Zwei’s more unusual problem is that – apart from being sandwiched between a genre-busting original and a revered RPG – it’s a great game with no notable flaws that’s always been available worldwide with little effort, which twenty-four years down the line on a relatively niche collector-friendly format brimming with highly desirable import titles makes it an easy game to overlook. Even Orta, the revival nobody asked for on the format nobody played Japanese games on, enjoys a greater level of general accessibility and awareness thanks to the incredible efforts of the team responsible for the Xbox’s backwards compatibility (re)releases. Sadly for all its undeniably quality Zwei’s something of the forgotten game of the series unlike the Saturn launch original it’s never been ported to a range of popular formats (PC, PS2, Xbox) and it can’t hope to compete with the rarity, price tag, or inherent nerd-cred of RPG-lite series continuation Panzer Dragoon Saga. Enemies come at you from all sides with little warning and in an exciting twist to the standard rail shooter rules Panzer Dragoon series expects you to notice and prioritise multiple incoming targets yourself, aided by nothing more than your own reactions and the small radar in the top-right corner of the screen. If you’ve played the original Panzer Dragoon, its recently-released HD remake, or the magnificent Panzer Dragoon Orta (a game that’s backwards compatible with the Xbox One and available to buy digitally worldwide – don’t worry, I’ll still be here when you get back), you’ll already have a firm grasp of Zwei’s basics: The human sitting on top of dragon setup gives you two basic shot types – a rapid fire manually-aimed gun and a slower homing laser that can lock-on to anything in range.
And thanks to the Saturn being viewed at the time as a “dead” system with “no good games” on it getting my paws on a copy of Team Andromeda’s wonderful work was no trouble at all, literally pocket change quantities of money. To say I was hooked was an understatement – I was enthralled.
I owe my adoration for Panzer Dragoon Zwei to the demo disc that came bundled with what was then our brand-new Saturn: Amongst other delights was a single playable level of Zwei – episode 3 (the forest stage) – a level that just so happens to be one of the greatest rail shooter experiences o f all time. Looking for something in particular? Search for: Click here to be taken to a random article! Archives Archives
0 kommentar(er)
