Iridion II

Iridion II is one of my favorite games on the GBA and has quite possibly my favorite video game soundtrack of all time. I was incredibly excited when I saw it was coming to Steam and purchased it today as soon as I saw the notification that it was available. Unfortunately, I really can’t say I recommend this release. It seems to do nothing but emulate the original GBA ROM, without a single improvement to the graphics or (as far as I can tell) the audio. Given that it looks to be running at the same internal resolution as a GBA game, it looks very bad set to fullscreen on a 4K monitor, and is a very small window when set to anything else— maybe those with 1080p monitors will find this more bearable. The only added feature is a menu that is accessible by hitting escape that allows you to rebind controls, choose between fullscreen, 2x, 3x, or 4x window size, turn on smoothing, turn on stretching, and access three save states. However, the smoothing feature does nothing to improve the visuals, as it really just turns the game from a pixel-y mess into a blurry one, and I really don’t even see a difference when turning the “stretch” option on. Strangely enough, even the control rebinding doesn’t even work properly, as I had to rebind the A button setting to what I wanted the B button to be and vice-versa. The save state feature is a very welcome addition though, as the game relied on passwords to save progress (which is still baked into the game and is usable if you prefer it for some reason), so I guess you can’t say this port is entirely bad. All in all, there is basically no reason for me to choose to play this game on PC over my original GBA cartridge, which thankfully I still have; it looks worse on PC and runs the exact same. It’s also an unfortunate reality that you can get a better experience graphically and feature-wise by playing this game through an emulator that supports better upscaling options (though of course if this is the method you choose and don't already own the game, find a way to support the devs.) It’s awesome to see this game get re-released, but I really hope that in the future, we see a remaster or remake that more effectively brings it into the modern era… but given how much of a surprise even the release of this port was, I’m unfortunately not optimistic. Soundtrack is still bangin’ tho.

Fun shooting game with interesting visuals originally on the Gameboy advance. While I recommend the game let it be known that it is a very straight forward port with little to no changes. The control scheme is a bit counter intuitive if you are playing on an Arcade stick so rebinding through steam is likely a good idea for most. I still recommend the title and it is especially impressive given the time and hardware for which it was originally released. I do have a CRT monitor to play games like this so that does a long way in making the visuals pop. As mentioned in a negative review it would likely scale rather poorly to higher resolutions on lcd monitors.

The Best Video Game Soundtrack Ever.

Cool game, GBA classic shmup. 3 save states and a specialized emulation menu. It's pretty cool how well the music holds up. Asking price is stupid high, though; you can get comparable Sega Genesis classic games for <$2 normally. Get it if you're a fan and just want to throw money at Shin'En, or if it's very deep discount and you want to see what GBA could do with it's 17mhz processor and 400k of RAM.

過去にGBAで発売されていた名作ということで、半分好奇心で購入。ベタ移植ですが、それを補って余りある作品の魅力に引き込まれてしまいました。これは面白いです。 同タイミングでIridion 3Dも発売されていますが、個人的にはこちらを断然おすすめします。 ※2020/4/14、メニューについてコメントをいただきましたのでレビューを修正しました。 まず、「ベタ移植」といった部分について。ここは賛否あると思います。 [strike]・ウィンドウ化/フルスクリーンや解像度、キーコンフィグの設定は無し Alt+Enterでフルスクリーンとウィンドウモードの切り替えはできますが、ウィンドウモードは720x480ぐらいでリサイズはできません。XBOXコントローラーでは違和感なく操作できました。[/strike] →[b]ゲーム中にEscキーを押すことで表示倍率やキーコンフィグ、ステートセーブ等のメニューを開くことができます。[/b] ・Steam版発売にあたっての新要素やグラフィックスの高解像度化等は無し ここは好みの分かれるところかもしれません。変にいじっていないとも言えますし、芸がないという見方もあるでしょう。 そして、ゲーム本体について。 ・斜め俯瞰視点のかっこよさ レイストームやゼビウス3D/Gのような視点で、うまく形容できないのですがとにかく「かっこいい」です。舞台となるステージも渓谷あり海上あり宇宙基地ありですし、障害物やハッチのようなギミックも豊富に出てきます。道中、明らかに過去の名作アーケードシューティング(例えばR-TYPEやビューポイント)を意識した仕掛けもあり、シューティングファンなら思わずうれしくなってしまうこと請け合いです。 ・家庭用向けの難易度 GBAということもあって難易度は低く、初見でもカジュアルに楽しめます。シールド+残機制のため、そもそもやられにくい上に、戻り復活のポイントも多いです。ボスでやられることがあっても、すぐ前の復活ポイントからやり直しとなるので、パターンを覚えるのも早いと思います。武器の種類がたくさんあるんですが、正面に火力の強いものを選んでおけばだいたい何とかなります。 ・良曲の多いBGM 各面開始時に画面下に曲名が出る演出があり、この開発陣は、良いシューティングには良いBGMが必要だと意識していることがうかがえます。序盤から終盤まで良い曲ばかりです。 総じて移植そのもののデキは悪くないように思えるので、上述したベタ移植である点が許容できれば十分楽しめる作品です。 これをリアルタイムで体験できた人はさぞ楽しかったんだろうなぁ、なんて気分になりました。

Iridion II is an ancient game from 2003. It's a whopping 20 years old at the time of this review. The game lacks support for any modern gaming display resolutions (or widescreen monitors), hasn't been modernised or updated to run smoothly on modern gaming PCs. Despite this lack of modernisation, it carries a pretty high price tag for such an ancient game. This seems to have been put on Steam as a nostalgia gouge. This handheld console (Gameboy Advance) ported game is meant to look like a 3D version of Galaga/Space Invaders/whatever, so not really pushing the envelope, despite this being 20 years newer than Asteroids. It's advertised as having 3D graphics but this is only a rudimentary effect, raster images/sprites displayed over an ultra simplistic, ultra low poly 3D framework. As a rail shooter, you can move your little ship left or right but there's no true 3D gameplay. just fight waves of enemies as they come at you. Galaga from a different perspective... but what do we expect from console games? From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks. There's no way to ensure this is running at the native resolution of your display. There's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision. The game only displays in 4:3 pillarboxed aspect ratio. It's possible they developed this using an old CRT they found in a dumpster, or this game has been specifically designed for people gaming on PC's from 1995... either way, this isn't really acceptable in the modern era of PC gaming. Because this is designed for consoles, it carries a number of deliberate design deficiencies. Compromises were made to cater to the inferior console gaming appliances that the game was designed for. These are unfortunate compromises and limitations that PC gamers shouldn't be forced to accept, but it's evident that PC was a second thought for the console-centric developers. The game is deficient as a result of these choices, and would have been so much better without the handicaps that designing games for consoles forces upon a game. Once more, console peasants have made gaming worse for everyone. These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game. The poor quality of this game is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only 2 players. This is a remarkably low number, and now, the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 50,000 games for gamers to choose from (over 9,000 completely free titles), the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected. Iridion II is insultingly expensive for an abandonware 20 year old Galaga ripoff, at $13 USD, and it's not worth it. Charging this much money for an abandoned shovelware console game 20 years after the fact on Steam is just an insult to PC gamers. The game is just too old, hasn't been modernised. And as the old saying goes, you can't go home again. Even when it was new, this was never a triple-A game. This is the kind of game that went almost directly from the warehouse into the cheap bargain bins at the front of the shop. Now, on Steam, without any modernisation? This is impossible to recommend.

nanostrayシリーズ等で素晴らしい楽曲のShmupsをリリースしていたShin'enが GBA時代に出していたゲームの移植で このゲームのBGMもめちゃくちゃ良いのでおすすめです タイトル画面で曲を作って遊べる程度のこだわり具合 惜しむらくはゲームオリジナルのOSTが無いこと ゲーム内にジュークボックス機能あり ジュークボックス解放password → CH4LL ituneやamazonに IIと3Dから数曲選のアレンジサウンドトラックが出ています http://iridion2.shinen.com/soundtrack/

An easygoing shmup for the Game-Boy Advance that has a soundtrack among the best of the system, and also an impressive presentation overall. Game-play wise it offers a good ammount of content with 15 stages, but it is a slower paced and more of a traditional shooter in its design, with some memorization heavy sections but nothing really notable other than the the boss rush mode in terms of challenge; also a handful of tunes can become too repetitive like the one for the bosses.

Aunque no pueda decir que estoy contento con el trabajo que han hecho con este juego en su conversión a Steam, ya que parece una emulación, sí he de felicitar al equipo de programadores por haber creado en su día esta joya matamarcianos que junto con Gradius Advance son los mejores de la GBA. La banda sonora es espectacular y los gráficos bellísimos. Espero que muy pronto se atrevan también a versionar NANOSTRAY 1 y 2.

En tant que jeu, [b]Iridion II[/b] est un chouette shoot'em up, sans plus. Agréable à jouer et lisible, c'est un jeu profondément [i]à l'ancienne[/i], d'avant que la folie furieuse des [i]bullet hell[/i] ne vienne ruiner les plaisirs simples du [i]piou! piou! t'es mort[/i]. Comme la majorité des jeux développés par [b]Shin'en[/b], [b]Iridion II[/b] ne cherche pas à inventer l'eau chaude, mais à la faire bouillir. C'est une prouesse technique. Un petit coup de génie comme les développeurs allemands en ont l'habitude. [b]Shin'en[/b] a encore frappé sur une console Nintendo pour lui offrir un jeu que son petit hardware et ses petites cartouches ne lui permettaient pas. Avec un effet de profondeur saisissant qui nous donne l'impression de jouer à un vrai jeu 3D sur sa gameboy, une esthétique léchée et une action lisible, [b]Iridion II[/b] est l'un des jeux les plus impressionnants de la [b]Game Boy Advance[/b]. A ranger fièrement à côté des [b]Asterix & Obelix XXL[/b], [b]V Rally 3[/b] et [b]DRIV3R[/b]. A ranger au-dessus, même, puisqu'[b]Iridion II[/b] a la bonne idée de ne pas être une version au rabais d'un épisode console mais un jeu pensé pour le système - en plus d'être tout simplement meilleur. En abandonnant cet espèce de [i]mod 7[/i] inélégant d'[b]Iridion 3D[/b], [b]Iridion II[/b] opte pour un défilement vertical avec une vue de biais du plus bel effet. Evidemment, en passant sur PC, la prouesse technique perd de son importance. Cet atout pourrait même se transformer en handicap. Selon la taille de votre écran, le style graphique hautement pixélisé d'[b]Iridion II[/b], pensé pour être joué sur un timbre poste, peut facilement tourner à la bouille de pixels. Plus votre diagonale est longue, moins jouer à [b]Iridion II[/b] en plein écran est recommendable. Mais l'intérêt de l'arrivée d'[b]Iridion II[/b] sur Steam est ailleurs. Et je ne parle pas de satisfaire votre nostalgie, votre collectionnite aigue ou je ne sais quelle autre maladie mentale. Est-ce qu'il y a, quelque part dans la nature, une version cassée d'[b]Iridion II[/b] qui circule sur les différents sites de roms ? Je n'ai jamais pu le déterminer avec certitude, mais le fait est là : à chaque fois que j'ai essayé d'y jouer ailleurs que sur GBA, le jeu crashait avant le troisième niveau. J'ai eu beau essayer de récupérer sa ROM sur différents sites, d'y jouer via différents émulateurs, et même sur différentes machines. Windows XP, 7 ou encore 10, PSP, PSVita, DS, 3DS ou Dingoo a320, je rencontrais à chaque fois l'éternel problème, le désastre, et le jeu crashait systématiquement en moins de trente minutes. J'avais beau essayer d'emporter [b]Iridion II[/b] avec moi vers d'autres horizons, impossible de le finir ailleurs que sur le petit écran, avec les petits boutons, les piles d'un autre siècle ou la batterie mourante, les encombrantes cartouches et tout l'inconfort d'une Game Boy Advance, qu'elle soit SP ou non. Et voilà qu'[b]Iridion II[/b] arrive sur Steam. Problème résolu. Je peux enfin jouer à [b]Iridion II[/b] sur Steam Deck sans craindre de voir l'écran se figer. On regrettera juste que les développeurs n'aient pas profité de l'occasion pour instauter un système de sauvegarde. Il faudra se contenter des mots de passe. Attention si vous jouez à la manette ! Le jeu étant pensé pour être joué en quatre directions, il se peut que votre joystick ne prenne pas les diagonales en compte, ce qui est au minimum casse...pieds. N'hésitez pas à jouer directement au dpad ou, mieux encore, à changer la configuration manette via steam et ordonner à votre joystick de se comporter comme une croix directionnelle - les diagonales sont alors prises en compte et le confort de jeu devient royal.