Shooter: Starfighter Sanvein (Game)

Shooter: Starfighter Sanvein

GAME » on March 30, 2000

PlayStation (Platform)PlayStation Network (PS3) (Platform)PlayStation Network (PSP) (Platform)

An arcade-style top-down sci-fi shooter for the PS1, where you move between hexagonal rooms of a futuristic space station in a customizable ship and have a limited amount of time to eliminate all opposition.

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Overview

Shooter: Starfighter Sanvein, known in Japan as SuperLite 1500 Series: Sanvein and in Europe simply as Sanvein, is a 3D sci-fi top-down shooter developed and published by Success for the PlayStation (Platform) in Japan (as part of the SuperLite 1500 Series of budget games) on March 30, 2000, with the European release by Midas Interactive Entertainment on September 2000 and the North American release by Agetec and A1 Games (Company) on February 28, 2001.

An arcade-style top-down shooter where players control a customizable ship (known as "Sanvein") and must escape the space station Utopia, which is under control from the station's malevolent computer AI "St. Schutz". Each stage is set in enclosed hexagonal arenas, where players have a limited amount of time to destroy all enemies encountered before moving to an adjacent arena.

The Japanese version later received a digital PSone Classics (Concept) release for supported PlayStation Network (Concept) consoles on June 28, 2007, while the North American version received a similar release on October 6, 2015.

A character based on the Sanvein ship was later included in the side-scrolling cute-'em-up Superlative Night Dreams: Cotton Fantasy as a guest character, where she can switch between the three weapon types at-will and has a countdown timer system in-place of a traditional lives system.

Gameplay

The game is essentially a dual-stick shooter in the vein of Geometry Wars, in which each level of the game is represented by a room on a grid map. It features 5 floors of gameplay, 3 ships, and 3 separate weapons systems. When the player clears a room, they can choose to proceed to any adjacent room. When returning to a cleared room, the ship's firepower is increased. Each floor has several different boss rooms, each of which must be completed to move on in the game. Weapon upgrades can also be found.

Instead of a traditional health bar, a timer is constantly ticking at the top of the screen. When the player gets hit, instead of dying they lose time on the timer. The only way to regain time is to defeat the bosses on a floor, forcing the player to balance time between powering up their weapons and moving forward before time runs out.

Sanvein Types

Players can customize their Sanvein in two ways: by its "Body" (which determines its speed and main weapon) and its "Parts" (which determines its special weapon). Although there are three different types for each, players can mix-and-match different Body and Parts for nine different combinations.

Gluon - Slow movement, fast turning speed. Its main weapon fires in a diffused spread-shot formation. Its special weapon fires homing missile barrages for easier longer-ranged attacks.
Photon - Fast movement, slow turning speed. Its main weapon fires concentrated "laser" shots. Its special weapon is a short-ranged, high-damage laser blade for close combat attacks.
Graviton - Fast movement, fast turning speed. Its main weapon fires short-ranged explosive shots. Its special weapon drops timed mines for powerful well-placed damage.

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