Iridion II
by Joseph on Jun.22, 2004, under Games
I had been intrigued by Iridion 3D because shooters, “shoot-’em-ups,” (“shmups” if you wish) are a rare and valuable commodity in today’s world of Madden NFL 2004 and Madden NFL 2004 for the Xbox. However, it turned out that the freshman entry in the Iridion saga was more or less an excuse to have a 3D game of the GBA, and was devoid of things like fun or the ability to have any clue what was happening on the screen. Thusly, I moved on.
Like all decidedly sub-par games, the Powers That Be deigned to give us a sequel. Thankfully this sequel turned out pretty well, gaining reviews of 8 and other numbers such as “not quite 9,” and “better than 7.” IGN, of course, gave it an “8.372719 (not an average).” I was able to find the game cheap, decided “why not?” and bought it.
The story of Iridion II is one shared by the vast majority of shmups in that something bad is happening, and the only way to stop it is to fly in a straight line and shoot it a lot. You get anime style cutscenes every few levels to remind you that the bad things aren’t quite shot enough yet, and you get to select which location you will fly in a straight line at, which is just interactive enough to make you forget that none of it matters in the slightest.
The action is straightforward, with enemies of varying difficulty to shoot, walls to avoid, and powerups to collect. At the start of each level you’re allowed to choose which gun you want from a smorgasbord of weapons ranging from powerful, narrow beams of electric death to weak, heat-seeking pellets of probable annoyance. And if you tire of your selection mid level, you can use one of the weapon power-ups to “buy” a new gun on the fly. Literally! Sadly, no weapon or combination of weapons thus far has garnered me a rank higher than “C.” Not that the game keeps track anyway.
The game uses passwords instead of save files, which I find puzzling for a game that might attempt to possibly keep track of stats that I can only assume have some bearing on the various unlockables. I don’t know for sure since I’ve never had the foresight to be in a location with the GBA and a method for committing the passwords to something other than my memory, which is already full of penguins as it is.
