Silent Bomber (1999)

Beat as far as the final boss but gave up after many attempts because it was too difficult. The chess gauntlet just before the final boss was brutal; I only got through it once. It just went on for way too long with annoying enemies that had very good odds of chipping away health. I set myself as max shields, 1 point less than max in range, and 1 point in number of bombs; unfortunately I did not find every e chip power up. I got pretty good at defeating each chess piece. The pawns were about running left to right to avoid their shots while shooting a bomb at them, but they also disappeared on their own. The suicide knights could be targeted, hit with laid bombs, or avoided, though it seemed the hit box on their explosion went very far to the north. The rooks and bishops had to be jumped over and targeted when they stopped; it was more about anticipating where they would stop so I could be in range. I got most of the queens with the special lightning bombs, since it had great area of effect and did not need to be targeted. After I ran out I used napalm. I had to place the bomb at the correct time to hit when the shields dropped; most queens did not even get a shot off. Regular bombs did not work as well because the spinning beams were difficult to avoid. This gauntlet needed a slower pace, more health drops, or fewer enemies. Even worse there was no checkpoint save after it so losing to the final boss meant beating the grueling chess section again. No thanks. I watched the ending online instead. It was a real shame because that game had been excellent with checkpoint saves up until this. If there was a save I would have fought the final boss until I won. I got D rank on all missions but 1, which was a B late game. Not sure what affects ranking.

I did not realize I could adjust my e chips on the fly during combat until the final boss. For the first few stages they automatically went into bombs and it took me that long to realize I could readjust it during intermission. I put everything into range so I could plant bombs on stuff off screen. That was so much better than having to risk getting almost into melee range. I did kinda wish that the guy had a gun or rocket launcher. The target lock mechanic of holding down square to aim would work for a shooter. Some of the bosses took a few attempts, and the stage with a time limit took some abusing of the very generous checkpoint saves. There was a lot of slow down, especially during the tutorial, sewer platform and elevator stages but that could have been due to emulation. The characters, setting and story had strong Xenogears and Xenosaga vibes, and only felt like a tiny piece of an interesting setting. I did not play vs mode but did see a bit while watching the ending online. Overall a fun somewhat innovative game that could have been more in depth. Worst part was by far the chess.

7.5/10

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.