Soldner-X: Himmelsstürmer finally arrived...

[MotherGunner]

I finally received my Soldner-X: Himmelsstürmer in the mail after a long wait.  I am very impressed.  If you are an R-type fan do yourself a favor and get it at play-asia.  Anyone else get it?  Your thoughts?

The music is KILLER!!

Official Site

https://www.eastasiasoft.com/games/SoeldnerX-Himmelsstuermer-PC-Edition

Trailer

wayback.gametrailers.com/player/25936.html

[rolins]

I have a copy but I'm unable to play it. Apparently my Intel 82855 intergrated graphics on my laptop doesn't quite meet the requirements. I wish their website would post this kind of information, otherwise guys with my hardware spec will only be disappointed. 

[Turbo D]

Wasn't this supposed to come out for PS3?  Either way, it looks super cool 

[MissaFX]

(From Play-Asia's Website)
Required:
CPU: Pentium compatible with at least 1GHz (MMX or 3D-Now required)
Ram: 512MB RAM (Vista: 1GB RAM)
Video: DirectX 8.1 compatible 3D video card with at least 64MB Video RAM and texture compression (i.e. Geforce 4 Ti or better)
OS: Genuine Microsoft Windows 98, 2000, XP or Vista
DirectX: Version 8.1 or better and up-to-date video card driver
Sound: DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
Keyboard: PC compatible keyboard
CD-Drive: 16x CD-ROM drive
Internet Connection: 56k modem or faster

Yes!  This game looks awesome.  I hope the gameplay is as good as it looks.

[NecroPhile]

I have a copy but I'm unable to play it. Apparently my Intel 82855 intergrated graphics on my laptop doesn't quite meet the requirements. I wish their website would post this kind of information, otherwise guys with my hardware spec will only be disappointed. 

Not that it does you any good after the fact, but they do have hardware specs up now.  It sucks eggs that you can't play it today, but at least you'll have something to look forward to whenever you have to buy a new computer.

[MotherGunner]

Wasn't this supposed to come out for ps3?  Either way, it looks super cool 

Apparently as a download in about a month for Jap PS3's.  No word on an american release.  It would make sense since the game is completely in English.

[GUTS]

Can you create a Jap account on PS3 to download jap stuff like you can on a 360?  I'd buy the jap release in a second if I could, I'm not too stoked on waiting for the US release (if it even happens).

[Kitsunexus]

BETTER.

wayback.hardcoregaming101.net/valstar/valstar.htm
wayback.2ccp.com/valstar/valstar_trial.zip

[Seldane]

I downloaded this game a couple of weeks ago. I was expecting something like Gradius V. I was wrong.

Oh, so very wrong!

This game feels so amateurish. It's like a game maker game made by some dood who's never made a game before. The backgrounds are mostly nice-looking, but the sprites and more importantly the projectiles and explosions look incredibly poor. Take a brush in photoshop and make an orange circle, then use many more shades of similiar color and make more circles within that circle and there you have a typical Söldner X explosion.

The gameplay itself is also very dull. All you ever do is fly forward, there are no obstacles or large ships/other things in your way - all you get is a wide open screen with many small ships coming from the right, and they pretty much just fly straight through the screen. If you ignore then they just fly by, and a new batch of small ships comes from the right. They put NO effort into this!

And another thing... some people might be attracted by the "awesome HD graphics!" but it really isn't in favor of the game at all. Sure, the resolution is (relatively) high for a shooter, but they don't take advantage of this at all - the enemy ships are super small, and so is yours, but the playfield is HUGE! This is a great disadvantage as it makes this feel like a game of Galaga/Galaxian - your tiny ship is to the left of the screen and on the right side are hundreds of small weak enemy ships. Kill all of them and a new batch comes along. JUST like Galaga!

In addition, the game doesn't support higher resolutions than 1280x1024 (I believe it was that), which sucks for those of us with flat screen monitors larger than 17". The PC version does have one nice feature though - no installation required. Just put in the CD and click PLAY on the autostart menu that pops up. Nice.

Oh and another thing... The GUI is scattered all over the screen, so if you have a large TV/monitor, you're going to have to look around for the various meters and stuff. I don't know about you, but I never had the opportunity to take a look at the GUI, I was too busy avoiding enemy ships. Oh, and there's a life bar somewhere, but I never found it. So expect to die unexpectedly.

As for the music, well, it's just very uninspired and flat (not to mention terrible!) techno music. Whoever made it has no talent whatsoever. Or they just didn't care enough.

And about the weapons. Don't expect anything fancy like in more sophisticated console shooters. They are very boring and there's no feeling in them eiher. You can get a big lightning weapon that's relatively large and looks deadly - but it just saps the energy out of the enemy ships - slowly. By the looks of it, it would blow everything up immediately - but it doesn't.

I played this in co-op with a friend, and the life bar seems to be shared, as we both died EXACTLY at the same time. That kinda sucks.

Beware of this game, don't let the pretty backgrounds deceive you, the gameplay is terrible. As I said, I was expecting something in the vein of Gradius V, but instead all I got was Galaga 2.0. A real disappointment.

2/5


You'll never see a scene like this in Söldner X

[MotherGunner]

I remember someone posting here about Jets and Guns,  I really enjoyed that one as well.  I guess I will skip the above game for now.

Anything worth getting on Japanese PS2?  I was thinking about Psyvaviar 2 and ESP Galuda.

http://jng.rakeingrass.com/

[rolins]

I remember someone posting here about Jets and Guns,  I really enjoyed that one as well.  I guess I will skip the above game for now.

Anything worth getting on Japanese PS2?  I was thinking about Psyvaviar 2 and ESP Galuda.

http://jng.rakeingrass.com/

Get Espgaluda. Very addictive gamelplay and awesome soundtrack. This one will not disappoint. Two thumbs up!

I have Psyvariar 2: Ultimate Final for the PS2. I dig the music, but I think its gameplay is mediocre at best.

[MotherGunner]

sWiiT !!!  I will get ESPGaluda as soon as I can then.