The scrolling-shooter genre has been around since nearly the birth of video games themselves. Many people will remember playing games like ‘Xexius’ and ‘R-Type,’
but around the time the 3-D consoles released (mid ’90s), the genre was dying out in America.
Game companies kept pumping out these bad boys, and they continue to do so to this day.
Way back in 1997, ‘Squaresoft’ (now ‘SquareEnix’) released arguably one of the best games for the genre for the Playstation. However, ‘Einhander’ met little success, except among ‘Squaresoft’ fans.
Ten years later, it still holds up to its former, unrecognized glory.
‘Einhander’ (German for the word ‘one-handed’ or ‘one-hander’) throws you smack in the middle of a war between the Earth and the moon.
You’re the lunar society’s last hope, but the bad news is it’s a suicide mission.
Thankfully, you get to go down in all your destructive glory.
There’s three Einhanders you can chose from at first, some more proficient with maneuvering, others with firepower.
Depending on the model you choose, you can upgrade your ship during the game with either one, two or three enemy weapons.
This is the core gameplay mechanic to ‘Einhander.’ The key to success is choosing and maintaining the appropriate weapons for your ship to blast through the swarms of enemies.
Without the extra firepower, things can get pretty ugly, pretty fast.Thankfully, enemies have many weak points, and you can strategically hack away at them as you see fit. By shooting off their engines or thrusters, they’ll plummet swiftly below.
Or perhaps you’re in need of firepower? Just aim for the enemy’s cannons and snatch their guns for yourself. A gameplay mechanic like this used in 1997 was quite impressive and still is.
The graphics are truly amazing for a Playstation title.
‘Squaresoft’ always delivers incredible visuals in all of their games, and ‘Einhander’ is no different. It’s nothing like an Xbox360 game.
But in comparison to the games of its day, ‘Einhander’ is beautiful.
The gigantic bosses are richly developed, and the environments are somewhat destructible, giving more life to the aptly designed world.
One of the major drawbacks (or perhaps major highlights depending on who you are) is the difficulty.
Even set on easy when you essentially have 30 or more lives, the game can be disgustingly hard for many.
If you’re not constantly on your toes and get hit even once in the core of your ship, you’re going down.
This game definitely isn’t for beginners.
If yours skills are anything but above par, you’re going to get chewed up and spit out.
Perhaps the biggest drawback to ‘Einhander’ is its rarity. Performing an eBay search usually pulls up around four of these guys, if you’re lucky.
Basically, if you can’t find something on eBay, you know it’s going to be a huge hassle to hunt down.
So don’t expect to waltz into a local game store and find piles of these in the bargain bins. If you even find one, consider yourself lucky.
It’s a game worth hunting for, though. Definitely not for beginners.
If you’ve been a fan of the scrolling-shooter genre and mastered all games that have come your way, you’ll want to check out ‘Einhander.’
Playing through, you’ll find it hard to believe it’s a decade old because of ‘Squaresoft’s’ attention to detail and effort that was poured into this title.
The bottom line: ‘Einhander’ for the Playstation: 8.5/10.