Something familiar

Project Sylpheed is an action title for the XBOX 360 and if you feel there is something familiar about its name then you are right. The game is the sequel to Silpheed: The Lost Planet which was released for the Playstation 2 back in 2001. A lot has changed in the last six years and, along with the slight change in name, the game has received a major overhaul. The most noticeable change is that the game ditches its predecessor’s 2D overhead style in favor of a 3D free space dog fighter but you will have gotten that from the screenshots alone. Let’s take a closer look at the rest of the game.

The story takes place in the year 2632, 500 years after Earth began traveling outside of our solar system. The ruling body, called Terra Central Government, governs the 11 colonized star systems. This government functions well for some time but eventually several planets rebel and form the ADAN Freedom Alliance. Katana, the main character in the game, along with her longtime friends Ellen and Magras, are among the TCG’s best pilots. When Magras’ home planet is destroyed in a mysterious Terraforming accident, he feels compelled to join the Freedom Alliance and the friends split up. The war rages on and it seems inevitable that the three former friends will meet up on the battlefield.

Leaving trails

The game features gorgeous looking backgrounds that do a lot for its ambiance. The 3D models on the other hand, don’t really look Next-Gen and bring down the overall presentation somewhat.

The developers seem to have wanted to make up for the lack of detail in the ship models by adding a huge amount of graphical elements in every other aspect of the game. So much even that the game hurts my eyes. And no, I don’t mean in that nice “watched the greatest movie 12 times straight” way, but in that “Too much going on to follow” way. The HUD is overly large with meters and symbols for –every- ship on the battlefield. Every ship leaves behind a trail, so when you are surrounded by five enemies and their trails fill up your screen, things can get very annoying.

Demanding

Project Sylpheed is quite demanding when it comes to controls. Dexterous hands are needed to handle the somewhat complex controls as the left stick is used for movement while the right stick controls the camera. This may seem simple but when you add in the rest of the controls and you’ll see the picture. The ‘left bumper’ fires your main weapon while the ‘right bumper’ fires your head weapon. Holding your ‘left trigger’ slows you down while tapping it twice cuts the power off to the engines. Keeping the ‘right trigger’ held will accelerate you while tapping it twice gives you a mega boost. Still with me? There is more. Special moves like barrel rolls are controlled with the ‘B’ button while changing your main weapon is done with 'X’.