Silhouette Mirage

"Call me crazy, but as a general rule, I don't purchase flora from gianthomicidal flying fish."

Developer: Treasure Publisher: Working Designs Genre: Sidescroller Players: 1 Memory Blocks: One Discs: 1 Analog: Yes Dual Shock: Yes ESRB: Everyone Difficulty: Intermediate

It seems today the big talk is Chrono Cross. Chrono Cross this and Chrono Cross that. Well, I have enough courage to stand alone and offer the people a game, and although not an RPG, its great fun and excitement and has hit my heart as much as Thief 2 has hit CAM's.

Gameplay-- A typical side scrolling fair, Move along as you beat up enemies. But there's a special twist. Most enemies are split into two groups, Silhouettes which are blue and Mirages who are red. Your character, Shyna Nera Shyna, is just lucky enough to be made up of both Silhouette and Mirage and the color of which she is depends on what direction she's facing. Shyna needs to be opposite color of her enemies to do any damage, if she's the same color, she'll just steal spirit energy from them allowing her to do special moves. Now this sounds a little tricky and needs time to learn but Treasure has given us to things working for us. One, they given Shyna a helluva lot of moves to get her or her enemies in the right direction. Two, Treasure removed the old "no matter what an enemies is doing, even if its doing noting, if you touch it you receive damage" rule now allowing you to get up close to your enemies to perform these moves.

Graphics-- Beautifully drawn spirits on Treasures' trademark over the top backgrounds, need I say more?

Music-- Great music. Silhouette mirage maybe the only game to feature a string quartet for one boss' music. The voice work is also wonderful, it may even have you shout out the attacks as the character say them, but then again, hearing Shyna say "power punch!" over and over again can on someone's nerves.

Storyline-- For a side scroller, it offers quit an in-depth story. In a nutshell: In the future, scientist have been playing around with hidden powers or attributes in living things. Soon they create the "EDO" system, which, like in all sci-fi movies, goes berserk and awakens these hidden attributes in all living things on the planet. Lucky, the scientist thought ahead and made Shyna, the messenger of justice who's rather short and wears funny clothing. Shyna one purpose is to restore the EDO system back to normal. If only she could remember where EDO is.....

Control-- Probably the one thing that made this game turn up in so many bargain bins. Not that the controls are hard or aren't thought out, but it takes time to get a "feel" for them. The large learning curve comes mostly from all of shyna moves, which most need to be used often. You should be more then a casual gamer if you want to enjoy this game.

Fun Factor-- Good fun, a lot of laughs, and all the moves gives the player more satisfaction when playing. Its also has a quit a bit of replay value, offering 5 different ways the game could end and some nice "gifts" for beating them all.

Overall Satisfaction-- Needless to say, I love this game and doing my best to complete all 5 paths, but if I were to pick any major problem, it would have to be saving data. Its getting rather tricky keeping all 5 paths together, maybe its just me.

Highs: Great graphics and music. In-depth storyline. A lot of moves to use on your enemies.
Lows: Controls could scare casual gamers away, pain in the neck in saving.
Score: 9