Silpheed

[Melf]

Anyone with a Sega CD needs to check this game out. Sure, it's pretty linear and the eye candy covers up the simple gameplay. but it's awesome nonetheless.

Read the review and discuss!

[philiptwood]

Man this review has been up for some month and no one responded??? This is the bomb! I never knew that the Sega CD/Geny could do all of that with Polygons. I hear that it's now the system doing the polygon graphics but an FMV video with real polygons super imposed on top of the video. Is it true?

Here's a classic Arcade with graphics supper imposed over video.

[Aarzak]

Backgrounds (which includes the big honkin spacecrafts, bases, rocks etc.)=FMV
Everything else (the Silpheed, the small enemy ships, the level bosses)=Sega CD hardware.

[The Coop]

From what I've read over the years, some of the bosses, the small enemies you can destroy (ships, small asteroids, etc.), and your ship, are polygons done in real time. The stages themselves, the really big enemies (like the twin cannon right before the boss on Stage 8), and some of the bosses (like the one on Stage 7) are actually streamed video from the disc. They made hot spots on the streamed video to create a sense of interactivity (like what Psygnosis did with Novastorm) to stop your shots and register hits, but it's still basically polygon ships over an FMV background. But, I believe there are some areas with real time polygons put on the FMV (the little blue guns that pop up on top of the columns in Stage 4 come to mind). However, they're not too common if that's what it is.

That's what I've come to understand.



As for the game itself, it's not a bad game. The weapon selection is good, as is the music, the stages are interesting, and there are some cool sights to see. It also doesn't do anything particularly wrong in terms of design and enemy patterns. But it really does feel like an FMV/shmup halfbreed, the challenge is almost non existent until you get to the last few stages, and the bosses are a joke until the final one. In the end, I'd rate it about a 7.

[TmEE]

a lot of mt friends consider Silpheed rather hard... last time I played the game (and finally beat it), I played it with no deaths to last boss, which took me 3 deaths before I figured out the best way to kill it (anti-matter bombs FTW :P). It would get a solid 9 from me, it is some of the most kick-arse games ever... goes right on top with the likes of TF4 for me.

[Scooter]

I like Silpheed, but Shadow Squadron on 32X does the same basic thing so much better. In SS you have much more freedom of movement. It really is a much underrated game!

[otaku]

its a pretty decent game nothing outrageous but it can be had cheap so its worth it. for me its hard. I'll have to try shadow squadron I loved the gamecube star wars shooters

[Scooter]

its a pretty decent game nothing outrageous but it can be had cheap so its worth it. for me its hard. I'll have to try shadow squadron I loved the gamecube star wars shooters

Not sure you were, but don't confuse Shadow Squadron with Star Wars Arcade. The Star Wars game is okay, but it's an on-rails shooter, Shadow Squadron provides complete freedom to fly anywhere in three dimensional space and to attack the enemy in any way you see fit and in any order you deem best. An exceptionally well designed game. I'd love to see this exact game updated with modern graphics while leaving the game play exactly as it is on the 32X version.

[The Coop]

You could always play Stellar Assault SS on the Saturn. It's basically the 32X game, with added missions, and updated graphics.

[philiptwood]

Not sure you were, but don't confuse Shadow Squadron with Star Wars Arcade. The Star Wars game is okay, but it's an on-rails shooter, Shadow Squadron provides complete freedom to fly anywhere in three dimensional space and to attack the enemy in any way you see fit and in any order you deem best. An exceptionally well designed game. I'd love to see this exact game updated with modern graphics while leaving the game play exactly as it is on the 32X version.

That game I never did beat, but I did enjoy both the free roaming/flying and the other mode where you just shoot ships similar to Starblade. The music was pretty good and the game play was a whole lot better then Starwars... At least to me it was.

a lot of mt friends consider Silpheed rather hard... last time I played the game (and finally beat it), I played it with no deaths to last boss, which took me 3 deaths before I figured out the best way to kill it (anti-matter bombs FTW :P). It would get a solid 9 from me, it is some of the most kick-arse games ever... goes right on top with the likes of TF4 for me.

I never did make it to the last level but I did make it past that level with the green landscape last I played. I like the level where you wind up in the middle this galactic battle in space where it looked like hundreds of ships were shooting at each other... That level was crazy.

From what I've read over the years, some of the bosses, the small enemies you can destroy (ships, small asteroids, etc.), and your ship, are polygons done in real time. The stages themselves, the really big enemies (like the twin cannon right before the boss on Stage 8), and some of the bosses (like the one on Stage 7) are actually streamed video from the disc. They made hot spots on the streamed video to create a sense of interactivity (like what Psygnosis did with Novastorm) to stop your shots and register hits, but it's still basically polygon ships over an FMV background. But, I believe there are some areas with real time polygons put on the FMV (the little blue guns that pop up on top of the columns in Stage 4 come to mind). However, they're not too common if that's what it is.

That's what I've come to understand.



As for the game itself, it's not a bad game. The weapon selection is good, as is the music, the stages are interesting, and there are some cool sights to see. It also doesn't do anything particularly wrong in terms of design and enemy patterns. But it really does feel like an FMV/shmup halfbreed, the challenge is almost non existent until you get to the last few stages, and the bosses are a joke until the final one. In the end, I'd rate it about a 7.

I think for the time it was released it really was jaw dropping for me because of the graphics... I would often ask myself why Sega wasn't make more games like Silpheed. It looks and sounds like some old school arcade game from the late 80s or something. Man if the Sega CD could pull off graphics like that that would be something worth seeing.

[The Coop]

I think for the time it was released it really was jaw dropping for me because of the graphics... I would often ask myself why Sega wasn't make more games like Silpheed. It looks and sounds like some old school arcade game from the late 80s or something. Man if the Sega CD could pull off graphics like that that would be something worth seeing.

Oh, it was a jaw dropper back then. But once I got beyond the "WOW!" factor, I found it to not be of the same quality of shmups like Thunder Force III, Steel Empire, Thunder Force IV, Gley Lancer, and their brethren.

I own it, I play it, and I don't regret its purchase at all. But to me, it's good, yet its shortcomings (in my eyes) keep it from being great.

[Kollision]

Silpheed is a very cool game. I was in awe when I saw that 3rd stage in motion, and this was really late in my gaming life.

One thing I do not agree with practically everybody concerns the music. IMHO it's not on par with the other aspects of the game. It's not outstanding (although not bad either), and I'd even say it's a bit... scratchy.

[Aarzak]

The in-game music, for some reason is of lesser quality than the RedBook music on the very same CD when you play it on a CD player. The in-game music seems to be done by both the Genesis & Sega CD sound hardware, while on the CD there are a few, CD-quality tracks of some of the level music which sounds much better, but not all of them. The obscure Silpheed OST contains the entire game's soundtrack in CD-quality.

[jerry coeurl]

I want this game.

[Aarzak]

I have a loose copy that I bought ages ago for about $5 sitting amongst my CD-R's......no.

Its the ONLY pre-Sega Dreamcast game I currently own. And it happens to be one of only two Sega CD games I've ever owned, during my short time with the console in the Spring of 1998 <flashback>..........

I got me a SCD (Model 2) for a sweet $10 at the defunct FuncoLand that Spring, after searching for one EVERYWHERE. (The SCD and its games disappeared off the market QUICK after its late 1995 demise, hell at the time I bought it the SATURN had just been shitcanned in the U.S!) Only game I could find in my vicinity was.........."Cliffhanger" which I bought for $3 new. The only redeeming factor of that turd were the SCD-exclusive snowboarding levels, which were done on the SCD "Batman Returns" engine. Over the next couple of months I ran across several SCD games, none of which were interesting and most importantly, NOT "Sonic CD" (which is the #1 game I was looking for, and never ending getting or playing).

At that time I had also gone into an early '90's time warp, and was reading old 1992/1993 issues of GamePro that I bought off these homeless guys around my way that somehow had a LARGE collection of old-school gaming mags...$1 apiece. God bless their creepy, homeless souls, whereever they are. Anyways.......in a circa-'93 issue of GamePro I was reading about the coverage they were giving this game called "Silpheed", touting its backgrounds, polygons and whatnot. Just so happens that during that time I stumbled upon a copy of "Silpheed", and seeing no other interesting games I got it......cost $20 USED though which was absurd for a SCD game. It ended up becoming a favorite of mine even though I never got past the 5th level.

After getting a PS1 for my graduation in June of '98, I all but forgot about the Genesis & SCD, and didn't buy anymore games for it. In fact, months later I committed what might be considered a sin around these parts........with the second-hand Genesis market being an absolute dump in '98 and not being able to sell it or the SCD for the life of me (NOBODY wanted them!), I simply.......left my Genesis 2, with SCD 2 attached to it.......and a label-less copy of "Mortal Kombat 3" (YES, the one mentioned in my past story)......in a pile of garbage on a ghetto street. I never knew what happened to them......perhaps someone got lucky or there's one less Genesis & Sega CD 2 in the world... I eventually threw away my CIB copy of "Silpheed" too, not having a SCD to play it with.

<flashback>

Yep, "Silpheed" defined the SCD for me. Pity I never got to play "Sonic CD" back then, when I cared. When I finally did play it in '03, I was quite disappointed at the jumbled level design.