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X2

In the (United) States for the most part, 2D-shooters are largely ignored and for most gamers, they've never even heard of them. Perhaps the last entry for Capcom into the realm of 2D-shooters, X2 is a decent outing. Although it strays very little from the formula, it is an ok game.

There are three spaceships to choose from in this side-scrolling shooter to do battle against the hordes of weird aliens, monsters, and robots that you must vanquish to save Earth from certain destruction. You are it's only hope as the agent tells you in the lengthy but enjoyable fmv introduction. [The hero drives around a sports hover car and is an all-around badass, bumping people off the road and busting out his Harley when traffic gets tight. Pritty funny.] The three selectable ships vary in speed and weapon power and are symmetrically shaped sort of like the hero's ship in the movie "the Last Starfighter." Items you can pickup along the course of the game include advanced weapons, bombs, and energy for the ship's shield power. Thank God for the ship's shield to be able to sustain some damage before the ship can explode because the number of enemies on the screen are so numerous and the shots are so many that it is amazing the Playstation can handle so many sprites and not slow down.

Due to the aforementioned difficulty, this game is annoyingly difficult. Most of the enemies take too many shots to kill and the bosses take forever if you don't use the bomb. The bosses have almost no variation in their attack cycle. The only redeeming quality of the game to counterbalance these two negative factors are that the graphics are very rich in color and detail, and the weapons are pretty to look at. However, the drawback is that you cannot upgrade the strength of each particular weapon and must simply choose the best weapon to use from your inventory just as in Squaresoft's "Einhander." Another minus against the game is its boring backgrounds and level-environments, but then again, I'm not sure if most people buy shooters for that reason.

While most gamers can do just fine by overlooking this mediocre game, some hardcore gamers may find the challenge of this game worth the 5,800 yen cover price and the time to beat it. 1-10 (1-worst, 10-best)

Graphics 8

Sound 8

Game Control 8

Reviewer's Tilt 8

Learning Curve 5 seconds

Difficulty variable

Overall 6