Game Boy Advance: Some More GBA Shmups

In keeping with my recent obsession with playing various arcade-centric genres with the Gamecube Fighting Stick, I can't help but return to the Shmup in all its glory. As it turns out, there's plenty more of them released for the GBA that I stumbled upon since my first GBA Shmup post. A few of which I even got my hands on, so let's take a look at few more, shall we?

[img width=300 height=300]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/9/454599_50771_front.jpg[/img]

[img width=300 height=200]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/screenshots/gba/iridion3d/iridion3d_screen008.jpg[/img] [img width=300 height=200]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/screenshots/gba/iridion3d_screen004.jpg[/img]

In my last GBA Shmup post I raved about Iridion II, although I had never played the first game. As it turns out Irion 3D is really quite different than the sequel. It should be noted off the bat that the graphics in Iridion 3D are excellent. The backgrounds are all extremely detailed and definitely show off what the GBA was capable of. In fact, visuals are even more impressive when you realize that Iridion 3D was a GBA launch title. Likewise, the music is fantastic. The game features a slightly generic, but nonetheless hyper and fun techno soundtrack. There's no denying that such music goes hand in hand with futuristic Shmups.

Having said all that, the truth is that Iridion 3D is far more awesome in theory than it is in reality. As incredible as the game looks and sounds, it really doesn't play all that well. First of all the controls utilize the inverted Y-Axis scheme -- meaning you have to push up to go down. Admittedly, that might be a bit nit-picky and more of a preference thing. The game also chugs along rather slowly, which seems to kind of go against the grain of the chaotic shooter formula. However the biggest problem with the game mechanic is the point-of-view. The camera is behind the spaceship, similar to the classic Star Fox on the SNES. Unfortunately it doesn't work as well here. Instead it makes aiming at anything far more work than it should be, and ultimately you find that your ship often gets in the way of your line of vision -- resulting in you crashing and burning because you never even saw the enemy fire. Iridion 3D is basically a solid effort that sadly just fell short (but was completely redeemed in its second installment).

[img width=300 height=300]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/6/534926_44582_front.jpg[/img]

[img width=300 height=200]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2001/vgnews/101101/phalanx/phalanx_screen002.jpg[/img] [img width=300 height=200]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2001/vgnews/101101/phalanx/phalanx_screen073.jpg[/img]

Phalanx was originally released for the SNES in 1992, although it's generally more remembered for its bizarre and misleading cover-art rather than its gameplay. That's really too bad, because as I have just recently discovered from the 2001 port, Phalanx is an unbelievably perfect 16-bit Shmup. The controls are responsive, the scrolling is hyper without being overwhelming, the weapon upgrades are awesome and the bosses are robotic versions of marine life. What else do you really need?

There's certainly no denying that Phalanx borrows heavily from other popular Shmups of the day. All the genre cliches are there right down to the aforementioned robotic seafood. But what makes Phalanx work so well is the feeling that the developers were not trying to duplicate something successful just to cash in on it. Instead Phalanx plays out like an excellent homage to the classic Shmups in the vein of Konami's "holy trinity" of Gradius, Darius and Parodius. If you are a fan of such games, I can't recommend this one enough. It's easily one of my favorite GBA Shmups ever.

[img width=300 height=300]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/9/545599_51083_front.jpg[/img]

[img width=300 height=200]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2001/vgnews/121701/arcadeadvanc/arcadeadvance_screen008.jpg[/img] [img width=300 height=200]http://ui08.gamefaqs.com/2343/gfs_6974_2_3.jpg[/img]

When Konami released their Arcade Advanced collection in 2002 it included a completely revamped version of the 1981 arcade classic Scramble. By simply inputting the trusty Konami code at the title screen you can play a brand new version of Scramble with all new graphics and sounds.

The gameplay is ultimately the same exact thing as the original. This means it's not incredibly fast paced, but it is still challenging. The big gimmick in Scramble is the fact that your ship is continually burning up fuel, so it's almost more important to be refueling rather than shooting stuff. Though this isn't exactly the ultimate Shmup, it's definitely a novel diversion for fans of the genre.

[img width=300 height=300]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/3/925863_61916_front.jpg[/img]

[img width=300 height=200]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2005/221/reviews/925863_20050810_screen005.jpg[/img] [img width=300 height=200]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2005/215/925863_20050804_screen005.jpg[/img]

In 1989 there was a rather awesome NES game called The Guardian Legend that managed to incorporate elements of an action game with Shmup segments. The game is generally well remembered by a certain cult audience, and for good reason. In 2005 Namco attempted to make a sort of spiritual successor to The Guardian Legend called Sigma Star Saga.

Oh Namco, how you tried.

With Sigma Star Saga Namco attempted to combine an RPG with a Shmup. Maybe this isn't a completely insane idea. Both genres have rabid cult followings. But at the same time, they are two radically different genres, that present themselves in polar opposite gameplay atmospheres. Let me put it this way: when I play a Shmup, I mainly want to just shoot a bunch of shit without thinking about a story. And when I play an RPG, I want to slowly explore things and think about each move carefully. See the dilemma?

In the end though the main fault with Sigma Star Saga is that no matter how good Namco's intentions were (and I give them props for trying), really even if the visuals are spot-on, the Shmup portions don't amount to a very good Shmup. And unfortunately the same can be said of the RPG elements.

Okay, so after playing through all these GBA Shmups and the ones before I can say that really the only one I'm still really after is Darius R. Unless you know of another that I absolutely must get my hands on? Or is there another that's so bad I should avoid at all costs? Any comments are welcome!