One of the major problems the Sega CD faced was that the games just didn’t take advantage of the hardware. For the most part developers opted to throw a redbook soundtrack into either a port of a Genesis game or something that could otherwise be pulled off on the old hardware. Software that truly took advantage of the ‘oomph’ (and not just expanded storage of the CD format) under the hood of the Sega CD was rare. Soul Star is one of these such games. It’s one of the few Sega CD games that could not have been pulled off on the Genesis or competing hardware at the time. Today we’re going to take a look at this curious shooter.
There’s not much of a story to talk about. Soul Star has an opening sequence that’s fully animated opening sequence but for the life of me I can’t make heads or tales of it. The whole thing seems to be a pretty standard one ship versus an alien race bent on enslaving mankind sort of deal. Either way the scenario takes a clear back seat. This is a behind the ship 3D science fiction space shooter. You move constantly forward as enemies approach from the background. In terms of gameplay Soul Star is most easily compared to Star Fox. The big difference is that this game is rendered entirely in sprites, but the effect of three dimensional space is very convincing.
Your ship comes standard with the basic twin laser. This can be upgraded to a ring-shaped burst as well as a more powerful version of the default shot. What’s particularly nice about this game is the fact that you can hold the attack button down for rapid-fire by default. You also have another ability wherein you can summon two options to move in tandem with your ship, but this too is limited and best saved for the hairier situations. Most of the early enemies go down with just one hit, and the difficulty comes from reading their movement patterns. They’re not particularly complicated and generally fly in much the same way. It’s a bit repetitive if nothing else.
There are a few different play styles here. The standard on-rails shooter is what I’ve already described. It works, and represents the more focused side of the game. Several times throughout the course of Soul Star you’ll be whisked to a new play area that’s more wide open. The action is no longer on-rails at this point and you can move in 3D space. You also command a futuristic helicopter of sorts instead of your standard space ship. Movement is very awkward as the camera is still fixed, and you have to manuever around destroying specific objective points. It’s tough to line up shots and avoid enemy fire in this mode, and I really wasn’t a fan to be honest.
The developers couldn’t stop at just two different vehicles, and so they included a land based mecha as well. This doesn’t rear it’s ugly head until later in the game, thankfully, though I’d rather not have it at all if I’m being honest. This play style is just as awkward as the copter. You move in 3D space but this time you’re stuck on the ground. You can go airborne for brief bursts, but this isn’t a particularly great feature in my opinion. The developers behind Soul Star should have either worked out the kinks or dropped both all-range modes of play altogether. They don’t work well and feel repetitive.
Speaking of reptition that’s the biggest issue that Soul Star faces. There isn’t much diversity in the types of enemies, their attacks, movement patterns, or even the way they fly in. It certainly feels like the developers focused more on the technical aspect of the game and didn’t have a lot of passion for crafting interesting worlds to explore. There are some environmental hazards, but to be honest, these are pretty much just static. You’ll have stone formations that will damage you if you hit them, and sometimes meteors fly in at you. It really feels like we’ve all been there and done that. One thing the developers should have worked on is gameplay diversity.
Soul Star looks absolutely amazing for a 16-bit title. Honestly, it surpasses most of what you’ll see on the Neo Geo even, and that was an arcade at home console. Everything is a bit pixelated to be honest but it creates a fantastic style that I absolutely loved. One thing you’ll notice straight away is just how colorful this title is. Everything from your ship to the stars in the background are illuminated wonderfully. The backgrounds in particular are vibrant and have a ton of detail. The full motion video is a clear step above most of what you’ll see on the platform as well.
My jaw was absolutely dropped by some of the scaling effects used in this game. You’ll have elements in the background scaling toward you from the start of the level to the end, and then you’ll fly right into them. Effects like that are downright magical. At first I thought some of the backgrounds were full motion video but it really seems that they’re just incredibly detailed sprite scaling effects. Soul Star really and truly is one of the best looking games on the Sega CD.
As if that wasn’t enough the soundtrack is absolutely stellar as well. Soul Star uses redbook audio to bring some really amazing music to the table. It’s most light electronic tracks to set the sci-fi atmosphere, and it does an absolutely amazing job of it. Even the light amount of voice acting the game uses is pretty good. The only issue I had was with the sound effects. It sounds like some of them make use of the Genesis sound chip. The explosions and shot samples suffer from a light amount of static, and they’re much lower quality than the music itself. Overall the audio is good.
