Soldner-X

[Hawksmoor]

I was just checking out the newest arrivals over at Play Asia when I saw a banner ad for what looked to be a new shooter - Soldner-X. I clicked on the banner and was taken to a press release that announced that this game is being funded entirely by Play Asia. It's being made by some new developer called Sidequest Studios. There's a site up at http://www.soldner-x.com, but there aren't any screenshots or gameplay vids to check out yet.

Anybody know anything more about this game? I absolutely love shooters, so this is good news regardless, but I'd definitely like to see some screenshots if there are any floating around somewhere.

[Xexyz]

Honestly, ever since I found out about this over at shmups.com, I've been thinking it's going to be utter ****. Then again, I mainly formed that idea off of the negative responses from the boys on that site. Sometimes the posters on that forum can be almost (ALMOST) as depressing as the people who post on Neo.Geo.com.

[Hawksmoor]

Xexyz, why are people at the schmups.com forums ripping on this game at such an early juncture? There aren't (seemingly) even any screenshots of it. It's amazing how people form such rock solid conclusions based on such a minimal amount of information. IMO, considering the genre's fairly niche popularity, and new shmup is a good news.

[Guru of Time and Space]

Xexyz, why are people at the schmups.com forums ripping on this game at such an early juncture? There aren't (seemingly) even any screenshots of it. It's amazing how people form such rock solid conclusions based on such a minimal amount of information. IMO, considering the genre's fairly niche popularity, and new shmup is a good news.

Have you ever been to their forum?
Ugh.
Let me sum it up: If it's not by Cave, it's shit.

-GoTaS

[roushimsx]

Have you ever been to their forum?
Ugh.
Let me sum it up: If it's not by Cave, it's shit.


That's not even remotely true. There's extremely hardcore G.Rev, Seibu, Psikyo, Raizing/8ing, Compile, Toaplan, Irem, Konami and Treasure fans there as well. In short, most people there have a very broad range of tastes.

That said, the likelihood of this game not sucking is fairly low. I'll remain cautiously optimistic. Who knows, it could wind up being shit like something from Triangle Service or it could wind up being gold like something from G.Rev.


Xexyz, why are people at the schmups.com forums ripping on this game at such an early juncture? *snip* IMO, considering the genre's fairly niche popularity, and new shmup is a good news.

* SHMUPS *

Also, the game is the first game from a new team that's apparently never made a shmup before. Who knows though, it might not suck. We'll see. Screenshots are fairly meaningless; I'm looking forward to seeing some videos and hearing some hands-on-reports.

[goemon]

I hate the word "shmup". There has to be a better word to describe the genre -- one that you can say rather than spit out of your mouth like cold coffee.

That said, I know nothing about this game. Is it going to be vertical, horizontal, 3d, what? I like all kinds of games in the genre -- Gradius, Parodius, Salamander, DonPachi, R-Type, and many others, so I'm open to any new developments this game might have in store.

[mills]

when I play shoot them ups I make sure we shump them all up lol

[Icarus Moonsight]

I hate the word "shmup". There has to be a better word to describe the genre -- one that you can say rather than spit out of your mouth like cold coffee.

Our beloved genres original moniker "shooter" has been stolen by the FPS hoard. Sad but true. :bawling:

[Xexyz]

I hate the word "shmup". There has to be a better word to describe the genre -- one that you can say rather than spit out of your mouth like cold coffee.

That said, I know nothing about this game. Is it going to be vertical, horizontal, 3d, what? I like all kinds of games in the genre -- Gradius, Parodius, Salamander, DonPachi, R-Type, and many others, so I'm open to any new developments this game might have in store.

As Icarus Moonsight stated, shooter has been hijacked by the mainstream success of FPS and 3rd person shooters. As a fall back, we went to shoot em up. As far as I know, shoot em up is still the true term. It's just, syaing it/typing it out as such can get annoying when constantly talking about the genre. Therefore, it was redused to shmup. Shmup is pretty much just saying the word shoot em up out loud real fast without pauses between the words.

A better word to describe the genre? Shoot em up. It's already out there, but many of us just prefer to type out shmup.

[Hawksmoor]

There are finally some screenshots up at soldner-x.com. I liked this one:

http://www.soldner-x.com/content/screenshots/2007_06_07/3-3-2.png

[smork]

So, is this a PC game, or DC, or... Or what? I haven't seen any reference to where it's being released....

[goemon]

So, is this a PC game, or DC, or... Or what? I haven't seen any reference to where it's being released....

My guess would be PC, judging from the screenshot.

[smork]

My guess would be PC, judging from the screenshot.

So why the big deal, just because PA is involved? I mean, there's piles of Doujin shooters released for the PC.

[Hawksmoor]

So why the big deal, just because PA is involved? I mean, there's piles of Doujin shooters released for the PC.

I wasn't aware that showing interest in a game was tantamount to making a "big deal" out of it. Also, goemon's *guess* as to which platform it will be released on is the PC. As of right now no one knows for sure. And honestly, just about any game you might be looking forward to is probably representative of a genre that there are "piles" of already on various platforms.

[smork]

I wasn't aware that showing interest in a game was tantamount to making a "big deal" out of it. Also, goemon's *guess* as to which platform it will be released on is the PC. As of right now no one knows for sure. And honestly, just about any game you might be looking forward to is probably representative of a genre that there are "piles" of already on various platforms.

Sorry, wasn't trying to be combative. :) Its just that ever since PA posted their first ads for the game I've been trying to figure out what the deal is -- seems quite premature to build hype with no details at all about a game that seems to be in pre-Alpha stages. I'm sure the devs know what platform they are developing for, and the story behind the game, so if they're going to promote it, why not leak some details? So those of us who love shooters can actually get excited for it?

[Icarus Moonsight]

One element that struck me from the screenshot was the "18"s floating about... Does this mean that the weapons will be lvl'd up RPG style? Very interesting. :hmm:

[Hawksmoor]

One element that struck me from the screenshot was the "18"s floating about... Does this mean that the weapons will be lvl'd up RPG style? Very interesting. :hmm:

That would be very cool, but I think it's more likely that the 18's in the pic are simply indicators of damage.

[Hawksmoor]

I've been periodically checking the official site for Soldner-X and noticed the latest press release announcing platform details. It's going to be on PC, as some of you guessed, and PS3 via the PS Network. Unfortunately, the timeframe for release is listed as "Winter 07/08" which is completely ridiculous. Oh well, here's hoping some actual gameplay footage is released soon

[Half Japanese]

Bumping this to the top, as it was just released on the Playstation Network for a reasonable $9.99. Anyone have any impressions? I like the occasional shmup, but I'm not a connoisseur by any means.

[s1lence]

If its on the PSN now, I might have to pick it up. I didn't have an interest of it being on the PC, I thought that was a bit of an platform to release it on.

[TurboGenesis]

downloading now.

[heybtbm]

I've played through the first two stages and have really enjoyed it so far. I'm by no means a hardcore SHMUP aficionado or anything...just a casual fan of the genre since the early Genesis SHMUP days. I usually play them on the easiest difficulty and just try to blast through to the end.

It looks and sounds incredible. It's pretty hard though. On "Very Easy" mode it's tough enough that I run out of all my lives after ~40% completion. Not Ikaruga tough, but it still will require practice. Well worth $9.99 IMO.

[CosmicMonkey]

I'll be downloading this and SSFIIHDR as soon as Virgin come and sort my internet out on Monday. iPhone posting FTW! Apparently some of the issues with the PC version have been addressed so I'm quite looking forward to it.

[TurboGenesis]

The game has a pure European shooter feel… tough popcorn enemies, health bar, random bullet fire…

One thing I do not like are the invisible barriers on the top and bottom… That gets annoying as you see an enemy you want to shoot OR you are trying to dodge and you cannot fly down or up enough, it is like hitting a wall :roll:

The game look very beautiful though. The default is set on easy. I didn't know at first as I was searching for my score in the rankings and started looking in normal and then looked to find it in easy score table.

OF NOTE:
If you are a fan of manic danmaku shooting game, this will surely disappoint. For me I don't pledge allegiance to a one developer or style… I am a fan of ALL shooting game.

[robotriot]

I'll get this once it's released in Europe next week. You can't go wrong with a silly German title anyway :D

[CosmicMonkey]

This was released on the European PSN today. It certainly looks very nice but I'm not overly impressed at the moment. Maybe I need to play it a bit more but it certainly hasn't clicked with me yet. And yes, those invisible barriers are fucking annoying.

SSF2THDR still isn't up on the EU PSN though, and that's really starting to take the piss. Capcom could at least issue a statement if there's some sort of problem, especially considering the length of the delay. I was really hoping to get it for Xmas.

[SegaAges]

is this psn only?