Issue 43: May 2004
Features
- | Foreword
- | Tip of the day
- | Outline 2004 Report
- | JagFest Vindaloo
- | FTP Traffic
Reviews
- | Give Your Jag A Little Soul
- | French ST Mag, En Anglais
M@ilbox
News
| Give Your Jag A Little Soul by David Sherwin Soul Star is one of the games for the Atari Jaguar for which possession marks the distinction between gaming enthusiast and true collector. Though few may admit it, the game has been widely disseminated for a number of years in a group of core collectors among whom I, like most folk, cannot count myself a member. Soul Star's release to the general gaming community has been hindered by concerns regarding copyright, legal ownership and, I am quite sad to say, efforts to maintain the high value of the game, but pirate copies have recently begun to pop up faster than dandelions in March. I, being only human and no fool, snapped up one of these third-party copy-of-a-copy copies when my curiosity overcame my gaming budget. You can only imagine the delightful degree of anticipation I felt when I saw that hot little package arrive in the mail, and the degree of disappointment I felt when I popped it into my CD player (bypass cart required) and actually began to play it. Contrary to all of the hype, Soul Star isn't the Second Coming, and it probably wouldn't have saved the Jag from extinction; it is, in all aspects, just another space blaster. I was disappointed, all right, but as I began to play the game I could see a few of its greater merits peek through the game engine. Soul Star may be an overblown windbag of a game, but there's a certain charm to be found in Atari's failed attempts at ostentation and grandeur. It may not be Super Battlemorph, but it's also not - to my eternal thanks - Trevor McFur 2, and it's offered quite a fair bit of gaming value for the super-inflated price that I paid for it. Gameplay Soul Star offers nothing new to Jaguar gamers; it just offers a lot of it. After all, why present just one clichéd effort when you can repackage several of them as "gaming missions" and call it something new? OK - I admit that I am, perhaps, being a bit too harsh, but memory of that purchase price still stings. Players will begin their games on approach to the space station from which all secondary gaming missions may be launched. The typical space obstacles - fighters, indestructible objects - present themselves as players are inexorably drawn to the station, but playability isn't too bad here. I like to think of this part of the game as Gyruss flipped on a horizontal plane, with three warps to the space station core. Players who successfully run the gauntlet of space ships and extra-terrestrials will find themselves at the space station, where a new gaming goal will be revealed. Players who best this stage may then select any one of a number of presented missions which they may access through a certain portal. I haven't yet made it out of the space station, but have heard from players who have that the subsequent missions, while entertaining, aren't exactly ground-breaking in themselves. Graphics My copy of Soul Star contains a number of graphical glitches which may either be the result of poor copying techniques or due to the fact that I have an incomplete version of the game; my source himself didn't know. Flaws aside, the graphic environment of Soul Star may be described as a middling effort that is punctuated by moments of true graphic ingenuity (for a Jag game). Most of the game's sub-environments have been planned quite well and are quite pretty, though it is, in its totality, certainly nothing that we haven't seen before. Gaming sprites are nicely detailed, but I note that several characters seemed to have been inspired by other Atari games. Look closely at the spider-like creatures that attack you from the space station in the game's first stage: they're escapees from the Lynx's Gates of Zendocon! And didn't we see those weird, bipedal droids stalking the halls of Electrocop? Did Atari have a Mysterious Plan in which minor details from older Lynx games were to be incorporated into its showpieces for the Jaguar? Clearly, the mysteries of this game extend beyond speculation regarding its proposed commercial release date. Music and sound Soul Star boasts an elegant, if pompous soundtrack that is decidedly evocative of Holst's The Planets. I'd like to think that this was a deliberate joke on the part of Atari's coders, but realize that the choice was probably made more by accident than with planning and deliberation. My heart always does, nevertheless, beat a little faster when I hear the game's opening chords, and the quasi-classical score complements Soul Star's endless battles quite nicely. Sound effects are also quite good, and are similar both in quality and variety to Atari's other Jaguar CD games. Voice samples are, in particular, well done, and I particularly like the crisp, bitchy tones of the computer. However did they get Judi Dench to volunteer her efforts? Summary The value that you find in Soul Star will most likely be directly proportional to the amount of time and money that you expend in obtaining it. I must admit that I enjoyed the thrill of this particular hunt as it took me, over the course of the year, to several dead ends (and unreturned e-mails), and that both my appetite for and taste of the kill was greatly enhanced by the ardours of the chase. For those not so enthused by the game of collecting, and who merely want to play the damned thing, I can state that Soul Star ranks among CD games below Battlemorph, and somewhere between Primal Rage and Baldies. It will, however, cost you more than three times the combined value of all of them just to get a pirate copy. Spend your valuable gaming dollars accordingly.
Verdict
Name: | Soul Star
Requires: | Jaguar CD system
Pros: | It's Battlemorph Lite It'll probably take you months to get a copy (experience the thrill of the hunt!)
Cons: | It's Battlemorph Lite It'll probably take you months to get a copy (expreience the thrill of the hunt!)
Rating: |
[ Top of page ] | MyAtari magazine - Review #1, May 2004
Copyright 2004 MyAtari magazine