Review Mazinkaiser 5/5 · Feb 17, 2020
Silent Bomber: A Unique Blast
Silent Bomber is one of those very underrated gems on the PSX, a game that combines a unique approach to top down action with superbly creative design and a fun little plot that pulls you all over the spaceship Dante.
Jutah is a war criminal drafted into a military operation to save the planet of Hornet against an enemy space …
Silent Bomber is one of those very underrated gems on the PSX, a game that combines a unique approach to top down action with superbly creative design and a fun little plot that pulls you all over the spaceship Dante.
Jutah is a war criminal drafted into a military operation to save the planet of Hornet against an enemy space cruiser, Dante. Jutah is mostly devoid of emotion from the horrors he committed (in the tutorial) and slowly comes to terms with himself with the help of his comrades. The comrades are a bit one-note, but the voice acting is surprisingly competent and helps add some flavor to the game.
The main mechanic of the game is either leaving bombs for an enemy to jump on and detonating them or using a lock-on feature to fire bombs from afar. It's a very interesting pace for a regularly run-and-gun genre, and can get quite challenging without being able to take the enemy head-on without some carefully planned movement. The game is gracious with that aspect and allows jumping and air dashing to keep Jutah out of trouble.
The missions are short but pull through many different levels and challenges, from chase scenes to mazes to timed segments to brushes with horrific bio-weapons - if there's something you can do well with Silent Bomber's mechanics, these developers have thought of it. Near the end the difficulty can get a bit brutal but the game allows flexible equipment strategies in the form of E-Chips throughout the game, allowing the player to increase their bombs, lock on range, or shield in case they need to take a few more hits.
Graphically the game has some impressive and smooth 3D for the PSX. The dreadnought Dante gives mostly dark grey sci-fi corridors and glowing reactors but the mech designs are very well done, with some water effects and creepy creatures along the way. The music is also fairly catchy and techno-y, pushing the player with a good tempo.
Silent Bomber falls in the camp of short but incredibly sweet action games of the PSX era, with a well-designed approach to a creative mechanic that we haven't seen much of since.