Steel Dragon EX – Review

Okay, I’m going to be harsh but fair in this review, just as I am in a couple of other Midas outings. These games all come down to the same thing, you get what you pay for. Because Steel Dragon Ex is a budget title I feel I should most definitely mention this and keep it in mind as I write this review, to review it as a £40 title would be unfair… so here we go…

Steel Dragon Ex is in essence a retro shoot em up comprising a reworking of the 1997 2D Dreamcast shooter Shienryu (‘Purple Flame Dragon’ to you and me) and its ‘three dimensional’ sequel, great, two games for less than the price of one. The blurb about this game states that it “offers the best in classic 2D arcade action” and uses “a wealth of power ups and weaponry”, well that is indeed true. The idea of the game is simple, it’s your job to save the world from the impending robot invasion (well it is usually those dastardly robots when it’s not aliens isn’t it). Where this game may differ from other modern shoot em ups is that it gives you the choice of playing the old retro parallax vertical shooter, which brought a smile to my face I must admit since it had been many a long year since I’d so much as looked at this genre. Or you can play the more jazzed up ‘modern’ take with its pretty 3D graphics.

Gameplay & Graphics:
Move around quickly avoiding the multitude of cannon fire, torpedoes, and other nasty ballistics trying to wipe you out. It’s fast and frantic due to the sheer amount that’s going on graphically but it never seemed to suffer for it, though let’s keep in mind this is a budget title so it’s pretty but technically not taxing of the PS2’s overall capabilities.

Sound & Multiplayer:
Not much to tell, it’s your usual 2D squeaky sounds and a more techno jazzed up musical style for the 3D outing, it does what it’s meant to do and that’s about it. When it comes to multi player mayhem this title offers you Simultaneous 2-player action in both 2D and 3D game modes.

The female gamer angle:
Well here’s the good news, despite ‘just’ being a shoot em up, you do get to choose from 6 characters (your pilots essentially) and low and behold HALF of them, yes that’s right 3 out of the 6 are female, no complaints there then!

Conclusion:
As previously stated you get what you pay for, it’s not a great game, and, if it were being reviewed at full price it would still get a lower score, I obviously have to take into consideration the overall package and the price of a game is always a huge factor with gamers. It’s £14.99 (or $25 USD) and for that price you’re getting a mediocre, sometimes enjoyable and pretty shoot em up. If you’re a retro fan you might enjoy this more. It’s not a good game overall, it’s well below average, but it is an ok budget title and considering people are paying around £40 and up for the original Shienryu title you could do worse.

Reviewed by Angela

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