Times change, and with them, so do tastes in video game genres. Everything from side-scrollers to adventure games have had their day in the sun and since withered away for the most part. Top-down arcade space shooters are no different, but developers will still give the once-popular genre a shot every once in a while. The latest release up to bat is Solar Shifter EX, a game that that aims high but ultimately misses the mark.
Auto-scrolling pre-rendered levels. Wave upon wave of enemies. Dodging through multiple rows of enemy fire. All of these tropes are present in Solar Shifter, and then some. It is a game defined by genre trappings for better or worse. The main mechanic it brings to the genre is the concept of shifting. Basically, when avoiding fire becomes impossible, you can teleport to an empty spot on the map. It’s a clever mechanic that subverts other similar ideas like Ikaruga’s color-swap, where instead of dodging a blast, you match its color and absorb it. While the story is paper-thin, and exists solely because it must, that’s not what brings you to these types of games- it’s the twitch-heavy, split-second shooting and dodging, which it has in spades.
The look of Solar Shifter is solid. The ships each have interesting designs, and the levels each make for great backgrounds to play against. The game play, while maybe not as refined as some of the other classics in the genre, holds its own fairly well. As mentioned earlier, the shifting mechanic is a nice touch that gives the game a few points. It really is a fun mechanic that’s well-implemented, as it can often mean the difference between life and death.
While all of these positive aspects can keep you playing for a while, the other aspects of the game can leave you with a bad taste in your mouth, and ultimately takes away from its potential. First and foremost, the shooting just feels off. Between the arc of the blasts, and the tilting and shifting backgrounds, you never feel like you’re shooting straight or directly at your target. This often leads to missed shots and lost lives. Once you get over that hurdle, there’s the fact that enemy patterns often repeat and become horribly boring and predictable. Combine all this with the frustration of having to repeat entire sections over and over, and you’ve got a game that struggles to make a lasting impression. Compelling it ain’t.
While it can be pretty to look at at times, Solar Shifter EX is an average shooter with one clever mechanic. That one redeeming quality just isn’t enough to justify overlooking its many other faults. There are better examples of the genre out there that are more worth your time and money and will reward you with a better experience in turn.
