are the highlights of Silpheed. In fact this almost feels like a boss rush at times. It almost makes up for the game’s hit-or-miss gameplay features.
In Closing
Silpheed: the Lost Planet is a love it or hate it affair. As this was a PlayStation 2 launch title expectations were high. While it meets some of them it also disappoints in others. Even now I’m still on the fence with my overall opinion of it. I like it but also do feel a little disappointed. Take that as you will.
