Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s, arcade style flight-based shooters were a thriving genre on the PC.  In fact you couldn’t call yourself a PC gamer unless you had a joystick hooked up to your sweet Intel 386 (with 64 megabytes of RAM, no less) and I recall spending many happy hours with games like Wing Commander and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe.  But it didn’t last… FPS games exploded onto the scene, and suddenly players started shying away from flight games with elaborate control schemes requiring expensive peripherals and mastery over 100+ buttons to play. 

Although there have been a few games that tried to rekindle the long dormant flames of arcade flight simulation, the genre is relatively low-key these days.  Perhaps that’s one of the reasons Microsoft decided to release Square Enix’s Project Sylpheed at a budget price of $40.  Although it doesn’t offer the same degree of depth seen in the PC games of yore, Project Sylpheed doesn’t frustrate players with overwhelming controls either, and as a result is an attractive and accessible experience that should satisfy fans of arcade style-flight sims and newcomers just looking to broaden their palate.

Project Sylpheed has you playing the role of Katana Faraway, a talented rookie pilot fighting for the imperialistic Terra Central Armed Forces (TCAF) against the rebellious ADAN Space Navy (an acronym for the 4 rebel colonies Alberti, Delacroix, Angelico and Nolde).  Apparently, TCAF polices consistently favor the Earth home world, and the colonists inhabiting four of the eleven terraformed worlds in the TCAF decide to revolt after a suspicious accident completely destroyed Archeron, one of the colonies.  Margras, one of Katana’s friends in flight school, grew up on Archeron, and the story begins just as Margras’ decides to defect to the ADAN forces to seek revenge.   ADAN is out to destroy planet earth, but first they have to get through you and the TCAF’s newly developed secret weapon, the Delta Saber fighters, codenamed Project Sylpheed.

At any rate, the story is highly reminiscent of Japanese space operas like Macross and Star Blazers, so although it’s not exactly high art, it does have enough cheesy charm to satisfy Manga fans.  What really stands out, though isn’t Project Sylpheed’s serviceable plot, but rather the gorgeous cut scenes, which are numerous and beautifully constructed throughout the entire game.  It’s no secret that Square Enix is the king of the cut scene, and although the budget for this title was nowhere near as high as Squenix’s beloved Final Fantasy, it’s clear that the in game movies were made with mastery and care.

Just like all Square Enix games, the cutscenes in Project Sylpheed are absolutely gorgeous.

In game visuals are similarly attractive.  The cosmos is colorful and filled with astral anomalies which provide a nice backdrop for the action, and the ships are detailed and just plain cool looking.  All fighters leave colored trails in their wake, (blue for your homies, red for the baddies,) helping you spot the spacecraft and judge their movement on the fly.  And Macross fans will love the gorgeous missile swarms which emulate Japanese Manga perfectly.  Explosions could have been a little better, but all in all, Project Sylpheed is quite a looker.

Unfortunately, things don’t fare as well for Sylpheed in the sound department.  Music is standard Japanese pop-synth, and while it works well some of the time, some tracks will have you opting for silence or a custom soundtrack.  Voice acting doesn’t fare much better, but to be fair, it’s on par with most Japanimae out there.  Weapons sound decent but not great, and although Project Sylpheed’s manual boasts Dolby 5.1 support, you’ll be hard pressed to notice sounds coming from anywhere save the front speakers of your home entertainment setup.