Playstation reviews....

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Silhouette Mirage Treasure/ESP/Spaz/Working Designs
I love Treasure and this is one of their two PSX games (Rakugaki Showtime being the other). I waited for this game for the longest and it was worth it! It first came out on Sega Saturn in Japan, I didnt get it, and then Working Designs announced they'd be bringing the PSX version to America. You had to wait a while for them to translate it. (unlike other Spaz games, this one actually had a lot of text to translate. I haven't played the Saturn version, but this one rocks! 2-D performance is great, with a good bit of scaling and animation (tho it's not as crazy as some other games). Basically (according to WD) it's lost one level of background parallax but they did add a new game level...fair enuf. Character design is naturally wonderful and bizarre. You play Shyna Nera Shyna ("just call me Shyna"), a little girl cyborg "Messenger of Justice" who hasta save a post-apocalyptic world from total destruction...cool! This world is split into two types of beings, Silhouette and Mirage. Shyna is both, split right down the middle. In a nice twist on side-scroller gameplay, she then kin only kill a Silhouette by shooting one way and a Mirage by shooting the other. And there are loads of them to kill! Enemy grunts are either Polly Peepers (killer Mirage cyborgs disguised as little girls who lift up their skirts to reveal high-calibre weapons) or Spectres (green pumpkinhead Silhouettes in blue jumpers). Both are pretty cute but hateful. And there are many many cool bosses and sub-bosses to fight; some of the best anywhere. Faves are Geluve cuz she's pretty and Sara and Faust cuz they are funny. Also "Guardian Angel" Dynamis, "an artificial lifeform rather lacking in artificial intelligence" who manages to be both digustingly cute and just disgusting. Also hateful and pathetic (I like how she goes on about being a "cute florist" while she's trying to kill you. She IS vile). Some of these guys (and how they play) have to be seen to be believed. Gameplay is similar to Treasure's early Genesis classic Gunstar Heroes, but slower. I'd rank this game below Radiant Silvergun and above Guardian Heroes; and therefore remains one of the best. What Sillhouette Mirage lacks in speed or intensity, it makes up for in wierdness, inventiveness and charm. Levels are really cool (Delia's giant soup bowl is a fave) and the way the characters talk to each other and interact is very funny. There's a load of dialogue in this game, mostly written, but there's a good bit of voice talent in there (WD redid all the voices in English and it's really good...I love the way Shyna shouts out her attacks in her little Powerpuff Girls voice). The game's got a storyline which is pretty strange and funny and convoluted; it mixes technological menace and apocalyptic religion just like Evangelion. (There's even a Sandalphon/Metatron, who bizarrely changes sex as he/she attacks you) You get very cool weapons, which you gotta buy (one of your cool moves is shaking down enemies for money which is very fun...evil!) It's kinda easy tho, and I've played thru it a few times (altho not thru all the paths). But its very fun and I love it. Silhouette Mirage is probably the greatest 2-D game on Playstation, and my fave on this system and an all-time fave besides. Cinemas and music are cool too. WD even redid the closing song with English vocals and they get an award for their translation and the manual. The CD also includes a trailer for RPG Lunar 2.

N20: Nitrous Oxide Gremlin/Fox Interactive
Blame rave culture for this...OK, it's a game named after a drug (albeit a legal and rather silly one at that)...If I was a parent I might have trouble letting my kid play this...Imagine a game named after beer. OK, so you're supposta be flyin thru tubes filled with N20, which provide your ship with fuel. But still. The visuals are psychedelic, the soundtrack is by The Crystal Method (bad drug, bad band), you pick up little round pills marked E (no shit, tho they are supposta be "e-currency"), and there's even a mushroom power-up (tho it could be more of an old Mario Bros thang). And the (cancelled) advertitising campaign quoted Timothy Leary. Nice try, guys. They coulda done a game based on E or weed...tho that mighta caused more trouble, I would loved to have seen it, especially weed. (soundtrack by Cypress Hill, Nightmares on Wax and a million other bands...ha ha!) Still, I think it's a really good game. Basically it's the old Atari shooter Tempest, cept yer craft moves forward thru these winding, looping tubes and ya shoot bugs (shades of Centipede). There's even a "superzapper", the pretty awesome "firewall". The enemies kin be kinda wack, but the game is tons of fun and the gfx really are nice. The in-game info-gfx are a mix of cheesy 3-d, half-assed "tekno" fonts, Designers Republic-ripoffs and gratuitous kana...sounds rather like my pages! Really nice weapons, too, tho some are kinda kewl-lookin-but-pointless. It's nice to see a good non-Japanese shooter once in a while. The bonus stages are much better and challenging than the chiilout-room-antics of Tempest 2000 and are fun and sorta Wipeout-ish. Great sound fx, except I don't really like the Crystal Method who provide the soundtrack. But wait! You kin take out the game disc and pop in a music CD of yer choice. Then it becomes a whole new game. Tho it's not documented in the manual (wouldn't want to piss off the CR), this feature was clearly intended, as the game itself gives you prompts when you swap discs. Personally, I find Digitalis, or any psychedelic trance werks well...naturally. I thought this game was OK at first (Tempest 2000 is still betta), but now I think it totally rocks!

R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 Namco
The only racing game I could maybe like better is Sega's Daytona USA, but, unfortunately, I'm pretty much over the last Saturn version. When the Playstation first came out, the original Ridge Racer was pretty much the only impressive game . You saw it, with cars racing in 3-d, and knew this was the future. The game itself controlled really badly and wasn't as fun as the 1st version of Daytona. By version 4, Namco pretty much got it right. R4 controls very well and it feels fast. That and the graphics are among the best on Playstation. (No, it doesn't look as good as Wipeout 3 with its 640x480, but these are real cars with tires here, so maybe that's harder) There is some minor glitching and popup but it doesnt spoil it. It does suffer from the same combination of muddiness and graininess that plagues Gran Turismo. Most courses are really detailed and atmospheric with tons of things hanging around the track like blimps and birds and helicopters and giant inflatable Pac-Men. (I do think Namco's constant references to their own old classic games is touching but kinda pathetic...I wonder when people won't know what Mappy or a Solvalou is) The intro is really well done, but kinda lame (basically it says, "drive real fast and you'll pick up Reiko") This game only gets a cute girl rating cuz I like Reiko, but she's basically the game's mascot. I've always liked Ridge Racer's music, n here it's really the best...Namco does seem to have discovered jazzy drum 'n' bass in a few instances. I love this stupid game and I hate it too, cuz I am always playing it. R4 is truly addictive and unfortunately, I am trying to finish it, or at least come close. (Actually by 5/00, I had) There are tons of cars to win, the designs aren't of real cars, but are really good, and there are the freaky cars you win in the manufacturer trials (a secret). One thing I miss, is that the cars don't take damage when you crash, a la Daytona...they aren't licensed cars, so they coulda done it n it woulda been more fun, but oh well. Oh and fave courses are the ones in NY and Fukuoka...I don't know about Fukuoka (the second one is my absolute fave), but the NY courses are definitely a fantasy. No, it's not as good as Daytona, but it'll do till Sega gets off its ass and gives us a Dreamcast Daytona. (speaking of DC, watch for the Soul Calibur billboard trackside) Anyway, this game rocks, and it's really cheap now. Apparently, R4 didn't sell very well, despite glowing reviews and hype. (people were probably waiting for the rushed, buggy GT2) I got mine for $20. It's got a second disc with demoes and the whole first RR game, which can be run in either the R4 graphics engine or the old one, but it's pretty unplayable by comparison. Definitely worth getting. There is an N64 game (4-player!) and R5 is already out in Japan as a PS2 title (unfortunately its pretty disappointing, doesn't look too much better than this one).

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Konami
Maybe one of the most grandiose names for a game...it's been out fer a long while, is totally old fashioned and is almost a perfect game. Konami's been doing the Castlevania series since the old NES, and its appeared on nearly every Japanese system since then. SOTN picks up where the 16-bit Bloodlines lets off (the first level seems the last of the previous game). This time you are Alucard, a very girly effeminate bishonen half-vampire, the son of Dracula, who's got to destroy his daddie's castle. The gameplay is basically unchanged, loads of jumping and slashing baddies and breaking stuf to get powerups but there are RPG elements and spells and such. Just like a 16-bit game--kill all the baddies in one room, then return, and the same exact baddies are back, running the same exact patterns. (makes sense tho, cuz they are undead, but still...) The gfx at first look just a little better than Sega Genesis but improve as the game goes on. Enemies are well designed, have loads of class, and many scream horribly when killed. Lots on nice touches, like the huntress spirit or the chilly underground waterfall or the giant eyeball that watches you from the garden. The castle is the most fantastic baroque little 2-d thing. Well, actually it seems really huge. A masterpiece of 2-d Japanese game art. As the name may imply, the muzik is mostly fantastic wit lots of classical. It's the perfect game cuz, while its a fairly serious twitch game, theres also loads of exploring. And you kin save often so it's great just to pick up anytime. I don't know if I'l ever finish it (odds are I won't as I dont usually finish games that aren't fighting) but it would rock. SOTN wuz really popular but it seems the last of a generation as Konami is doing 3-d Castlevanias now. The N64 one was supposta be pretty sucky but the Dreamcast one looks good, and I want them either to come around or make it happen in 3-d (when it does, it will be awesome!) Oddly, the Saturn version of SOTN was supposed to have been worse, aside from getting to play cute chick Maria.

Wipeout 3 Psygnosis
And more Wipeout...this time around the graphics really are incredible. These are some of the best I've seen on PSX and just much much better than the already very pretty Wipeout XL. Wipeout 3 runs in hi-res mode AND they've finally given us some real tracks this time (the XL trax were mostly disappointing). There is realy an insane amount of detail in the backgrounds; every race takes place in and around the same city it seems, and for the first time, you feel you're racing in a real environment. There are great trax like Mega Mall and Manor Top. No advertisements this time (no more Red Bull), not even from Psygnosis games, but there are tons of little DR gfx. Also little touches like what Sega puts in their arcade games like birds and railway trains and balloons. And (yay!) 90 degree turns. On a couple trax there are video monitors showing you racing (on Manor Top its a whole video wall wrapping round a curve). Too kewl! There's a replay mode which is the best I've seen in a racing game...no new gfx gimmics like GT, but it's really well shot and it looks exciting and great. (I like to sometimes watch it and trance out to Sasha.) Control is tighter and better but the weapons lack punch. They've added kewl weapons like NRG Drain and Force Wall (its really funny to watch your opponents bounce off this). But they took away Thunder Bomb which was my fave from XL. Boo! Also, they made Plasma Bolt too easy to aim. It was a kewl weapon cuz it destroyed enemies on impact but was really hard to aim so when you hit one it was worth it. Now you just kinda shoot it in their general direction and poof! they're gone. Psygnosis seems to alway finds a way to screw up their games. And they always change the Wipeout formula. Now you get four trax and four teams in each class, and as you go, trax and teams are unlocked. But of the original teams only Feisar (I hate Feisar) and Auricom (balanced...I like!) are represented. So if you like playing with AG or Qirex ya gotta wait. The new manufacturers are kewl (and ship designs have changed for everybody) and new faves are Pirhana and Icaras. The DR design interface is very cool but too plain for the general hyperactive look of Wipeout (also the manual has been messed up) The game is harder (good!) and there are new modes like Tournament (the old game sorta...yay!) and Prototypes (very kewl...racing in flat-shaded Tron-looking mode). I really dig this game of course. It looks so good...I wish they'd do a rerelease of the old games but with these grafx...and bring back the Thunder Bomb and Ariel!


Tokyo Highway Battle Bullet-Proof/Jaleco
And another racer...THB is actually a fave..If you even wanted to drive a Honda Civic really unsafely through the Tokyo highway system, now's your chance! Fun! Oh, yeah, and you race in traffic! You and your opponent (only one) have to contend wit buses, trucks and slow-moving cars. Not enuf traffic to really slow you down, but enuf to make it interesting.Gameplay is somewhere between Ridge Racer and Gran Turismo. Closer to GT, actually, it feels kinda slow, but more real than RR. Also, you have to powerslide, which is hard but at least possible. (I didn't find it so in the crazy-controlling RR) Graphics look pretty simple and flat-shaded but are actually quite detailed. The cityscapes are great with some real landmarks. Also kewl tunnels, bridges, offramps. Unlike the Test Drive series there aren't any cops to chase you which is kinda a bummer as they mention the "local heat" on the back of the CD. The soundtrack ranges from pretty dam kewl to mediocre. The only really good sound effect is where you drive over expansion joints on bridges. Your oppenents are mostly floppy-haired guys who say things like "I'm Toshi. Street Racing Samurai." Agin, it's only one opponent, but a smart, fast tuff one. Beat the first three and race three more who are much harder. You choose from cars like the Civic (my fave, the pre-'96 hatchback), a Miata and an MR2. (Jaleco must not have paid for the brand name rights, cuz the cars aren't named but the gfx are detailed enuf you kin tell exactly what they are) You get more, and more powerful choices with each 3 trax cleared. When you race you get points (more if you win) which you kin take to the Bandoh performance shop and spend on modifications for your car. Bandoh-san doesn't have quite the selection of goodies as the Mugen Power shop in GT, but it's enuf. And you kin save yer lil hotrod to the memory card. Most of the fun of GT and easier to get inta. I recommend this. It wasnt a big hit in the US at least, n you kin pick it up fer $20. If you really wanna race in Tokyo (and who doesn't?) then this is it.


Motor Toon Grand Prix Poly's/Sony
Yay! It's my favoritest PlayStation racer! It's a close second to my real fave Daytona CCE on Saturn. The PSX isn't exactly the best system fer racers. But this one (actually MT2 in Japan) is one of the few that stands out. Never mind the cute exterior, this is a fun, fast-feeling, real-control-having racing game, way better than any Ridge Racer game ('cept maybe 4. Haven't played it). Motor Toon GP is by the same people that developed Gran Turismo, and GT is actually based on the Motor Toon engine! 'Course MT isn't as realistic as GT but I think it's more fun

Better still, it's like a Wacky Racers game! If ya remember the Hanna-Barbera show or Artmic's Scramble Wars, you know it'd make a great game. (I remember a PC Wacky Racers game tho, and I bet it stunk.) Motor Toon's character designs are by the Susumu Matsushita Company and are one part classic American toon, one part anime. They're really cute n nice. My faves are the two Penelope Pitstop-ish female racers, Princess Jean in her Cinderella-coach-hot-rod (she's the princess of Toon World!) and bad biker chick Vanity on a monster motorbike (she's got cute boots!). You kin also play as Captain Rock in his '57 Chevy, Raptor and Raptor in their UFO, the Penguin Bros in their Dick-Dastardly-by-George-Barris gangsta limo and more! There are five big tracks to race on (with 5 more secret tracks) which are all wonderfully designed. My faves are the Crazy Coaster with it's shiney transparent pinky loops and the Gulliver House where everything is giant-sized. (you race cross a piano, a roulette wheel, through a cake and more!). The racing part, as I said, is really good, n you get fun power-ups n weapons. In many ways this is like the game Wipeout XL coulda been (and you can't drop a 32-ton weight on yer opponents in that game, either!) Graphics are simple, but really pretty, N64-ish (without being all blurry smudgey) and have all sorts of neat details around the tracks. I wish more games on this system were done like this. I luv the music, specially the opening theme ("Go! Go! Motor Toon!") and the sound effects are funny. I like the announcer who yells out the name of the power-up you just got, he sounds like he's from pro wrestling. (I luv the way he says "Fire Ball!). There are enuf trax n racers n options n modes of play to make this game loads of toony fun for a long time! GT2 maybe be out by the time I put this one down



Ghost in the Shell Exact/Sony/Kodansha/THQ
Uh oh! Too many people worked on this game! Doesn't look good when THQ ends the list. Besides makin games fer rednecks, THQ is tryin to be a low-rent Working Designs (and with Darius G has maybe beaten them). This was maybe the first Japanese game they brought to the U.S. and the original development team are actually the same guys who did the Jumping Flash games fer Sony. I remember when Sony first licensed this game a few years back n gettin all excited. Well, I dint realize then that most anime games sucked. This one doesn't but imagine a version of the chase scenes from the first half of the GITS movie--Motoko Kusanagi divin off the side of buildings, running, kickin ass, shootin people, cloaking/decloaking, maybe jackin into the network to track baddies. We don't get that game. Instead we get Jumping Flash in a fuchikoma, one of those spider-tank-mechs. Still pretty kewl. It uses the JF engine, n like those games, is pretty fun. You kin jump n crawl up walls n hang upside down n blow up stuf. Ya don't get the same jump-all-over-the-place action as JF tho. Also, it doesn't really force ya to go sideways or upside down which is too bad, cuz its' a lot more fun that way. Maybe I haven't played that far inta the game, but it doesn't get fun and disorienting Descent-style like it could Yer fuchikoma is pretty cute and gameplay is simple n violent n fun. Graphics are nice (you ARE in Newport City) but not as good n even grainier than the nominally similar Bulk Slash (guess Saturn's not that bad at 3-d after all). They recreate those cyber-info-map screens from the movie perfectly (a nice touch) The intro and cutscenes feature nice all-new anime sequences. Motoko is drawn much different than the movie, in Masamune Shirow's original style and tho I like the movie version too, I prefer this Motoko cuz she's cuter n kinda looks like me. Bateau is a little more goofy lookin but the other charas are pretty much like the movie. Also they got the same voice actors from the dubbed version of the movie (or good imitators) which is a nice touch. I like the bleepy soundtrack; it's available as a music CD in Japan and features kewl people like Hardfloor and Joey Beltram, but there's no mention of it here. Recommended fer fans and people who have wanted to pilot a fuchikoma their whole lives.



Wipeout XL Psygnosis
The original Wipeout was one of the very first games I got for my Saturn and I luved it n played it to death. This sequel was one of the games I wanted most fer Playstation. It's mostly improved over the original with better graphics n control (the original Playstation version was supposta have horrid control). They threw in more weapons n a pretty hip soundtrack (well maybe fer the time). I luv this too and am totally groovin on it but it is a lil disappointing. The first one was too easy, n fer whatever reason, they made this EASIER. All the tracks are easier then their original counterparts and they threw in a new third class of racing, the Vector, as if Venom class wasn't easy enuf. And aside from the Gare d'Europa track, which takes place in the Paris Metro, all the new tracks lack the character of the originals. Less twistiness, less jumps, less everythang, no more rollercoaster ride. (arg). Mostly lacking in trackside detail except for the first track, Talon's Reach, which is INSANELY detailed. When you beat 'em all, ya gotta race em all over agin at the highest (Rapier) speed...then you get two more, and after that, who knows? Control is much tighter (tho it loses the speed of the Saturn game) and they add new weapons like the (lame) autopilot and the (too kewl) quake disruptor. XL is more violent than the first one, ships will blow up! And yer opponents do attack you more often. It's pretty kewl to hear the words "contender eliminated) and see the field suddenly narrow by one when you blow someone up. (OK, I'm really a dork!) They add kewl gameplay features too, like shields and checkpoints (yay!). But it loses the competition mode (tho the Phantom Challenge is kinda the same) and the characters (boo). The AI is wierd...the computer that controls the autopilot steers you into enemy mines and 90% of the time disengaes in the middle of a turn, making you crash. The enemies do some pretty cheaty things, like throw up their shield bubbles right when you shoot em, or better yet, blow up yer bullet with their mines. (Makes no sense as your ship doesn't have a rear-view mirror. Do theirs?) But then they also destroy each other, which is really stoopit, gameplay-wise. The graphics are really great wit kewl exhaust glows (go inta a tunnel n all the ships look like fireflies!). I think this game is still worth checkin out even if ya got the original. You kin also get XL on PC and the Saturn version was only available in Europe and Japan. Wipeout 64 for Nintendo is supposta go beyond this n may be worth checkin out. Also check out my Saturn page for the first Wipeout.


Einhander SquareSoft
Einhander's not the German word fer Pee Wee Herman's favorite activity (aaarg!), it refers to the shape of yer ship, a kewl Gerwalk-lookin thingy wit a claw hangin down. See, ya wound yer enemies, then ya use the claw ta get their weapons, a pretty nifty take on the power-up, kinda snagged from Gaiares. The weapons are really really kewl, includin a big-ass cannon, a big lightsaber(!) n my fave, the grenade launcher (it's so pretty!). Like Sengoku Blade on the Saturn, Einhander pushes Playstation's 32 bits pretty far. Unlike that game, its all in 3d, takin full advantage of Sony's hardware effects. Still, yer stuck in one frame of movement, so its a good old side-scroller at heart, a polygonal take on the 2-d shooter. The graphics are mostly gorgeous, smooth models, some killer backgrounds (like the opening city), and awesome glowy explosions. Weapons have recoil (!), n you kin see spent ammo clips falling from them. When ya hit yer boosters, ya get this great glow wit sparks all round. The sky background is kinda crummy tho. Music is nice. Enemies are a weird mix, some are pretty standard Japanese, some are steampunk or 50's sci-fi, some suck n some are plain weird. It's loads of fun, but somethin is missin in the gameplay department. The claw n weapons n different configurations give you some interest. But the main thang is that the enemies hardly fire back! Bosses are very well done n have more personality than most but they're pretty easy ta beat once ya figure them out. Ya don't get the sorta epic boss battles I like. The boss at the end of the first level is great lookin n strange n kinda sad when it dies but it's so boring to beat him over n over agin. Also the game only reaches a nice level of intensity a few times. Sometimes it'll break the 2-d gameplay plane, like the breakdancing robot spider (really! too kewl!) There is a bit of slowdown when there's too much stuf on screen. Oh yeah...when ya die, yer extra guy doesn't come flyin in right away like in most shooters, ya gots ta start over from a set point in the level (boo! noticeable pause in gameplay) I still recommend this game, cuz I luv a good shooter n the design is too fierce. It doesn't have the epic craziness of Galactic Attack/Layer Section or the charm and tweaked gameplay of Sengoku Blade. Or the intensity of either, but Einhander kin almost stand wit them.


RayStorm Taito/Spaz/Working Designs
Taito's 2-d shooter RayForce/Layer Section/Galactic Attack wuz one of my absolute favorite games in its Saturn version. This is the sequel! Eagerly anticipated by me, n it's in 3-d. Well, sorta. It's mostly polygonal, but ya don't get full freedom of movement n, like Einhander, still locked in a 2-dimensional plane. It's not annoyin like a rail-shooter like Panzer Dragoon, think of it as an overhead shooter wit a bit of perspective, a lot like Silpheed. I think it works. I has heard mixed things about this, so I wasn't hopin fer too much but I was pleasantly surprised how good it twas! They did a pretty good job of bringin across all the things that made the original so great, the prettiness, the simple but effective weapons, enemies that repeatedly break the 2-d plane, the fun of blowin up enemies as they rise above ta attack you, blowin up enemy forts n space platforms, bein faced wit so much enemy stuf on the screen ya don't know what ta do next, and loads of shootin n bullet dodgin! yay! The graphics are gorgeous, grainier than Einhander but work better overall. Ya get ta fly down a waterfall this time (tho its not as nice as ones in the original). Ya get ta fly through 3-d clouds as you make yer assault on the enemy planet...sooo pretty! In the second level ya fly over the underwater ruins of what must be Paris, wit huge Captain Nemo submarines n Loch Ness Monster-type mechs. The space levels are the best wit cooler asteroids than the original n great Colony Wars-lookin nebulae n stuf. The space dust is back! Also weapons are totally lovely, sometimes it looks like yer in the middle of the Fourth of July. Again, a nice Zuntata soundtrack wit some versions of the old tunes n lovely new stuf. Gameplay is really really good, but unfortunately not as good as the original. Cuz of the limitations of 3-d graphics, there are less enemies n it's not as intense. There's also slowdown in parts, more than Einhander, but it's not too bad. (the original had none) The power-up system wit it's multiple bullets n lock-on lasers is back. In addition, there's a new special attack, kinda black-hole-bomb-like that sends big lasers all over the screen wit tons of pretty pretty glows, blowin up most everythang.(RayStorm indeed!) I don't like bombs so much (cept in Sengoku Blade) n it kinda skews the gameplay. Ya also get a second ship configuration that uses lightnin instead of lock-on lasers. The bosses are like the old ones, but better n more lively, includin a couple kewl transformers. It loses the sub-bosses tho. Unfortunately ya don't get the nice in-game minicinema level transitions of the original. Some new goodies, like when you are first in space, the angles shift n you get a lil dizzy n disoriented as enemies spiral in formation Gyruss-style round you. Then ya gotta deal wit battleships wit Gall Force type fire power. You kin split them in two! You kin also blast away enemy bullets. Raystorm's not my fave but I'm lovin this n it didnt leave my Playstation at all fer a while. The Japan-only Saturn version, Layer Section 2, is supposta have slightly worse graphics, a bit more slowdown but a lil better gameplay. Also more options n a third ship that loses the special attacks n gets more powerful bullets n lasers. Hmm.... There's already a sequel on the way, Layer Section 3, by the time it gets to 5 I expect all the intense madness of the original plus full Colony Wars-type movement.