Viper Reviews

Doesn't launch. Not playable.

So this was an interesting, didn't expect to see it here of all places and hopefully you'll find this review helpful: 1) This is a PS1 game: I'm not saying this is a port of a PS1 game, this is literally a rip of the disc being run through a PS1 emulator, specifically PCSX-Reloaded, you'd think this would be a negative and it kind of is, but it's actually very convenient, the build of PCSX-R they use doesn't have a lot of features and I found it fairly lacking, but hey, you can easily use any other emulator if you want, the game files are right there in the folder! I used Duckstation, which is why it looks like I haven't played the game for more than a few minutes on steam, it allowed me to upscale the game, run it smoothly and I even used a widescreen hack because why not, it's super simple to do and I highly recommend it because that's the fun of PC gaming. That said, I do wish the product page was upfront about it, much of GOG's runs on Dosbox, emulation is legit, no need to hide it. 2) So what about the game itself? It's a somewhat neat take on the Star Fox formula, a rail shooter with occasional branching paths with a rather neat weapon system. You have a primary and secondary fire, but unlike other games, your secondary fire doesn't use a second button, instead it fires along slower intervals between your primary fire, which sounds weird, but it actually works, you can pick up items that permanently upgrade your primary or secondary fire, the more you pick up, the more deadly you become, infact the penalty for dying is to lose just one level of your primary/secondary fire which is good motivation to not die since you make the game a little bit harder each time you die. You also can pick up shield power ups which make you briefly invincible and are immensely helpful against bosses as well as bombs which clear the screen. The controls are otherwise very simple, you won't be doing any barrel rolls or flips, just maneuvering the chopper. The camera sticks a lot more closely to the ship and you have a much wider berth than you typically do in Star fox, so the camera can occasionally be an issue (only really while attempting to dodge and fire at the same time, which can be a slight problem in boss fights). Because the fire rate is dependent on how many times you push the fire button, for the love of all that is holy; USE A CONTROLLER WITH A TURBO FUNCTION OR THE KEYBOARD EQUIVALENT! The game is also dark, REALLY dark, as in; "Why is most of the screen black" dark so if you're emulator of choice is able, bump up the gamma slightly, otherwise I rather like the atmosphere of the game, just like Star Fox 64, everything is so low poly you are often trying to interpret what it is you are shooting at. I love it. The story is very arcade-y as in it's barely existent, Earth is being invaded by aliens, go kill em, that's it, it made me really appreciate how much life Star Fox's characters added to their games as this game could've used some banter. So, is the game worth it? Maybe? I'm enjoying it, but i'm someone who loves this style of rail shooter (which was sadly never a popular genre outside of Star Fox), this is a halfway decent one, as well as a stupidly obscure and rare PS1 game. I found the best way to play this is in short bursts. Also the music is awesome! PS Hey! Throwback Entertainment, you guys have a great number of awesome IPs in your vault, i'd be happy to even buy your roms if you straight up sold them, maybe invest some of the cash you make from em back into emulation development, add more legitimacy to the emulation scene! It would be awesome! Extreme G and Vexx are games that deserve more of a spotlight!

Note before We begin: While I may not have much on the PC Version of the game I have owned the original PS1 Version of the game since it's release and will be referring mostly to the PS1 Version for this review In addition at the time of this writing there is a bug causing the game to crash on the 2nd level without entering the password for it. The developers have confirmed this is being fixed. Viper...This could be one of the most obscure games in the Playstation's Library. If I could summarize Viper I would say it is Star Fox mixed with a Shoot 'em up. You play as Eddie Crane piloting his craft The Viper as he strikes out against aliens who have covertly invaded Earth...Thats it, Thats the story There is literally nothing else that is added onto the games story that was not covered in the instruction manual and the opening FMV cutscene. In this sense it's more like an old arcade shooter where you get the premise of the plot and are just let lose to shoot things down. And boy do you. Visually the game looks good for 1998, Everything is decently detailed, there's a lot of stuff flying about and moving and the design of most of the bosses are unique to each other. That said i need to give a warning, if you are sensitive to flashing lights do not play this game, This game is like if Michael Bay got his hands on a development kit, Everything explodes and it explodes with a bright flash of light, Combine that with a large number of enemies its a bad combination. The gameplay is your typical Shmup affair, You dodge projectiles, grab power ups to get stronger use invulnerability shields and smart bombs and wait till you reach the boss. There are two big issues with this however. First most is the controls, while movement is smooth and responsive the biggest problem that the game has (Which the Steam version also runs fowl of) is you need to tap the button to fire. When do you not have to fire? When you do a bonus stage, every other time you need to be shooting so forcing the player to tap for each individual shot is going to be torture on the thumb. It be nice if there was an auto-fire ability on the Steam version. The second issue is the enemies, due to the games somewhat lackluster draw distance enemies pop up very close to you and often times they are firing at the exact same time... and 70% of these bullets home in on you meaning you have a very hard time dodging them. This results in some unfair hits, that said barring the hard mode helicopter (Which turns like a dump truck in comparison and has armour weaker then paper) you'll find that there's enough energy drops or the levels are short enough that you can make it through. And even then if you die you go back to the last checkpoint with just your primary and secondary guns dropped down a level. The music is arguably the games biggest positive. It is fantastic made by 2DB who did music for Hogs of War (Another obscure PS1 game also on Steam), Loons and Super Monkey Ball Adventure, most of it is intense adrenaline pumping stuff, especially the first boss music....Which is reused...Quite a bit The game likes to use that boss theme which is weird given barring one or two levels each level has it's own unique musical theme but with the bosses there are only 3 themes. Speaking of levels the game is short, an average playthrough start to finish will take you around an hour an hour and a half and there's no saving, only passwords, arguably in 1998 when the game first came out this wouldn't be worth a full price but for the price they are asking? I'd say its worth it.