Polystars
Konami - Arcade - 1997

Reviewed by Malc

Ever since seeing this game in an old issue of Edge magazine I wanted it. Badly. Looking like a cross between Twin Bee and Raystorm, and running on the much-vaunted M2 hardware, I literally drooled all over my copy. Wiping up, I knew that it wouldn't be easy to get, and a wait of several years would be in order.

Those years have passed - slowly - and I'm now sitting happily thanks to a nice man I know with the rather large pcb cage that is my prized Polystars kit. So here's a review.

Strangely, the first thing that people want to know about it is what is the M2 system like. As you might know, M2 didnt come to anything as a home console, or multimedia system, but instead was fairly ingloriously plonked into a short-lived Konami arcade series of boards. Powerwise I'd say its equivalent to playstation and a half, with graphic capability to suit. Nothing spectacular really, but probably reasonably impressive for 1997.

It comes as a pcb in a metal cage, with a cdrom drive - and the actual game is run directly off cdrom - requiring some slightly annoying load times between levels. Even if you get different cd games to play, there were differences between the boardsets - Polystars has several more chips than other games on the system.

Next thing that's usually asked about is the graphics. Playstation and a half again, I'd say. But it's quite hard to tell from Polystars, which has intentionally blocky graphics throughout. Your characters are little block men, and even the biggest enemies are made up out of boxes. But there's a lot going on, slowdown is quite rare, and texture quality is better and smoother than playstation usually is. I do however get the feeling that the system wasn't anywhere near pushed to its limit.

Polystars graphics themselves are colourful, intense, inventive and seriously wacko. A strong sense of humour runs throughout, a high level of cuteness is evident, probably the best way to imagine it is starting with Parodius or Twinbee stylings, and converting them into polygons. Even the smallest enemies exude personality, and theres loads of little details in the backgrounds, wee cars on roads, small men arguing, and richly dense backgrounds. A happy looking game indeed! You'd be hard pushed to find an enemy not wearing a huge smile. Polystars has masses of character that western shmups can only dream of. It even includes a very funny attract sequence with tiny box men dancing in the windows of a building with a flashing light on top, I haven't a clue what's going on, but watching it while tripping is probably best.

The sound also screams happily at the player - plinklyplonky sound effects, screams, unintelligible speech (the way it should be), roars and tinkling explosions. Perfect. Musicwise the game blasts sickly sweet classic Konami tunes at the player, fitting in with the action and graphics just brilliantly. Technical quality of the system aside, Konami's audiovisuals in Polystar are simply great fun, that's all there is to say!

Enough of aesthetics. How does the blasted thing play? Initially, it's slightly confusing, as the camera does tend to roll and swing about on its own - definitely an on-rails experience. This is no bad thing though, as it takes you through lots of fantastic set pieces you just wouldn't get if it was anywhere near free roaming. What's this obsession with free-roaming anyway? Did anyone think Starfox would have been better with it? No it wouldn't. And just before you ask - the gameplay is on a pure 2-dimensional plane, like Rayforce or Xevious 3DG, so we're talking proper shmupping here. Be careful though of going to far "into" the screen, as it can become difficult to see what you're doing, and dodge attacks. I tend to stay back as much as I can, unless the game forces me to move forwards and avoid backtracking bosses.

Once you get used to the control, and get to grips with the nippy speed of the characters, any deaths that result are always the player's fault. Oh, ok, maybe a couple of exceptions with some memorisation of boss patterns required, but generally control is tight and flawless. Characters? Yep - you are a wee white box man, whose race seem to be having an argument with some slightly different shaped box men, and you ride what seems to be a penguin, or a dolphin of sorts. Not quite sure really.

Taking control of one of these wee guys, and choosing whether to apply both shoot and missile to one button, or leaving them on two, you'll find some fairly limited but efficient weapons to blast the enemy cuteness with. Air attacks are either a straight firing piercing Vulcan Shot, a Homing Shot which isn't very powerful, or a wider 3-way all-rounder Shot. And you can pick up wingmen which help a little bit in firepower as well as look cool riding alongside.

Missiles are the only ground attack, kind of slow firing, but the only way to rid yourself of ground enemies, tanks, boats, dump trucks, barges, submarines and the occasional innocent car. You can add to your missile capability by picking up icons too. No bombs here, sorry!!

Approach the game as a skewed, cute and likeable vertical scroller with classic aimed bullets, variety in attacks like lasers, firey blasts, it should be played as a straight blaster with no real onus on scoring methods or fancy bullet patterns. It couldn't really handle much more mayhem anyway, as there is a LOT going on in the air and ground attack planes, and what with the colourful backgrounds it could have easily become an unnavigable and hidden-death filled mess. Gladly, it doesn't, and offers quite a pure shmupping experience with the focus on fun and simple dodging and shooting skills. Bosses in particular are a real hilight, and unlike some other games you really look forward to their arrival. Most of them are extremely inventive and novel, especially the track-swapping train and the octopus with its waving arms. It can be so compulsive that its VERY hard not to continue, just to see what the next level will bring. I've tried hard not to spoil the game and pump credits in, and still have to really see what the last few levels have to offer, and work out how to effectively kill the last few bosses.

Polystars is one of those games that REALLY comes into its own when you have a second player who's just as good (or bad) as yourself. One can concentrate on ground fire while the other attacks large floating ships, and at times there are often two midbosses or more onscreen, leaving the player with obvious clues how to play effectively with a friend. Very co-operative play, and not at all intrusive.

I'm torn between giving it an 8 or a 9, I think I'd have to go for 8, because it's not going to last forever, once beaten there isn't much reason to come back as it does have a lot of focus on set pieces and doesn't offer anything but a purely linear experience. Simple hi-scoring is all it has to present to the player who can complete it, and I can imagine how the novelty could wear off after running through it many times. So, although I love it lots, an 8 it is.

Enough words from me and on with the pics! Ready?

Nice tight typically japanese launch sequence - its over in 5 seconds as your little block people on animal rockets blast off....

All in all, Polystars is a rare lost gem really. It kind of sunk without trace after coming out in the arcades in 1997, Japan only too I think. No conversions were made that I know of, and neither is it emulated yet. So if you do want to play it, you're going to have to hunt pretty hard for the pcb set.

It's just normal jamma kit, so you don't need a fancy med-res monitor or anything, but the pcb itself is pretty large and chunky and housed in a metal cage. The game itself runs off a cdrom drive too, adding to the size and weight and dare I say it - unreliability! Hope mine lasts for a while! If you even think you'd like it, you probably would! Get it!

Have I got anything totally wrong in this review, or want to add something I have missed? Email me please! - Bye - Malc