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   Company Hudson ESRB Rating E for Everyone Release Date US - July 16, 2007 Controllers Wii Remote Classic Controller Gamecube Controller Wii Points 600  Review by: Corbie Dillard ©2008 Virtual-Turbo |
Before
the perspective shooter hits of today like the Doom and Halo series,
there was an early first-person shooter title called Silent Debuggers
released on the TurboGrafx-16 console. The game introduced many of the
game play functions that are used in even many of today's shooter hits.
The only problem in releasing this classic title in a day when 3-D
visuals paint an ultra-realistic picture is that Silent Debuggers is
left to fare with only the classic 16-bit era sprites that were the
only option available when it was developed. This makes the game seem
even more dated than it actually is, and with a serious lack of game
play variety that takes a lot of the control out of the player's hands,
it's painfully obvious that Silent Debuggers has lost a lot of its
appeal over the years and is nothing more than a nostalgic novelty in
today's gaming universe. It's a decent title for fans of this type of
game, but there's just not enough in this package to keep modern
gamers' attention for longer than this short trip down memory lane
lasts.
In Silent Debuggers you're job is to explore and carefully navigate each of the 6 levels of the space station. You must defeat all of the enemies on the floor your currently on before you can gain access to the next lower level. The Core Block is the main hub of the entire station and it's where your adventure begins. The Core Block is made up of several smaller blocks designated by the letters A-H. These feature rooms that will allow you to reload your weapons as well as charge up your batteries. This is extremely important as if you run out of battery power, you'll be returned to the computer room and given a 5 minute time penalty. The time limit is your biggest enemy in the game as you have to complete certain areas within a certain time limit or the computer's protection scheme will begin destroying blocks that become too infested with monsters. This can make completing other objectives and navigating your way around the station even more difficult. You have two weapons at your disposal, which you can choose from a variety of different rifles and launch weapons when you begin the game. As you come into contact with monsters you'll have to be quick on the trigger in order to defeat them before they reach you. One button will pull up your targeting icon and the other button will fire your rifle weapon. You'll also have to use the "Start" button to fire your powerful launch weapon. Navigating the many corridors is easily accomplished using the d-pad. This system takes a little getting used to, but the learning curve isn't too broad. After a half hour, you'll be doing it in your sleep. And I mean that literally since the game's action just doesn't keep the pace up long enough to sustain any type of fun from the entire experience. You basically spend the entire game roaming the corridors and shooting monsters. Other than the choice of weapons, there's not much variety in the game's control system. The game is fun for about 15 minutes until you realize that there's just not much more to the game than what you've already experienced in the first few minutes of play. There's just so much potential that goes to waste with the overly simplistic control system. It's obvious from playing this early effort that first-person shooters have come a very long way over the years and Silent Debuggers is really showing its age. Visually the game is actually pretty decent, with some nice detail in the many corridors of each level. The large color palette of the TurboGrafx-16 does seem a bit wasted as there's not a lot of variety in the colors used and most areas are basically just a slight color variance from a previously visited area. After a short time of the same scenery, it's apparent that Silent Debuggers isn't going to get any better down the road. The monsters in the game are probably what could be considered the high point of the graphics in the game, and although there aren't very many different types of monsters, the ones that are present look quite sharp and animate well. The biggest drawback of the game is just the inherent lack of variety. I hate to beat a dead horse, but after staring at this game for more than 30 minutes, you'll be wishing you could see a dead horse instead of the repetitive surroundings. This category will be short and sweet because that's about how things are in the entire game. You'll get a little bit of music here and there when you're in certain rooms, but once you hit the corridors, the music stops and the half-hearted sound effects kick in. You'll actually welcome the annoying sensor sounds after a long walk through the corridors hearing nothing more than a movement sound effect that doesn't even sound very realistic to begin with. You'll find yourself wasting rounds of ammunition just to hear a new sound effect at times when the action dies down and you're just roaming around in circles. It's obvious from the moment you begin playing Silent Debuggers that absolutely no emphasis at all was placed on creating music or sound effects for the game. This one's a mediocre effort at best. |
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