Radiant Silvergun This Ain't
If you needed a dignifying showcase of the Playstation 2's discernible aptitude Silpheed: The Lost Planet would provide the necessary means in doing so. The levels, even in the depths of space, are epitomised with sparkling effects only possible of Sony's emotion engine fuelled powerhouse. The first level alone has you swoop over a gloriously in-motion space-battle reminiscent of any space sci-fi of the seventies. The lights display alone and subvertion into an apparent space station trench has enkindled similarities to a certain George Lucas developed franchise. And to top it all off, each stage of Silpheed is completed with a cinematic climax worthy of any Lucas project, including his blue-screen monstrosities of recent a time. Though where Star Wars had X-Wings and tie-fighters, Silpheed has fighter-jet spacecrafts and xenomorph asteroids. Oh dear.
Past the lovely graphics, Silpheed has all the makings of an archaic shoot 'em up released ten years too late. Which isn't surprising given Silpheed: The Lost Planet is actually a sequel to a PC-8801 release from 1986. All you need to know is shoot, avoid, repeat. And regardless of the amazing advancements made by Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun made by the developers of Silpheed, Treasure, this is a barebones experience otherwise. Though as such, Silpheed is a unique shoot 'em up in that you only have one life – which consists of an extensive life-bar. Fortunately, Silpheed also has a limitless number of continues which makes losing the game virtually impossible. Yet, much like the infamous Final Fight Snes port, if you use a continue then expect to be playing from the very start of the stage again.
Silpheed also gives you the ability to use multiple weapons on your ship. This means you can combine say your verticle laser with rockets with the cross button. They can also be used separately though with square and circle respectively. Like any decent shoot 'em up aswell, Silpheed has a number of boss fights which require specific strategies and skills in order to be beaten. This is typical of Treasure's video games and has a trial and error formula to it as well. More weapons can be unlocked by obtaining high scores through Silpheed's combo system and the trick to it is chaining kills and attacks in order to score maximum points.
Although it has signs of an aspiring shooter, none of this gels as appropriately as suspected and Silpheed's combat is overall stagnant and monotonous – ill-fated side-effects of the bog-standard shmup gameplay. And unlike Gradius or Lifeforce, it lacks the difficulty or challenge common of games in its genre as well. While boss fights break the difficulty curve of occasion too, most of Silpheed is a unriveting movement from A to B. Incredibly disconcerting to learn given this is the first western shooter available for the machine. But it gets better. Silpheed has atrocious production values with a mediocre story with missions starting with confusing prologues blabbering irrelevant names and dates which we're oblivious of. The FMV sequences don't fix this issue either with poor dialogue replacing incontrovertibly weak narration. Silpheed 's soundtrack is largely forgettable furthermore.
Curiously, like the original, Silpheed lacks multiplayer and it is impossible to play the campaign mode in co-op. There are no savepoints either, a missed opportunity given the accessibility of flash storage through the memory card. There are no password systems either. Like any shmup Silpheed can also be completed in less than a few hour so (with enough enthusiasm) so it is possible to finish the experience in anycase. There are no unlockables either which makes Silpheed a very prompt experience indeed.
All in all, Silpheed isn't worth the officiousness it demands. Despite being a entrancingly delineated verticle shooter, which are obviously lacking heavily on Playstation 2 (especially in 3D format) it has awful reverberation, sub-par content and is shamefully démodé overall. Once again, it is better to pass this one by.