The original Silpheed was one of our favorite shooters. No powerups. No extra lives. It was just you and your shields against the enemies. And you couldn't change your weapons so you had to think before you started a level. The game was what we called a pure 2D shooter. And this game has all that in a 3D battlefield.

The story isn't bad. There's rebellion between Earth and the space colonies. So the Earth sends you to kick those rebel space asses. And you got to fight your buddy who's on the other side. Sweet. There's also a ton of CGI cutscenes to move the story along. Not so sweet. The characters are kinda generic so we won't mention them. There's a great deal of dialogue between characters and some really annoying space chatter.

Now this game is pure action, not surprising considering its 2D shooter roots. The enemy fleets are huge and there's plenty of targets. You never get a minute's rest. Unfortunately, the capital ships are real weak so you won't have any trouble taking out a dozen. And the enemy fighters aren't that interested in going after you. They are however, real interested in destroying your allies if you're in an escort mission.

You got plenty of weapons and missiles, and you got the usual suspects of wingmen to help you. The controls are responsive, but it depends on how you arm your ship before each battle because your armaments add weight. You can also do special moves by pressing the buttons in a sequence. However, there is a drop in framerate in the larger battles.

Sylpheed has colorful graphics and good ship design. The explosions are nice and there's a good amount of detail from stars, planets, and entire galaxies in the background. The character designs are the generic anime characters you can see in any Japanese game. They even have generic personalities. The capital ships are kinda small. The music is the bland arcade techno rock you can hear in any Japanese action game.

There's no online play and the single player game is short. Sylpheed isn't really for everyone unless you're a fan of the old FreeSpace and Wing Commander games. If you are, you'll definitely want to pick this one up. Now the gameplay might be a little bit faster than those games, but it's still a fun 3D shooter with massive fleet battles.