Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire

~ SAPPHIRE ~

Hudson Soft

Arcade CD-ROM

1995

It'd been a while since I had last played this. Every now and then, I'd take it off the shelf and toss it around the house just for the hell of it, but today I remembered that it's a fucking awesome game, and that throwing games around is the act of a madman. So I played it and reacquainted myself with the great action and bosses.

I'd forgotten just how incredible the bosses and midbosses and plain old BIG-ass enemies are. You never know what this game's gonna throw at you next. In one area, a ring of dark mages summons a gigantic rock monster who breathes fire and hurls enormous boulders. In another, you meet a bizarre monk who transforms himself into a dragon amid a dreary downpour. This is right after you've dealt with a giant laser-firing phoenix and a mechanical serpent.

And none of those things are actual bosses. The boss mecha are multi-form BEASTS who leave you little room to maneuver with their mighty attacks.

People complain that, at a length of five levels, the game is too short; but hell, it delivers enough visual variety and remarkable enemies to serve multiple shooters, let alone one. And it makes for a brief experience only if you credit feed and bomb your way along like a baby. If you leave the default settings alone and try to clear it on one credit, you'll find whole new layers of depth and strategy. You've gotta conserve your bombs, memorize enemy appearance and shot patterns, and counter the mega-attacks launched by your toughest adversaries. To me, it seems like a successful melding of 16-bit-era aesthetics and level concepts with modern manic action and strategy elements.

Still, there are those who complain that the ships are too slow. Well, this certainly isn't a problem with one of the four machines, and it shouldn't be an issue with two others. Heck, I played through the game with the slowest craft and had a blast, and any other player who welcomes challenge will appreciate the alterations in strategy called for when using said craft. When it comes down to it, if you know what you're doing, the ships don't feel slow because you know where you need to be and how to make it there.

The only thing I personally don't like is the wailing music--the end-credit "solo" in particular is high-pitched hideousness. Fans of Lords of Thunder's soundtrack will love it, though. And even I have to say that the crunchy boss-track riff rocks.

It's kind of pointless to ponder whether or not the game is "worth it." I spent a lot of money on it, but I'm very glad I own it and I've had plenty of fun with it. Viewing things objectively, I'd dub it the best vertical shooter of its time.