Karous Reader Review

The Dreamcast - a funny old beast, dead for years in Europe and the US thanks to Sony (sic) but up to this release was still going strong in Japan with a whole host of text heavy adventures, Idol games, some fine shoot�em ups in the form of Borderdown, Shikigami no Shiro II, Psyvariar II & Radilgy and some not so fine ones, Trizeal & Chaos Field bow your heads in shame. But finally like all good things this is it, the last commercial Dreamcast game now Sega has officially killed the GD-Rom.

Now for any of you that are reading this having already purchased Radilgy there is probably not much point reading much further. If you liked that, you will like this, because this is essentially Radilgy II. Virtually the same play mechanics are used including a load of Japanese messages as per Radilgy which pop up as you progress through the level. I have no idea what they are saying to me but are probably just telling me that something is approaching which needs to be shot.

The main difference is the visuals, where Radilgy stood proud with cute cell-shading, Karous stands with a darker cell-shaded palette giving the game a much murkier feel. When played in tate mode the game really does look quite stunning and just goes to show that the Dreamcast was/is capable of competing with its slayer, the PS2. The soundtrack is great too with slamming drum & bass amen breaks and techno wobbly�ness complimenting the dark feel of the game.

Gameplay wise, easy is too easy plus you only get the first 3 levels which you should breeze through. The challenge lies within the harder difficulties where the screen literally is blanketed in bullets and you must use the shield, sword and normal shot to negotiate your safest path. It�s these sorts of moments where you truly must stop thinking and indeed blinking to make a successful passage through the level. Loads of bonuses are released when the enemies meet their doom which help to level up your weapons and you will certainly need them in the later stages.

All in all this is not a particularly ground breaking shoot�em up, but one that is very competent at what it does and a nice final round off for the Dreamcast. R.I.P.