So...what do we have here?

Japanese Game Box Front

A Fine Vessel She Is.

This is a VERY unique kind of RPG for the Sega Genesis that I never hear get mentioned. You are a soldier that travels the solar system finding new planets and making discoveries amongst the stars. You really ARE a Star Cruiser in that regard. Along with your helper robot, Freddy, you'll fight off space ships in deep space with various weaponry and once you land on a new "planet" and such, you will travel on foot...blasting anything in your path that will bring the federation closer to their goals. You will fly vast distances to reach new areas and it will appear as if there is nothing all around you.

I wanted to say that the graphics of this game are very impressive. Unfortunately, there are several reasons why I cannot do so. For starters, the 3D opening is impressive, but unless there is something that I am doing wrong, you really play the game from a first-person perspective, which potentially hampers my experience with this game. It would of been nice to see your character in the 3D world, but I suppose that's asking too much. Secondly, while the colors of the anime characters are sharp and pretty smooth for the Genesis, most of the objects (like trees) that are made up of 3D polygons look pretty terrible. Its not because they are 3D...on the contrary, its quite impressive to see 3D of this kind for an old Genny title. It's the color usage. Third, while it's awesome to "Warp" to different locations, the special effects overall are very simple and don't really do anything great. The animation is also good in some spots, but choppy in other spots. As far as the sound goes, I like the music. The sound effects are very "meh", but the music is pretty cool, though it's quite repetitive.

The gameplay is like this: Basically, you don't gain level ups. You must work to upgrade your equipment and shields (Shields act as your HP) and travel around space in order to do this. Your main place of operations starts on an orange planet of some kind (shown in an image below) and there is a mechanic who can repair your shield and restore your energy. What's with energy? You need it to travel, heal your shields, "Warp" from destination to destination, and other things. It slowly goes down and without it, you can't really do anything. As far as upgrading stuff, the game is very slow in terms of progression and the controls are rather awkward and navigating can be a pain if you don't know what you are doing. Thankfully, due to the warp system and the neat autopilot (The game makes your space craft automatically go to a set destination), this is somewhat forgivable. However, autopilot is a bit flawed because if you aren't careful, enemies will clobber you as you pass by. The game at first glance may come off as cheap and quite difficult, but once you get around the controls, it becomes a lot more bearable. With some work, this game could've rocked out loud, but due to some gameplay issues and poor color use, the game is only playable. It's a bit interesting, but probably too slow for most.

- Written by Vyse the determined -