Psychic Storm

~ PSYCHIC STORM ~

Laser Soft / Telenet

Super CD-ROM

1992

I wouldn't objectively rate this game as being anything better than "decent," but I still play it every now and then, mainly for its good soundtrack. There's plenty of variety in the music here: the ocean planet tune kinda waltzes along ominously, while the "Stage X" track is really upbeat and inspirational and has a hell of a hook. Beyond the music, the game is a mixed bag.

It's cool that most of the levels are split into two sections--one where you're high above a planet and another where you're near the surface. Unfortunately, it's almost always the case that one of the two looks extremely bland. The first-stage city is a good example: it looks like a nice, bright metropolis from high above, but by the time you descend, the monsters have wrecked it. This is cool in concept, but it ultimately means you'll be looking at boring blue rectangles for the second half of the level. Only the ravine stage delivers a complete package: you see dragons flying around and bones littering the landscape below you, and when you descend to fight the dragons, the bones end up being enormous.

The game moves along at a slow pace and never really gives you all that much to dodge or shoot at. The experience is exhilarating only when the music really hits its stride; the action doesn't follow suit. The idea of your craft metamorphosing into a big bug (or whatever) may seem neat enough, but the transformation is hardly ever necessary during the levels, so it ends up merely being a way for you to save some energy if need be against the bosses. The bosses themselves look very cool but are usually outmatched.

There are four different ships you can use, and you can select a new one in between stages, which allows the game to pretend that there's some strategy involved in the proceedings. Don't fool yourself. I usually stick with one pilot the whole way and have little trouble regardless of which one I choose. The Max Sterling wannabe does start off with a very lame "gun," however.

Basically, Psychic Storm amounts to a decent $15-20 purchase. Expect good music but mixed-bag visuals accompanying easy gameplay that never comes close to the levels of action found in many mightier PCE verts.