Sengeki Striker Longplay (Arcade) [4K]

Описание: Game Info
---------------------------------------------------
Developer: Kaneko/Warashi
Publisher: Kaneko/Warashi
Year of Release: 1997

Game Review & Impressions
---------------------------------------------------
Sengeki Striker is one of those late 90s shooters that, from a visual perspective, proved that 2D games could still hold their own against the 3D revolution. Hundreds of sprites, huge explosions, and some pre-rendered enemies and environments make this game easy on the eye. The underlying game and how it plays is another matter, as we shall soon see.

By 1997, the age of the "Bullet Hell" shooter must have been in full effect. Clearly, developers felt that if you were still making shoot 'em ups by this point, you were consigned to irrelevance unless the screen was not awash with millions of pulsating neon dots for the player to try and pixel-creep their way through. Sengeki Striker doesn't reach the all-out lunacy of Do Don Pachi in terms of projectiles, but it's close. Like other games of this type, the collision hitbox for your ship is actually just a couple of pixels near the cockpit canopy; the body of your ship can come into contact with projectiles without sustaining damage, so the key to success is trying to navigate the nose of your craft through the never-ending-onslaught of plasma bolts heading down the screen.

In terms of armaments, player ships come equipped with a main cannon, which can be upgraded to increase damage dealt and overall spread. Even at it's highest level, the cannon is seriously underpowered, and your best offensive capabilities actually come in the form of "Gambits", which are effectively small, orbiting satellites with their own weapon system. There are two different fire modes for the Gambit, with the "Valcan" system locking on to enemies and delivering a constant barrage of projectiles, and the laser beam firing straight ahead. In my opinion, the Valcan is the better of the two options, chiefly because the Gambits move independently of your ship, which means they're less likely to get destroyed by incoming enemy projectiles.

And this is the biggest problem I have with the game. Maybe I was missing something, but I really struggled to keep the Gambits alive. They're vulnerable to enemy shots, and will explode after taking a certain amount of damage. With all Gambits down, your chances of survival are extremely slim, and so becomes the amount of fun you'll likely have with this game. Maybe it was a concession by the developers with respect to how insanely tough the game is, but the Gambits seemed much hardier during the much more difficult second loop, although I was uninvested in the game by this point and just wanted it to be over.

Sengeki Striker is remorselessly difficult, which will probably appeal to the ultra hardcore fans of the genre that live for this kind of game. For everyone else, you might as well chuck your money down the drain.

Chapters
---------------------------------------------------
00:00 Attract mode
01:55 Stage 01: Loop 01
05:19 Stage 02: Loop 01
09:58 Stage 03: Loop 01
13:23 Stage 04: Loop 01
17:49 Stage 05: Loop 01
21:31 Stage 06: Loop 02
25:05 Stage 07: Loop 02
29:15 Stage 08: Loop 02
32:19 Stage 09: Loop 02
36:25 Stage 10: Loop 02
39:02 Ending