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Stealth Preview
Written by Señor Cha Cha on Tuesday, June 28, 2005
This old school 2D shooter will be available for your mobile soon. We have the full preview.
When you think about it, cell phones are perfect for vertical shooters, what with their super elongated screens. Sony knows this, which is why its Mobile division has elected to release Stealth, a 2D old school shooter inspired by the upcoming film starring Jaime Foxx and Jessica Biel. Ironically, while this pint-sized portable blast fest doesn't star any of the flick's characters or include a whole bunch of snazzy special effects, it's really one of the more solid movie-based games to come along in a while, that is, if you love titles like Capcom's 1943.
If you eliminate man from machine you don't need to worry about him calling out sick, coming in drunk, or getting dismembered by gigantic lobsters. This appears to be the foundation behind Stealth's narrative, which revolves around the U.S. Navy's burning desire to create the ultimate killing machine. The fruits of their labor turns out to be EDI, an AI controlled stealth bomber that packs a serious cache of dangerous weaponry.
Unfortunately for the Navy, none of its employees have ever seen The Terminator, Terminator 2, or even the saucy Terminator 3. Otherwise, they would've already known that EDI would eventually develop a mind of its own and go AWOL. In fact, in the mobile version of Stealth a whole bunch of vehicles of various shapes and sizes have turned on us and are running amok, and this is where you come in. Piloting a state of the art fighter jet, you must annihilate all of these rogues and save the world from its approaching demise.
Although I only played Stealth for a few moments it managed to snag me with its cold, metal claws. As a shooter, it's extremely fun to play. There are five levels, each of which looks completely different (I dig the infrared night stage), and they're populated by scores of enemies including titanic bosses. In fact, just like in the bigger shooters on the market they'll attack in these humongous and overwhelming waves and unleash a multitude of multi-colored bullets your way, so you better be skillful at dodging multiple things at once.
Your opponents are heavily armed but you also have a few tricks up your sleeve. Your primary weapon has been smartly set to auto and left on for the duration of the game, so you will never have to worry about frantic button mashing. Plus, in addition to your standard guns you can also obliterate the AI using rockets, missiles, and a bomb (one per level) that'll actually destroy everything on the screen. The action is extremely intense and quite difficult, so while you can technically beat the game in very little time, the moderately high level of challenge will keep you from quickly breezing through it.
Stealth's graphics are very solid. Resembling a high end Game Boy Color title, its visuals are impressively crisp and colorful, and during my limited time with it the frame rate never wavered. That's not to say that it doesn't falter during the later levels, but based on what I've seen, it gets off to a great start.
Game publishers are notorious for spending a whole bunch of money to craft a movie-based title and failing to deliver a quality product, but Sony's made an excellent move with Stealth. Its developers took a tried and true vertical shooting concept and lightly sprinkled elements from the film onto it. The result is a highly enjoyable game that's perfect for getting your shooter fix while you're away from your consoles. It's not nearly as advanced as some of the other cell phone games out there, but Stealth proves that simplicity still reigns supreme. Look for it this July.
