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Xyanide Resurrection Review
Written by Robert Falcon on Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Very good presentation in terms of visuals and music; fun shooting action, with plenty of bullet-dodging moments.
Not really that much to the gameplay; multiplayer is pretty lifeless.
I love it when curiosity gets the better of me. I love shooters to death. I can play shooters all day and night and never tire of all the bullet-dodging. If I'm not hunkering over my Neo-Geo and prized copy of Last Resort, I'm itching for a little Ikaruga or checking prices of Radiant Silvergun over on Ebay. In fact, anytime that a Treasure shooter becomes available, I declare the day a national holiday. I don't even check the mail, it's that much of a holiday. So I took it upon myself to import Xyanide Resurrection for the PSP, for a couple of reasons. One, I needed some fresh blood for my handheld as I was eagerly awaiting Wipeout Pulse, and two, well, I liked the Xbox game.
So imagine my surprise when I discovered that Resurrection was NOTHING like the cool-as-hell Xbox game. It's still got a similar plot to that game - you hunt after a witch who makes an interstellar escape into the darker reaches of the galaxy - but plays completely differently. Rather than pit you against incoming crafts and moving your ship blindly around the screen, you instead fly around in a 3-D format, occasionally taking control of your craft to avoid incoming fire and rotating the turret to shoot enemies coming at you from all directions. It's not a broken play format by any means, as it still works. However, some of the challenge is gone as a result. It never really grows, it's just the same thing over and over. Keep in mind, though, that most shooters are this way. No problem there.
Xyanide Resurrection has a very good presentation going for it. Most of the levels are made up of superb background details, such as a glowing sun or other galactic details that really bring out the best in the PSP. Enemies fly in rather smoothly, hard to miss. The frame rate remains up-and-running for the most part, only slowing down when things get a little too hectic for their own good. The bosses look good as well, starting with a freak-laden planet that rolls around and moving upwards from there. The music and sound effects are also on the money, good fun to listen to although nothing worth buying the soundtrack for. Still, it could've been worse. Someone could've picked up a banjo and said, "I'm-a gonna write me one of them shooter soundtracks!" (Of course, I have yet to meet such a daring person...)
This game features several levels to pound through, and you can always go through them again to see if you get a better score. Past that, though, the replay value's pretty much shot to hell. The game does feature multiplayer options, but they're pretty meh. You pretty much just work with a friend and do the same thing you would do in a single-player match. There's little to no interactivity between the two of you. It's worth trying maybe once or twice, but you'll probably never revisit it.
Don't bother importing Xyanide Resurrection, if only because the US version is now confirmed for release sometime this summer. Once it gets here, however, you should consider it, not just because of its glossy production values but because of its "good ol' time" of shooting action. It could be better, yeah. And harder, for that matter. But still, how many PSP shooters can you say you totally dominated? And don't say Gradius Collection or those import Konami PSP collections, because, really, they take a while to topple. We know you're lying. Add Xyanide to your list, especially if it comes out at that rumored $20 price. That'd be a pretty good bargain.
