celerystalker
03-13-2016, 10:22 PM
8647864886498650
When I first got my 3DO, Burning Soldier was one of my early favorites. Honestly, its style isn't a type of which I typically enjoy, but in that first batch of games I picked up, which was loaded with stinkers, it was easily one of the most playable. Sticking with it, I've found it to remain one of my favorite cursor-style shooters, and its presentation, while dated, has held up better than most games of its ilk.
Burning Soldier is an FMV-based cursor shooter in which pre-rendered sprites are overlaid on an FMV background. You whip your cursor about the screen, firing away at enemy targets and gunning down their projectiles before they can crash into the screen, trying to stay alive long enough to make it to the final boss of each of four major areas comprised of a total of 18 brief, but action-packed stages. The FMV is of course fairly grainy, but the enemies blend in effectively while still being obvious targets. They are marked for target in your HUD as well, which changes from stage to stage depending on the current form of your fighter. The game moves on rails, leaving you as the gunner to save the universe from the evil Kaisertian Empire and their insidious plan to resurrect Mu.
You have a simple laser blaster and a charge blaster in single player. You can't fire while charging, but a charged blaster will target all on-screen foes at once (but not projectiles). In co-op mode, the blaster is disabled, but a competent partner is definitely more effective, and both cursors have their own color to help differentiate easily.
While a style of game that is mostly extinct, Burning Soldier still works well for what it is primarily due to a strong presentation and balanced difficulty. There is very little noticeable loading to be seen, as the story scenes fill the gaps between areas nicely with action related to what has just happened, and pacing that never really lets up. There are mere seconds between stages, and the narration is told over both action and transitional cutscenes, making everything feel seamless. There are three difficulty levels as well, and you only get one life bar for the game, seeing as your assault never really has a break in it. There are continues, though, and the difficulty never gets out of hand.
Playing through Burning Soldier again tonight felt surprisingly fresh in how seamless the experience was, and the FMV generally never gets too campy. The techno music at times feels a bit too upbeat for the on-screen cutscenes, but overall everything feels very cinematic as a whole in a style similar to the original Star Wars arcade game from Atari. It's not for everyone most likely, but if you have any kind of soft spot for cursor shooters, the presentation, pacing, and control all work great here.
Played it?
When I first got my 3DO, Burning Soldier was one of my early favorites. Honestly, its style isn't a type of which I typically enjoy, but in that first batch of games I picked up, which was loaded with stinkers, it was easily one of the most playable. Sticking with it, I've found it to remain one of my favorite cursor-style shooters, and its presentation, while dated, has held up better than most games of its ilk.
Burning Soldier is an FMV-based cursor shooter in which pre-rendered sprites are overlaid on an FMV background. You whip your cursor about the screen, firing away at enemy targets and gunning down their projectiles before they can crash into the screen, trying to stay alive long enough to make it to the final boss of each of four major areas comprised of a total of 18 brief, but action-packed stages. The FMV is of course fairly grainy, but the enemies blend in effectively while still being obvious targets. They are marked for target in your HUD as well, which changes from stage to stage depending on the current form of your fighter. The game moves on rails, leaving you as the gunner to save the universe from the evil Kaisertian Empire and their insidious plan to resurrect Mu.
You have a simple laser blaster and a charge blaster in single player. You can't fire while charging, but a charged blaster will target all on-screen foes at once (but not projectiles). In co-op mode, the blaster is disabled, but a competent partner is definitely more effective, and both cursors have their own color to help differentiate easily.
While a style of game that is mostly extinct, Burning Soldier still works well for what it is primarily due to a strong presentation and balanced difficulty. There is very little noticeable loading to be seen, as the story scenes fill the gaps between areas nicely with action related to what has just happened, and pacing that never really lets up. There are mere seconds between stages, and the narration is told over both action and transitional cutscenes, making everything feel seamless. There are three difficulty levels as well, and you only get one life bar for the game, seeing as your assault never really has a break in it. There are continues, though, and the difficulty never gets out of hand.
Playing through Burning Soldier again tonight felt surprisingly fresh in how seamless the experience was, and the FMV generally never gets too campy. The techno music at times feels a bit too upbeat for the on-screen cutscenes, but overall everything feels very cinematic as a whole in a style similar to the original Star Wars arcade game from Atari. It's not for everyone most likely, but if you have any kind of soft spot for cursor shooters, the presentation, pacing, and control all work great here.
Played it?