Spriggan Powered - A neat little Super Famicom shmup, but nothing special, reallySpriggan Powered is a neat little Super Famicom shmup released around the middle of the console's lifespan released only in Japan due to its nature as a tie-in to an obscure mecha anime.
Even though there is another mecha-themed shmup with a similar title published by Naxat Soft and developed by Compile for the PC-Engine Super CD-ROM System (Seiren Senshi Spriggan - Phantom Warrior Spriggan), this game isn't related to it, being developed internally at Naxat and not having many of the elements that make Compile's shmups stand out. Let's see how it stands up to its "legacy".
GRAPHICS: 7/10
The videogame scene in the mid-90's was dominated by the digitized-graphics craze started by Mortal Kombat and popularized by Donkey Kong Country, and while it remained mostly an American practice, a few Japanese companies adopted it, and Naxat Soft was one of them.
Spriggan Powered's cool enemy designs sadly don't shine due to its use of
really tiny digitized sprites, something that should be banned from being used BY LAW. tl;dr: They are very, very ugly. I'll still give it a 7 out of 10, because there are some genuinely cool special effects and details in the background, and at least the developers tried.
SOUND: 5/10
Spriggan Powered's soundtrack would be acceptable for an early SNES/SFC game, but the game was released in
freakin' 1996 - one year after Chrono Trigger and Tales Of Phantasia, two after Final Fantasy III/VI and THREE after Secret Of Mana, which many people consider the apex of SPC-700 soundtracks (but I digress). Heck, even some games released in 1991 such as dark and moody Super Castlevania IV and the amazingly mind-blowing, bombastic ActRaiser have better soundtracks than this game. At least the compositions are cool and concise, fitting with each stage they play on, making me give it a 5 out of 10.
GAMEPLAY/DEPTH: 8/10
The gameplay is probably the most interesting aspect about Spriggan Powered. The game only uses two of the SNES/SFC' six buttons - tapping the B button shoots while the A button sets up a temporary shield around your mecha. The shield's duration is limited by the "Elemental Gauge" on the top-right corner of the screen, that also dictates when you can use a charged shot (achieved by holding and releasing the B button when you have at least one third of the gauge green). It gradually fills up as you damage enemies and collect grey power orbs, which also gives you a small point bonus.
The weapons are also acquired by multi-colored orbs dropped by certain enemies that look somewhat like a Core boss from the Gradius series - orange is your standard straight-firing shot with a screen-filling explosion as its charge shot, red is a Spread Machine Gun that becomes a close-range Flame Thrower when charged, green are the Homing Orbs, that spin out from your mecha and stay on the screen for a while after being charged, and blue is the Back Laser, that, well, shoots a laser from your back, but interestingly slows down time when charged.
Picking more than three of the same type is, like in many older shmups, the secret to big scores, but not using your shield and having most of the Elemental Gauge full when you beat a level are also important factors in scoring. Another trick you can employ to quickly launch your score into the millions is grazing through bullets, or doing "Risky Techs" as the game calls it. While this is a common feature included in many "bullet hell" shmups, it's a rarity among more standard entries on the genre.
For trying to copy Compile's powerup system with a couple of coolio weapons and including grazing mechanics in an otherwise standard shmup, I give Spriggan Powered's gameplay an 8 out of 10.
DIFFICULTY: 7/10
Even though I just played through the first two stages, I can see from far away that Spriggan Powered isn't that hard of a game. Most enemies just ram on you mindlessly without firing anything (probably to prevent players from grazing too much), and the few ones that actually use their weapons against you shoot small, easily dodgeable bullets. The developers managed to work around the SNE/SFC' sluggish proccessor and cram a lot of enemies on-screen at once, though, so be ready to mash that fire button a lot.
ADDICTIVENESS: 5/10
Well, whaddya say, it's a shmup - scoring is all that matters here. Considering that there isn't an in-game high score table and the scoring system itself is a bit too simplistic, Spriggan Powered's addictiveness factor isn't very high.
OVERALL SCORE: 7/10
Spriggan Powered is a cool game to pop in into your Super Famicom/emulator of choice and play for ten minutes or so, but nothing too special. While the SNES/SFC' shmup library is notoriely small, there are certainly better games of the genre available in the platform than this one.
Graphics
7 Sound
5 Addictive
8 Depth
8 Difficulty
7
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