The Red Star Preview

Meet the Nokgorkan Rebel: Makita.  She's quick on her feet and comes equipped with two laser blasters and a sharp hook.  Say hello to the Defender of Maya: Kyuzo.  He's bigger and slower than Makita.  Final Fight says that all big guys must be slow, but as a consequence they must be better equipped for taking on enemies.  That explains why Kyuzo has one single laser blaster (which shoots a larger blast) and an oversized sword to cut through the evil ones who await your arrival.

These are two of the three stars of The Red Star.  The Red Star is another comic book property, but that's hardly a reason to get excited.  The license had no bearing on my interest for the game, nor is the reason for my excitement.  What is the reason?  Silly rabbit, everyone knows that Trix are for kids, just as everyone knows that the most important part of a video game is its gameplay.

The gameplay is an entertaining mix of several memorable games.  Most people will think of Devil May Cry at first, especially if they look at the screenshots or view gameplay footage before playing.  There are some similarities, but let me put an end to all assumptions right now by saying that this is not a clone.  Not just a clone of DMC, but of any game.

Makita's two laser blasters are called Base Class Hailers.  I'm not exactly sure what that means, but they work so that's really all that matters.  Ammo is unlimited – a yellow meter begins to fill when you shoot, a sign that the gun could overheat.  Should the meter get full stop shooting for a few seconds and it'll go back down.  Otherwise the gun will overheat, you won't be able to continue shooting, and the time for it to recover is longer.

Makita's hook (under the Koroviev Class) is much nicer than it sounds.  The hook can be dug into enemies multiple times in a row, creating a quick four-hit combo.  Press back and X (the hook button) and Makita will jump in the air, striking the enemy as she goes up.  Press X again before falling to plummet on the enemy, thrusting the hook into its body.  This move is quick, fast, and fun to execute.  I'm sure I'll have a lot of fun with it in the final version.

Makita also has a move where she can lunge forward and pierce the enemy.  This is similar to the lunge move in the Shinobi games, except that in that game it was mostly used for hasty exploration and evasion, not attacking.

Some enemies are small and fast; others are big and slow.  At the very end of the demo I encountered a large enemy who was large enough to compensate for his lack of speed.  He'll target you and attack with his giant sword.  It's not easy to hit him from behind, and that just happens to be the most effective place to attack him.  You can't shoot him – it won't do any good, and just one laser blast will make him curl up and unleash an explosion.  Sort of like a self-destruction without the self-destruct part.  Unless you get in the explosion's way.

As fun as this boss was, it wasn't the best part of the demo.  The best part came in the form of two mini-bosses.  The whole level appears to be a train or ship of some kind that's moving through an enormous factory.  And what would an enormous factory be without two guardian aircrafts?  Both aircrafts look the same but have different attack patterns.  They use time bombs (that move); laser balls; giant laser beams; and laser traps that trigger laser beams.  They'll enlist the help of the standard thug/robot-like enemies when necessary.

Dodging the laser beams and balls reminded me of one of my favorite games, Metal Slug 3.  It's not as complex or as difficult, but a connection was definitely there.  You couldn't just run around and kill the enemies, you had to carefully maneuver in and out of the lasers that were being fired.  The first level wasn't that hard to complete, but that might be due to the excessive amount of time I've spent with Metal Slug 3.  If the other levels in The Red Star are more challenging, I won't be able to put the game down when it's released.

After defeating the last boss (the one with the really big sword), the game takes you to an item purchase screen.  Yes, this means the game continues!  The demo isn't going to end!  Actually it did end.  They only let you purchase items to overflow your anticipation meter.  It's sort of like the seven-minute trailer ABC showed for The Village.  Those seven minutes were awesome, but I wasn't at ease until I saw the whole film.  (For anyone who's curious – I give it an A+.  Don't read the spoilers, just go see it.  There's an incredibly powerful story behind the secret that lies within the woods.)

Only four items were available for Makita, though I'm sure many more are being added to the final version.  You could upgrade your current weapons (listed as two separate items), and purchase a brand-new gun (Flame Hailer) and a superior hook (The Widowmaker).  Where they got these names I'll never know.

This is one extremely promising game.  Genre preference doesn't really matter as long as you like games that involve action or shooting or both.