A Hidden Gem: The Red Star

August 14th, 2009

I’m always on the lookout for something new, fun and exciting. And considering my retro kick lately, I’ve also been looking for something with an old school challenge to it. It started when I began playing through the Mega Man series, which is painfully difficult. But every time I would beat a level I felt beyond accomplished. I figured if I could tackle Mega Man, I could tackle a lot of things.

Red Star came to me through the recommendation of a podcast I trust dearly. They said it was a wonderfully hardcore game loaded with old school sensibilities, and boy were they right.

Whole load of fun.

The Red Star, released in 2007 for the PS2, is a game based on the graphic novel of the same name. I am entirely unfamiliar with the source material, but the story is so barely-there that you don’t need to care about it either way. It is a hybrid between a brawler and a shooter. Not first-person shooter, mind you, but shooter in the original sense of the word. Shooter like Galaga, Gradius, etc. You play as one of two characters, fighting through level after level of enemies and giant machines.

The mechanics are simple in design but brilliant in execution. Square is the melee attack, circle shoots your gun (with infinite ammo, but the ability to overheat rather quickly), X guards, and triangle performs your special attack. Some enemies get hurt easily by melee attacks, others get hurt easily by gunfire. Others require a combination of both, and some are immune to one type of attack. The variation of enemies make the brawler portion full of strategy and thinking, while having to be on your toes the entire time.

The shooter parts are amazing.

The shooter parts are where the game really shines though. At certain points in the game you will have to take on a giant machine, tank, or whatever, and the game goes to a top-down viewpoint. From there, you have to almost exclusively fire your gun at the enemy while avoiding a barrage of bullets. I’m only ten levels in and I’ve come across enemies that fill the screen with bullets. It’s insane.

Of course, as the game goes on, there are parts where you have to use your shooting and melee attacks at the same time, taking down a ship, avoiding bullets, and beating the life out of oncoming attackers all at the same time.

While I’m only ten levels in, I can’t recommend the game enough. It’s already insanely difficult, and while the lack of mid-level checkpoints are frustrating (one death and you start the whole level over), it only adds to the unbelievable amount of challenge to the game. This is a game that is not cheap in its difficulty. If you fail, it’s your own fault, and that’s what I love about it. By punishing you with restarting the whole level, it forces you to get as good as possible and truly hone your skills.

I may be all about storytelling in games, and talking about how games are becoming the best medium for storytelling out of all of the various art forms, but sometimes we need a game that just lets you sit back, get beaten mercilessly, and bounce back and go at it again.

If your PS2 is still hooked up, or you have a backwards compatible PS3, I highly recommend it. It’s no more than $20 anywhere, so there’s basically no reason to pick it up. So go do it.

Now.

Entry Filed under: Uncategorized