Silhouette Mirage INFO BOX SYSTEMS Saturn, Playstation PUBLISHERS ESP Software (Japan) Working Designs (NA) RELEASE DATES (Saturn) Japan - 09/10/97 RELEASE DATES (PSX) Japan - 07/23/98 NA - 12/31/99 Silhoutte Mirage is a surprisingly excellent sidescrolling shooter full of all the things you would expect in such a game. There are multiple weapons you can buy at the shops spread out through the game with the money you beat out of your enemies, you jump, double jump, triple jump, dash, toss enemies around. It sounds like pretty much every game of this type except for one small difference; everything, including yourself, are split up in to two categories, Silhouettes and Mirages. Now, lucky for you (being the main character and all), you've got both the power of the silhouettes and mirages, but unfortunately you can only use one at a time. Depending on the direction you are facing you will either fire off red (mirage) bullets, or blue (silhouette) bullets. Enemies can only be damaged when hit with bullets of the opposite attribute and the game is nice enough to let you know which each enemy is. Hit an enemy with the same shot type and you will actually steal spirit from the enemy and charge up your own spirit meter which is basically how much power your shots have. Drain enough spirit from an enemy and they will no longer be able to attack, but lose all your spirit yourself and you will lose whichever weapon you have equiped at the time. As is the case with most Treasure games, there happens to be quite a few bosses in this game, and somehow the clever people at Treasure are still finding ways to keep these battles exciting. Very few of the bosses fight the same way. Some are just simple dodge and shoot fights, others have you reflecting the enemies' projectiles back at them, and then there are others where you need only toss around the small fries that keep running on to the screen to take out the boss. At first the bosses don't pose much of a threat, but as you progress and reach the final few stages the bosses start to really dish it out. Beating the game on a single credit won't be a simple task by any means. Nazo^2 Suzuki's soundtrack for the game is wonderful as well, full of rock tunes, classical, excellent jazz, and even some techno music. The music is fitting in all situations and really is one of the greatest soundtracks for a Treasure game. It's truely a shame Nazo^2 Suzuki is no longer with Treasure. Really, a great game if you're into 2D action games. Levels consist mostly of running forward, sometimes being forced to stop and clear a room of enemies, then reaching a boss and repeating. You can grab enemies on your way and bash the cash out of them if you want, which you probably will, so you can buy more powerful weapons at the shops and even some health or spirit if you happen to be running low. It's actually not a short game either, as it will most likely take you over an hour to clear the game. Definitely worth purchasing. Working Designs did happen to release Silhouette Mirage outside of Japan and they felt that they could improve on a few things, so they changed a couple mechanics around. For anyone who is unaware, the biggest change is that in the Working Designs version firing a weapon will drain your spirit, where as in the Japanese version the only way to lose spirit was to be hit by an attack with the same attribute as yourself. This may have sounded like a good idea, but the amount certain weapons drain your spirit in the Working Designs version pretty much makes half the weapons useless, which is a shame because playing around with all the weapons in the original version is a lot of fun. Of course, at the price the North American version will cost you it's hard to complain, but if you want the game in the purest form you'll have to splurge and go for one of the Japanese versions.