Prismatic Solid Hot

Prismatic Solid is a vertical scrolling shmup that doesn't even bother with a storyline. You move forward and the enemies rain bullets down on you through five stages. And when I say rain, I truly mean rain, with some enemies literally filling the screen with bullets. To aid you, your ship has six different weapons, such as homing bullets and three-way shots, and three colored shields that change their position depending on what weapon you select. Instead of power-ups for your weapons like in most shooters, enemies drop power-ups that make your shields larger, and you can use part of your shields as a sort of smart bomb when you're in trouble.

The first thing you'll notice about Prismatic Solid is that the game looks and sounds good. Like, professional good. Not too surprising since the game's presentation is the result of some of the team that did Ridge Racer and Bushido Blade. It's colorful, bright, and looks a bit like what would happen if someone took classic shmup Viewpoint and turned it into a vertical shooter with a bit of a visual update. It's a welcome change from the retro style that's been pretty popular lately. In fact, everything looks too good at times, making it difficult to see what does and doesn't need to be dodged. The soundtrack for the game is easily my favorite thing about it, with a healthy blend of upbeat techno infused with a touch of funk. Again, reminds me a lot of Viewpoint, and that's definitely a compliment.

Controls for the game are as solid as the presentation. LB and RB cycle through your six weapons, left analog moves you like it should, and the A button fires your weapon. The other three face buttons activate your shield sweep, each one using a different one of your three shields (B for red, X for blue, and Y for yellow). Everything is responsive, though with six weapons that get cycled through one at a time it takes a bit getting used to before you remember the order and shield position of each weapon.

So, everything so far has been pretty kind toward Prismatic Solid. Unfortunately, that has to stop here. The neat mechanic of the three buildable shields actually becomes a bit overpowered and boring when certain weapons make a shield formation that, quite literally, envelops you. So once this happens, the only thing you need to worry about is running into things. Which you probably will during a couple stages, but with extra lives given out every 30,000 points (not much) you might find yourself never running out of lives once you learn each stage. Without much of a challenge and without any score multiplier or co-op, the game becomes somewhat stale after a little while. The game does combat this a little bit with each successful completion of the game's five stages bringing you back to the start with slightly more difficult bosses and enemies, but even then it just feels like a challenge to see how long before you lose interest rather than your last ship.

All this sounds a little harsh for a game that looks and sounds amazing, is only a dollar, has solid play, and is fun for a little bit. And I have to admit it wouldn't be too bad to zone out to when you're not looking for much of a challenge. But when it comes down to it Prismatic Solid loses its charm and challenge within 10-15 minutes of when you press start and, aside from a couple cheap rising wall moments in the later stages, never gets it back. In the end, it's a textbook example of how bad balance can ruin an otherwise decent game.

You read the title and the rating I gave for this game so why are you even reading this? Maybe it's because your curiosity got the better of you so you believe an explanation is necessary. Thankfully I'm a decent guy so I'll do you a solid(haha) and discuss what I think of this game.

Prismatic Solid is a vertically-scrolling shooter that shows obvious inspiration from the likes of Konami's XEXEX, Q entertainment's Rez, and recreational drugs. What's different about this one is that there are three tentacled orbs that surround the player and absorb bullets. These can be powered up and even used as special attacks if need be. There are also six weapons that are selectable at any time and they range from homing to laser to spread and so on. The formation of the orbs changes with each weapon and this can be a hassle or a benefit depending on the situation.

The stages themselves are comprised of the standard mix of enemies. Some like filling the screen with bullets while others enjoy the simple pleasure of being destroyed. The bosses are mostly familiar to shooter fans but they look good. The soundtrack is alright as well. It features a couple tracks from 2D Shooter legend Shinji Hosoe and while it's nothing spectacular it serves a purpose.

Serves a purpose is about all this game really does though. If all you want is a competent shooter that looks good and sounds decent this isn't a huge waste of a dollar and fifteen minutes. It is unfortunate though that the 2D shooter genre doesn't survive on looks alone. The biggest failing of this game is its complete lack of challenge.

To start with once the player has gained a familiarity of what comes next they will have no problem coasting through this game. On my first playthrough I had a bit of trouble, had to continue a few times. Like a number of other shooters the game doesn't end after completing the first playthrough. Upon accessing the second loop everything is supposed to be harder(some levels feature multiple bosses at the same time and such) but since I knew what weapons to use and where to stand so I evaded attacks I managed to clear not only that loop but the next three loops as well without continuing. It's a very predictable game and since the orbs can deflect so much there's not a whole lot that can actually touch the player aside from obstacles and certain enemy attacks.

To further add to the lack of challenge extra lives are given away like candy. 30,000 points nets the player an extra life and believe me this can happen as often as two or even three times per stage. There are bonuses for completing a loop with so many lives remaining but it really doesn't matter after awhile. Upon the start of the next loop the player is knocked down to three lives which is done to avoid some truly ridiculous scores but by then I had already lost interest.

The main thing that a number of 2D shooters forget to account for is depth in terms of the scoring system. Nowadays it seems like every one of these games has some special ways to score huge amounts of points but with Prismatic Solid it's little more than "shoot stuff and don't get shot". Yes I'm well aware that this game is only a dollar but compare it to the likes of Shoot1up which is also a dollar 2D shooter. That game had multipliers and other scoring sub-systems based on a number of factors. These days if there isn't more to the game than just blowing stuff up it comes off as one-dimensional.

When I finally got another Game Over in this game it was because I had decided to kill myself off. If I kept playing I probably would have fallen asleep in my desk chair and that would lead to some serious damage to my neck. Sure the game tries to up the difficulty over the course of the first three loops but after that it just gives up. There was nothing more to see and I didn't have any interest in gaining a bunch of points when there's no challenge to go along with it. The way I see it all scores must be earned and if there's no challenge why bother? It's just a waste of time if that's the case.

Again if all you care about is visuals and being able to play a game that won't fall apart after 30 seconds this isn't a bad deal in the slightest. Sure you could do better but considering the quality of 90% of Indie releases you could certainly do a heck of a lot worse. Just don't spend a bunch of hours on it then brag to your friends about your insane high score because the only real challenge to Prismatic Solid is staying awake to play it.