I was pretty surprised when Capcom announced a little while back that they were going to help bring some doujin titles to the West. It seems like more and more places are slowly coming around to the possibility of bringing these games out this way. Was the success of Recettear the catalyst for this? It's certainly possible. Whatever the case, hurray, because it means more games for us. There's a good half dozen titles in the pipes courtesy of Capcom, with the majority of them being shoot 'em ups. The first out of the gates was Satazius, which came out this past December. This one is a lot more true to classic arcade shmups where the action isn't quite as intense as the bullet hell games that dominate the genre today. In fact, it's surprising how much it resembles one of the most popular shmups ever: Gradius. It's not to say this is a bad thing. The game is plenty fun, and well put together, actually improving on some of Konami's legendary shooter with little gameplay tweaks. Nonetheless, it's hard to shake just how similar Satazius is to that game.
Right from the moment you start a game, it's easy to think, "Hey, this looks familiar" as you are sent to a weapon select screen virtually identical to that found in Gradius. Where Satazius improves on this is that players get a decent selection of weapons to choose from right away. Here, after players select their weaponry, they'll find themselves heading into battle with a lot more firepower than when starting out in Gradius. Moreover, players get a better selection of weapon set ups, as they can choose one primary weapon, two secondaries, and a mega weapon that can only be used when it's fully charged. The two secondary weapons can be swapped out at any time while playing, allowing players to alter their attacks relative to what they are fighting. You'll also need to keep in mind swapping weapons while collecting power-ups that enhance their strength so that they both pack an ever increasing wallop over the course of play. Another nice thing here is that at the end of each level players are able to switch their weapons if they like, so if you know you don't need your spread shot for a while, and want something more forward focused, by all means, help yourself.
There don't appear to be any definitive must-have weapons in the game. All are perfectly viable, with some possibly being a little more user friendly for beginners, but largely they feel like selection is really up to personal taste. I actually like using the spread shot as my primary weapon, with some sort of homing beam as secondary, usually with forward firing missiles as my other secondary. They do a good job of destroying enemies no matter where they pop up, and they blow stuff up in a most satisfying manner. It's especially fun when flying through the asteroid belt level, or when taking on a large part of the enemy fleet, in both cases blowing things up all around, dodging their fire, and feeling invincible as so many things explode all around you.
Despite all these enemy ships blowing up all around, players can expect their own ship to explode plenty as well. Satazius is pretty tough. Sure, it's not a bullet hell game, but bad guys still throw a lot at you, and if you touch anything in the game environment it'll destroy your ship instantly as well. Get too close to the ground. Kaboom! Trying to dodge some ship or missile, and get a little to close the the wall? Kaboom! Even if you have shields up, if you touch a solid object, kiss it goodbye. The game is merciless about that.
Also, there are some interesting boss fights here. One of the biggest draws of old shmups was getting to fight gigantic bosses at the end of each level. While the bosses here aren't necessarily as massive as, say, R-Type, they are fairly chunky, and take some work to bring down from what I've seen so far. I'd actually argue that for a lot of people the boss of the first level will prove one of the biggest obstacles in the game, and judging by some of the videos I've seen floating around of people playing, that seems a fair assessment. It'll chase you a through a cavern, and it's impossible to fight back. All you can do is dodge its attacks, and wait for an opportunity to shoot at it later. Getting through the cavern can be a challenge, but once you memorize it the fight is quite doable, and surprisingly easy. When I finally killed the thing I had a little, "Yeah, take that, you prick!" smile on my face. The later bosses have some fun mechanics too, with plenty to dodge while you wait for an opening in their defenses. They aren't pushovers by any means.
Visually it's also tempting to start comparing Satazius to Gradius. Your ship in this game is very similar in appearance to the Vic Viper. Enemies and environments as well look a lot like something one might find in that series, as Satazius goes for a very 16-bit inspired style. One thing I like about the game's presentation, though, is the instrumentation used for the music. A lot of shmups with an old school appearance still use more modern-sounding instruments, be it orchestral or contemporary electronic stuff, or they have cheap-o sounding midi going on. Satazius sounds just like something one might expect to hear coming from an SNES. It's a nice little touch.
Ultimately, it's impossible not to compare Satazius to Gradius. However, I don't feel this is a bad thing. The core of this game is a well done shooter. It's challenging, there's lots of stuff to shoot, and even more to dodge. There's a lot of cool weapons at your disposal, and the action is really satisfying. The game is a very nice homage to Gradius, and it's actually a good start to Capcom's efforts to bring some doujin games our way.
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