S. Prysm Destroyer is a side-scrolling 2.5D run’n gun shooter published by EastAsiaSoft for under ten bucks. While the retro gameplay is appreciated, the incredibly steep difficulty is not.
This action shooter reminds me of Hard Corps Uprising, an often forgotten and more methodical Contra clone published by Konami. Meaning, the action isn’t a crazy bullet heck but instead relies more on precision movements to avoid incoming fire and enemy positioning. Muscle memory and quick reflexes are required but chances are you will not be able to complete the first stage. After retrying many, many times, I still was unable to beat level 2. There is only one default difficulty setting too, so don’t expect your hand to be held at any time. The difficulty is so high mainly because the common enemies take way too many hits. If you don’t start shooting as they immediately appear on screen, chances are, they will bump into you and cause damage because you couldn’t defeat them quick enough.
The gameplay is all about running and gunning but it isn’t without a gimmick. Sure, there are the typical weapon power ups, like machine guns and spread shots, but each stage can transform the two-eye colored protagonist into a super robot for a limited time. Armed with huge, screen swiping attacks, it is fun to decimate rows of baddies with one swing. However, you are now a bigger target and damage is just as prevalent, essentially making the game twice as hard but twice as damage dealing. So being more powerful isn’t always the answer.
Unfortunately, co-op is not an option and the overall experience feels needlessly empty because of it. Having a partner to help blast all the bad guys would have softened the difficulty too. The UI is also confusing. Only after playing for a while will you understand what the strange meters on the side of the screen mean. That is, if you even notice them. Since there is constant action, there really isn’t time to look at the border UI to decipher how much health in your one life is remaining. Thankfully, there is an online leaderboard system that auto-posts your highest score upon game over so you can see how poorly to stack up against the competition. Unfortunately, the only way to access this database is by playing a round and dying; there is no option to view the leaderboard from the main menu which is horribly inconvenient. The unchangeable CRT visual effect is also distracting and makes the game look worse. This should have been an option instead of a constant.
S. Prysm Destroyer is an unfortunate disappointment. The unbalanced difficulty isn’t fair to the player and the overall approach is wrapped around some odd design choices. Which is a shame because there aren’t many run-and-gunners released today. If there was an easy mode with co-op implementation, this digital download would have had much more potential. Instead, the steeply unfair difficulty might only appeal to a select few.
Not As Good As: Blazing Chrome
Why?: does the protagonist have two different colored eyes
Don’t Forget About: Super Cyborg
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
X/Twitter: @ZackGaz
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RATING
OUR SCORE - 4.5
4.5
SCORE
S. Prysm Destroyer’s potential is heart breakingly marred due to strange design choices and an unfair difficulty setting. Saying this game is challenging is an understatement.
Editor in Chief - been writing for mygamer,com for 20+ years. Gaming enthusiast. Hater of pants. Publisher of obscure gaming content on my YT channel.
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