Sine Mora EX is a shoot ‘em up game that was originally released in the generation prior. This release included some touch ups to the graphics, English voiceovers and additional content. Given the genre, it is not for everyone, but there’s just something simply satisfying with shooting everything up on the screen. It’s a sidescrolling shoot ‘em up, where enemies come in from the sides, and your ship can generally move in any direction while the level is automatically scrolling.
You control an airplane, and your primary weapon shoots bullets with unlimited ammo. You can either mash the button or hold it down for rapid fire (for advanced players, mashing it is faster). Perhaps a unique part of this is that it is rendered in 3D, so it gives it a unique look. There is a secondary weapon that differs depending on the plane / character you’re playing as, and it is usually much stronger and useful to clear out enemies or wipe out a section of the boss’s health. You’ll have limited ammo for this.
As you are destroying enemies, they might drop pickups. These include time extensions, weapon upgrades, ammo for the secondary weapon, shields, or the ability to slow down time. Yes, you can slow down time which can help beginners dodge the crazy bullet hell scenarios. The plane doesn’t really have a health bar, rather it is tied to the timer. Each level has the timer counting down which you primarily extend via defeating enemies and sometimes getting a pickup. Taking damage will decrease the timer.
The game looks and feels great, and the controls feel natural. Each of the stages are structured in a similar way where you defeat normal enemies, before facing against a boss. The bosses have fantastic designs and are a highlight of the game. The difficulty in Normal mode is manageable for beginners but there are some cheap sections. Instant kill sections are extremely frustrating, and you don’t know it is instant death until you hit it. Sometimes there are so many things happening onscreen that you don’t even know what happened. Each section has a checkpoint, and depending on the difficulty you selected, you can retry the checkpoint several times before you must restart the level. Dying during a boss battle will send you right back at the beginning though.
On Normal, the timer isn’t too bad, and you get to carry your weapon upgrades, which will either increase the rate of fire or the spread of the bullets, from stage to stage… until you run out of continues. Then you’re out of luck and must start the stage from the lowest weapon level, which can be a challenge to manage both the timer and to level up the weapons again; this can depend on your luck. At the end of each stage, you’ll get a score based on your performance.
Most of the bosses are cool to play against, although definitely a few where they are designed with frustration and deaths in mind. You’ll have to retry those a lot, and it’s annoying when they fire away a ton of weapons and you’ll have to rely on trial and error. That said, when you try and practice enough times, and get through it, there is a sense of satisfaction there. That’s the thing, this game is designed for repeated plays, so while there’s not that much content, you can still get a lot out of it.
The unique thing is that this is a shoot ‘em up with a story. The story is told via a combination of text, and some light visuals. It sets up the scene with a father trying to take revenge on the one who killed his son in the war, and an alternate viewpoint taking place at the same time where the last survivors of the Enkie race is fighting to destroy the Empire. It’s serves more as an excuse to connect the stages together, but it can be quite interesting… if it was told in a better and more coherent way. There are a lot of good concepts but ultimately can be confusing to digest. The story isn’t long, since it’s comprised of seven stages, and on Normal difficulty, it will take around two to three hours to complete.
That’s only the start though since the game has a few other modes for you to explore. The first is playing through the story again in Challenge difficulty will unlock an alternate ending. Then there are Arcade, Score and Boss modes, which are all self-explanatory. There are achievements within the game itself, where completing them will raise your rank, although the only benefit from that is unlocking a Trophy.
Overall, Sine Mora EX is a good shoot ‘em up and is not a bad entry to the genre for beginnings. Its presentation is beautiful, and it plays well. The stages are fun, although the content is low if you’re looking for some meatier, as the game is designed more for repeated playthroughs to improve your skills, rather than present something new all the time. For its low price though, that’s fine.
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