Einhander
The more I write for this personal project, the more I realize I do really like shoot-em-ups. I'm not particularly great at them, some of them are painfully difficult and some I can't even get more than 30 seconds into it before Game Over. I remember one of the first shoot-em-up games, or shmups, was the WW2 game 1943 on our 286 PC at home. Most all shmups at the time used your classic scrolling bitmap background and single-frame sprites populating the screen. Advanced games included multiple layered backgrounds for a mutliplaning effect as well as more complex sprites with smooth animation.
Shortly after the 32-bit systems arrived on the market we started to see a lot of fully 3D rendered games. Around the same time it also felt like shoot-em-up games seemed to be disappearing off the market. It's possible that was all in my head, but it's a safe assumption that like side-scrolling platformers, classic shmups quickly became 'old' and 'boring' to publishers. Thankfully, Squaresoft, famous for their J-RPGs, tried their hand at mixing the new 3D rendering technology with your classic side-scrolling shoot-em-up. The result was Einhänder, a unique shmup game that was difficult to find and I've be waiting decades for them to re-publish.
Einhänder felt just right. Having not been initially designed for the arcades, it wasn't created to be an impossible quarter-muncher. It was still difficult, but having only rented it for a weekend I still got to see a decent amount into the game.
Einhänder really took advantage of the switch from a sprite-based 2D scroller to a 3D platform. Not only did we see panning backgrounds with fully realized perspective, but also fully rotatable ships and a camera that could adjust it's position as needed. That meant that although the majority of the game featured a fixed camera that scrolled left-to-right, at times it could rotate to show the top of the ship, or switch to a 3/4 angle for bossfights or the like.
Einhänder gets it's name from the gameplay concept that revolves around your ships articulated robot arm. The single arm can steal weapons from enemies, drop and pickup new guns and rotate to change the angle your gun fires from. Shoot-em-up games are always about surviving long enough to build up your arsenal, Einhänder is no exception, providing you with a large selection to help you through the levels.
Einhänder was a beautiful shooter with a great soundtrack and very little holding it back. Squaresoft has no excuse for holding this title back from the State-side market, especially with PlayStation's classic-game store online. Between this game and R-Type Final I'd murder a great deal of bunnies for a proper HD remake. Maybe one day I won't have to.
Shortly after the 32-bit systems arrived on the market we started to see a lot of fully 3D rendered games. Around the same time it also felt like shoot-em-up games seemed to be disappearing off the market. It's possible that was all in my head, but it's a safe assumption that like side-scrolling platformers, classic shmups quickly became 'old' and 'boring' to publishers. Thankfully, Squaresoft, famous for their J-RPGs, tried their hand at mixing the new 3D rendering technology with your classic side-scrolling shoot-em-up. The result was Einhänder, a unique shmup game that was difficult to find and I've be waiting decades for them to re-publish. Einhänder felt just right. Having not been initially designed for the arcades, it wasn't created to be an impossible quarter-muncher. It was still difficult, but having only rented it for a weekend I still got to see a decent amount into the game. Einhänder really took advantage of the switch from a sprite-based 2D scroller to a 3D platform. Not only did we see panning backgrounds with fully realized perspective, but also fully rotatable ships and a camera that could adjust it's position as needed. That meant that although the majority of the game featured a fixed camera that scrolled left-to-right, at times it could rotate to show the top of the ship, or switch to a 3/4 angle for bossfights or the like.
Einhänder gets it's name from the gameplay concept that revolves around your ships articulated robot arm. The single arm can steal weapons from enemies, drop and pickup new guns and rotate to change the angle your gun fires from. Shoot-em-up games are always about surviving long enough to build up your arsenal, Einhänder is no exception, providing you with a large selection to help you through the levels.Einhänder was a beautiful shooter with a great soundtrack and very little holding it back. Squaresoft has no excuse for holding this title back from the State-side market, especially with PlayStation's classic-game store online. Between this game and R-Type Final I'd murder a great deal of bunnies for a proper HD remake. Maybe one day I won't have to.
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