Solar Shifter EX is a shoot-em-up that will take your breath away. The gorgeous backgrounds, wonderful music, and varied biomes are absolutely a treat. While it isn’t as white-knuckle hardcore as some of the other OHKO shmup’s out there, it certainly presents loads of well-designed challenges that are sure to test your limits. The story is indeed your standard fare, about vigilance against the space-pirate scourge, but the presentation is what kept me stuck until the end. Will it please your senses? Or will you find it unpalatable? Let’s take a deeper look at Solar Shifter EX.
One thing that immediately stuck out as I began my journey through Solar Shifter EX was the lack of power-ups on the stage. Every enemy does drop credits, and these can be used to upgrade your weapons. This choice does detract a bit from the on-the-fly experience, but the cinematic feel of the game makes me think that probably isn’t what they were going for at all. There still isn’t a lot of time to stop and smell the roses though. Three rockets are about all it takes to turn your ship to free-floating scrap, so you still need to be on your toes constantly. The word of the day is vigilance.
Just because you are squeezing through barrages of missiles in the fight of your life, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have some rocking music. The soundtrack transforms from crunchy electronic to strange ambience and always seems to fit the action happening on the screen. Despite constantly firing your weapons and blowing things to smithereens, all this is low enough in the mix to never become repetitive. Boss battles usually feature a OHKO laser, but considering the origin of the genre and the slant toward hardcore games in general recently, I don’t consider this a grave offense.
What I do consider a deadly sin is sloppy keyboard controls. They aren’t dire here, but could certainly do with some tightening. The story didn’t engage me, and simply being able to teleport your ship to set points doesn’t win much in innovation. The execution of tried and true is pretty apparent here, and I think it pays off in droves. Experiencing the different enemies and their environments was an experience I’m certainly glad I had, but probably not something I’d return to anytime soon. Thanks to Elder/Headup for the review key. Keep up the fantastic work.
Final Score: 70/100 or 3.5/5
Summary: Cinematic shoot-em-up with a focus on environment over story.
Verdict: Great for those looking to enter the shoot-em-up genre, or experience gorgeous worlds.
Solar Shifter EX was released on Steam Early Access September 11th 2015.
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