The Red Star – XB – Preview

Meet
the Nokgorkan Rebel: Makita.  She’s quick on her feet and comes equipped with
two laser blasters and a sharp hook.  Say hello to the Defender of Maya: Kyuzo.
He’s bigger and slower than Makita.  Final Fight says that all big guys must
be slow, but as a consequence they must be better equipped for taking on
enemies.  That explains why Kyuzo has one single laser blaster (which shoots a
larger blast) and an oversized sword to cut through the evil ones who await
your arrival.

These
are two of the three stars of The Red Star.  The Red Star is another comic
book property, but that’s hardly a reason to get excited.  The license had no
bearing on my interest for the game, nor is the reason for my excitement.
What is the reason?  Silly rabbit, everyone knows that Trix are for kids, just
as everyone knows that the most important part of a video game is its
gameplay.

The
gameplay is an entertaining mix of several memorable games.  Most people will
think of Devil May Cry at first, especially if they look at the screenshots or
view gameplay footage before playing.  There are some similarities, but let me
put an end to all assumptions right now by saying that this is not a clone.
Not just a clone of DMC, but of any game.

Makita’s two laser blasters are called Base Class Hailers.  I’m not exactly
sure what that means, but they work so that’s really all that matters.  Ammo
is unlimited – a yellow meter begins to fill when you shoot, a sign that the
gun could overheat.  Should the meter get full stop shooting for a few seconds
and it’ll go back down.  Otherwise the gun will overheat, you won’t be able to
continue shooting, and the time for it to recover is longer.

Makita’s hook (under the Koroviev Class) is much nicer than it sounds.  The
hook can be dug into enemies multiple times in a row, creating a quick
four-hit combo.  Press back and X (the hook button) and Makita will jump in
the air, striking the enemy as she goes up.  Press X again before falling to
plummet on the enemy, thrusting the hook into its body.  This move is quick,
fast, and fun to execute.  I’m sure I’ll have a lot of fun with it in the
final version.

Makita
also has a move where she can lunge forward and pierce the enemy.  This is
similar to the lunge move in the Shinobi games, except that in that game it
was mostly used for hasty exploration and evasion, not attacking.

Some
enemies are small and fast; others are big and slow.  At the very end of the
demo I encountered a large enemy who was large enough to compensate for his
lack of speed.  He’ll target you and attack with his giant sword.  It’s not
easy to hit him from behind, and that just happens to be the most effective
place to attack him.  You can’t shoot him – it won’t do any good, and just one
laser blast will make him curl up and unleash an explosion.  Sort of like a
self-destruction without the self-destruct part.  Unless you get in the
explosion’s way.

As fun
as this boss was, it wasn’t the best part of the demo.  The best part came in
the form of two mini-bosses.  The whole level appears to be a train or ship of
some kind that’s moving through an enormous factory.  And what would an
enormous factory be without two guardian aircrafts?  Both aircrafts look the
same but have different attack patterns.  They use time bombs (that move);
laser balls; giant laser beams; and laser traps that trigger laser beams.
They’ll enlist the help of the standard thug/robot-like enemies when
necessary.

Dodging
the laser beams and balls reminded me of one of my favorite games, Metal Slug
3.  It’s not as complex or as difficult, but a connection was definitely
there.  You couldn’t just run around and kill the enemies, you had to
carefully maneuver in and out of the lasers that were being fired.  The first
level wasn’t that hard to complete, but that might be due to the excessive
amount of time I’ve spent with Metal Slug 3.  If the other levels in The Red
Star are more challenging, I won’t be able to put the game down when it’s
released.

After
defeating the last boss (the one with the really big sword), the game takes
you to an item purchase screen.  Yes, this means the game continues!  The demo
isn’t going to end!  Actually it did end.  They only let you purchase items to
overflow your anticipation meter.  It’s sort of like the seven-minute trailer
ABC showed for The Village.  Those seven minutes were awesome,
but I wasn’t at ease until I saw the whole film.  (For anyone who’s curious –
I give it an A+.  Don’t read the spoilers, just go see it.  There’s an
incredibly powerful story behind the secret that lies within the woods.)

Only
four items were available for Makita, though I’m sure many more are being
added to the final version.  You could upgrade your current weapons (listed as
two separate items), and purchase a brand-new gun (Flame Hailer) and a
superior hook (The Widowmaker).  Where they got these names I’ll never know.

This is
one extremely promising game.  Genre preference doesn’t really matter as long
as you like games that involve action or shooting or both.