Someone will have to explain to me again why this game has the reputation of being inferior to its PCE Soldier siblings. I'd owned Soldier Blade and Super Star Soldier for ages but put off buying FS because almost everyone had claimed that it was bad or mediocre. I came to regret my procrastination because once I finally got around to buying and playing through it, I discovered it rules.
The armament system is initially the most impressive part. I love being able to choose a bunch of weapons from a huge batch that consists of all sorts of beams and flames and bubble bombs and swirly ring-type things. FS's large assortment of devastators is quite preferable to the skimpy gun sets offered in Super Star Soldier and Soldier Blade.
Its visuals are also pretty nice, much better than SSS's. Granted, some of the backgrounds come off as uninspired, but that's kind of the way of things with this series, even with Soldier Blade. At least FS's graphics are very sharp and fairly colorful, and they improve later in the game. Enemy bases are generic visual downers in most shooters, but the one here actually looks awesome, as does the final stage. The music is pretty good too. The influence of Blazing Lazers can be detected in the last-level tune.
There are really only two things I can think of that people could consider flaws. For one thing, the levels are pretty long, but at least the action is consistent and there are midbosses to contend with. The other thing is that FS is a lot easier than SSS and even SB, but I don't particularly care about that since it's a lot of fun.
You get a sleek ship to pilot and lots of weapons to deck it out with.
Space verts often commence with an assault on an outpost, but this opening level is anything but generic.
Though their respective tunes are nice, the second and third boards don't offer up anything particularly fresh visually...
...but the fourth level's urban area and its awesome eagle boss mark a vast visual improvement over earlier stages and adversaries.
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