Under Defeat Review

By Simon Parkin Published 25 May, 2006

No, you're not dreaming.

Version tested: Dreamcast

If we had a new Dreamcast game for every time someone said, "That was definitely the last new Dreamcast game," we'd pretty much be in the situation we are now. Hrm. Anyway, Under Defeat is Japanese shoot-'em-up developer G.Rev's latest attempt at a eulogy for Dreamcast, a system still doggedly scratching at the inside of its coffin - at least in native Japan - five years and two months after Sega pulled the plug.

Despite the intervening years, the 98 vintage Dreamcast is still technically a current-gen machine. Indeed, as Under Defeat's helicopter gunship lurches across grey skies, blades nicking at swaying tree tops, a trail of black billowing callcards marking where each of your catastrophic explosions wrenched enemy gunship pilots into airborne oblivion, it's every inch pretty and PS2 ­- an enticing postcard from an alternative present where Sega hardware still matters.

Of course, it doesn't still matter one bit and to the vast majority of gaming's onward-marching consumers, Under Defeat is of no consequence - something hardly helped by its comprehensive lack of innovation or evolution. As traditional an expression of videogame's eldest genre as we've seen this century, Under Defeat dodges all its rivals' ideas with startling single-mindedness: no bullet hell (a la Ibara), no scrape bonus (Psyvariar), no learnable attack patterns (Gradius V), no augmentable main weapon (Radiant Silvergun), no 360-degree craft control (Zero Gunner 2), no delicately balanced multiplier (Radirgy) and all '80s muddy tanks, camouflage paint and white explosion.

'Under Defeat' Screenshot 1

Sound design has been beautifully handled with sirens, radio chatter and ambient war noise floating just above the kitsch J-Shmup midi synth rock.

Your main rail gun maintains the same pitch and power from start to finish as enemies aim straight for you. Four different option ships that can be deployed for a few seconds at a time to provide the only additional firepower and choice at your disposal. Each mixes up gameplay enjoyably and is different enough from the next to provoke experimentation from the player. The Vulcan cannon, for example, spits shots at a fast rate while the Rocket punches fire into the hull of a battle ship with its single battering shot. Score attack players are encouraged to pick up a hefty bonus by only collecting options of the same type.

Customisability outside of this is limited to two simple control styles switching how pressing left and right pivots your ship on its axis. The control methods are arguably split for offensive or defensive play but, as with FPS aiming controls, you'll likely just settle into the one that feels most natural to you and get on with it.

Your helicopter also comes with equipped with a couple of smart bombs of yore to wipe the screen clean of enemies and bullets when life is one pixel too far to the left of death. This showboats the real wonder of Under Defeat. It's looks have been lovingly chiselled from the unlockable drawing board sketches and each explosion sets off chains of background touches that will delight and excite both the Dreamcast apologist and player seeking an eye-candy rush.

Predictably for a conversion of a Japanese-only Naomi arcade title from such a small indie-studio, the Dreamcast bonuses are thin on the code. Each hour you play releases an extra credit until freeplay is eventually and begrudgingly wrestled from G.Rev's RSI-riddled fingers. There's a ton of artwork to be won for those excited by such trivia but, thankfully, the weight of gameplay and sprawling levels that take dedication and learning to inch forward through, provide the strongest argument for replay.

'Under Defeat' Screenshot 2

G.Rev is the company behind 2003's horizontal shumup Border Down and the forthcoming Senko No Ronde Rev.X for Xbox 360.

There is a little slowdown, particularly before your death (although perhaps that is intentionally stylistic), but the main problem here is one of merged technology. The game comes with both vertical and horizontal view mode options (in the arcade Under Defeat plays out on a vertically orientated monitor) but for everyone that doesn't have a TV they're willing to turn on its side, horizontal mode is the only meaningful choice here. Playing on a widescreen television in horizontal mode (with the obligatory black sidebars) squashes your view on the action considerably - a problem exacerbated by the 45-degree down-view on the action. For many Tate-orientated Shmups this isn't a problem but we had some difficulty seeing exactly what we were doing when things got heated.

That alternative present mentioned earlier - the one where Dreamcast still matters - plays host to a bristling underground fan scene. This hotchpotch culture of dewy-eyed geeks turns weak-kneed at the faintest opening strains of each new Dreamcast swansong rising from their import store's pre-order php. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that: the Shmup is the most painfully malnourished of gaming's orthodox genres and so fans take what they can. But it's important to realise that the scarcity of product and competition can cause both Dreamcast believers and Shmup aficionados to overstate the quality case; after all, complaining over scraps thrown from publishers' tables might just lead to plain starvation.

As a result Under Defeat's underground Internet love-in is undeniably overstated at grass roots. Inarguably, what Under Defeat does, it does very well. The execution is perfectly pitched and it clearly ticks each and every box the developers drew up on the ideas table. But it's hard to shake the feeling that this is '80s gaming dressed in '00s visuals running on '90s hardware. The gameplay is sweet and eloquent but, underneath it also tired and relentlessly derivative. Whether that annoys you or not depends on whether you were looking simply some well-made twitch fun or a glorious resurrection.

7 / 10

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Picture of Simon.

About Simon Parkin

Simon Parkin is an author and journalist on video games. A regular contributor to Eurogamer since 2005, his work has also appeared in Edge, The Telegraph, Gamasutra and Boing Boing.

Read more articles from Simon by visiting the Simon Parkin archive page.

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Comments (37) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • blender #1 6 years ago

    bet all dc

  • Rambaldi #2 6 years ago

    There's something quite profound about reading a review for a new DC game amidst the storm of next-gen hyperbole.

  • AOFanboi #3 6 years ago

    The Dreamcast was great, but had a lot of faults. The liquid cooling kept the machine quiet, but that didn't help much when the GD-ROM drive made so much noise. The system clock was read from the Visual Memory Unit (an expensive memory card with display and basic controls for mini-games), which meant it reset whenever the batteries in the memory card (!!) died out. The half-assed modem-based online functionality wasn't used by enough games to make it worthwhile - even if you did leive in a coutry which had a number the DC could call. And I assume it was expensive (comparatively) to make the custom GD-ROM discs compared to the PS1's CD-ROM and PS2's DVD.

    The PS2's advantages were that it could play PS1 games, DVDs, and the LIE that it could render Toy Story quality games in real time. The DC played CDs though.

    But it's nice to see the DC (and the Neo-Geo) still got enough fans that it can have games made for it still.

  • blender #4 6 years ago

    recently found out that the dc had downloadable megadrive games in japan

  • Xerx3s #5 6 years ago

    WTF?! Did i just read DC? 0_o

    Looks quite good actually.

  • Dizzy #6 6 years ago

    You can still buy DC stuff in Japan and most Asian countries.
    Edited by 1 at 25/05/06 @ 08:45

  • I_Have_The_Power #7 6 years ago

    "Visual Memory Unit (an expensive memory card with display and basic controls for mini-games), which meant it reset whenever the batteries in the memory card (!!) died out"

    actually as long as you kept the VMU in the pad, it would still work long after the batteries had died, keeping its clock settings and everything.

    after all, i still use mine, i bought it on EU DC launch, and i've never replaced the batteries in it.

    So just never, ever remove it from its joypad tomb. :)

  • Wrestlevania #8 6 years ago

    I've been playing Under Defeat - on and off - for about a month now, and it looks stunning. It also plays brilliantly.

    I think levelling criticism at the supposed 80's feel of the game is unfair; this is a pure bred shooter, it contains not a gram of unnecessary fat, but is completely laden with all the visual candy you'd expect from a current home console. The combat system is also very much as it should be: you didn't move fast enough, so you loose a life and start at the beginning of the stage again--none of this checkpoint nonsense.

    Yes, I suppose this is pretty hardcore--both from a fanbase point of view as well as a gameplay perspective. It's brutal, unforgiving and utterly merciless. And I love it. It's actually quite refreshing to play such an out-and-out arcade game on a home system. Maybe the reason it feels dated, Simon, is because arcade gaming has spiralled out of control - into benign and titular novelty controllers (ironically enough) - and out of many a gamer's consciousness?

    If you crave pure arcade gaming, you cannot go wrong with picking up a Dreamcast off eBay for £20 secondhand. And, swansong or not, Under Defeat is a tremendous game that any Shoot 'Em Up fan should at least try once (especially if you were infatuated with Ikaruga).

  • Genji #9 6 years ago

    YES. DREAMCAST LIIIIIIVES!

  • Mr_Bogus #10 6 years ago

    Look for Utopia boot cd (free download, about 2MB) which lets you play Jap/US games on a EUR dreamcast. I use it for Ikaruga and a couple of US games i have.

    Here's to a Radirgy review next *drinks to the DC living on*

  • Eighthours #11 6 years ago

    Sony are teh d00med! ;)

  • blender #12 6 years ago

    the wii can play dreamcast games (nintendo's final secret!)

  • Skooch #13 6 years ago

    "If we had a new Dreamcast game for every time someone said, "That was definitely the last new Dreamcast game," we'd pretty much be in the situation we are now."

    Effing brilliant opening line to an article............

    /chuckles

  • captain-future #14 6 years ago

    Dreamcast IS *ALIVE*. excellent.

  • Mr_Brown #15 6 years ago

    DC rules...its still got it!

  • symmetry #16 6 years ago

    Don't have a Dreamcast, never had one. Had to read the whole review though as a homage to that great machine. Sounds pretty cool actually, any chance of getting it on Live? :)

  • space_ace #17 6 years ago

    \o/

  • Nithron #18 6 years ago

    "when life is one pixel too far to the left of death"
    Best... Line... EVAR.

    Well, from a review, anyway. Actually, that whole review was really well-written; congrats.

    And on the matter about import DC titles - I was under the impression that you can play any region DC game on any region DC? The DC didn't even have copy protection, hence the still pretty active homebrew scene for it.

    My shop-bought PAL DC runs copied NTSC games, i know that much.
    (NOT advocating piracy here - But these days, the only practical way to get some games for DC is to copy them. Bah...)

  • Deadlight #19 6 years ago

    "The Dreamcast was great, but had a lot of faults. The liquid cooling kept the machine quiet, but that didn't help much when the GD-ROM drive made so much noise. The system clock was read from the Visual Memory Unit (an expensive memory card with display and basic controls for mini-games), which meant it reset whenever the batteries in the memory card (!!) died out. The half-assed modem-based online functionality wasn't used by enough games to make it worthwhile - even if you did leive in a coutry which had a number the DC could call. And I assume it was expensive (comparatively) to make the custom GD-ROM discs compared to the PS1's CD-ROM and PS2's DVD."

    Cheif amongst the faults with the DC was the reset problem. I could never manage to find a DC which wouldn't randomly reset :(

    I know how to fix the problem now but it's a bit late!

  • PlugMonkey #20 6 years ago

    The system clock was read from the Visual Memory Unit (an expensive memory card with display and basic controls for mini-games), which meant it reset whenever the batteries in the memory card (!!) died out.

    I find it hard to criticise the DC for this, when neither generation of Xbox has managed to find room for a battery in either the memory card or anywhere else.

  • Cosmopolitan #21 6 years ago

    The VMU was a great feat for me. Can't forget the Pinta Quest minigame - a part of the excellent Skies of Arcadia JRPG, which *actually* made sense within the whole game. Never seen anything like that in today's consoles. Real connectivity FTW.

  • Smugglarn #22 6 years ago

    Just realised - EG doesn't have a DC section!

    For shame! ;)

  • PearOfAnguish #23 6 years ago

    Yeah, with no DC section where will this review go when it's moved off the front page?

  • king_skins #24 6 years ago

    @ Deadlight:

    how do you fix the random resetting? mine keeps doing this!! really annoying, would love a game of samba de amigo again :)
    Edited by 2 at 25/05/06 @ 10:52

  • Retroid #25 6 years ago

    The DC does have region and copy protection, it's just that Sega also provided the ability of booting from a specially contructed CD - the idea being game demos / karaoke stuff could be included on CD singles and the like. It's just that the hackers found out how to make those bootable CDs themselves and squeeze game data onto them :s

  • Retroid #26 6 years ago

    http:/ /www.tachikoma.co.uk/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_o p=view_page&PAGE_id=37&MMN_position=38:9

    ^^ That looks like it could help.

    I've never had this problem myself with any of my three DCs so I can't vouch for it

  • Psi #27 6 years ago

    omg zombie console!! but is the game better than strikers 1945?

    i was such a shootemup fan, such a shame that with new game types we don't get old school games like this as much.

  • king_skins #28 6 years ago

    Thank you Retroid! Very much appreciated, I will try this on the weekend.

  • statix101 #29 6 years ago

    For those that dont have a DC, this works perfectly on the DC emulator Chankast..cough,cough....

  • DDevil #30 6 years ago

    The fix provided for the random resetting is very easy. I've managed it on mine and I've not had a random reset since. It was about a year ago that I did this now. If you're unsure, just take your time and you'll be fine I'm sure.

  • bloodflowers #31 6 years ago

    Psi: there's still a relatively healthy supply of shooters in Japan, most are on the PS2. Nothing like the number we used to see in the good old days, but what comes out is generally top quality. Western gamers seem to dismiss them as too old, while getting their latest fix of Madden, or claiming things are a revolution in gaming just because the textures have more details in their latest 3d walkaround. Sad muppets. One of the very best shooters in recent memory did actually get a release in Europe - Gradius V. Hands up who bought it? Rest of you, be ashamed.
    Edited by 1 at 25/05/06 @ 12:05

  • 3william56 #32 6 years ago

    Grandpa, what's a dweemcrast?

  • Daikon #33 6 years ago

    Hurrah!

  • wolfen #34 6 years ago

    Yeah, with no DC section where will this review go when it's moved off the front page?

    I vote a retro category, and some "Sensible vs KickOff" articles to get it going.

  • ynohtna #35 6 years ago

    "no augmentable main weapon (Radiant Silvergun)"

    Have you actually played Radiant Silvergun, Simon? "Augmentable main weapon" is not how I'd describe RS's firepower mechanics.
    Edited by 1 at 29/05/06 @ 14:27

  • goz #36 6 years ago

    Then what would you call a weapon system in which each weapon is made more powerful based on the frequency with which it is used and the amount of points you score with it? I'd say it's pretty much the most customisable and augmentable weapon system ever created.

    In fact, as the weapon augmentation doesn't regress with the loss of a player life and is permanent it fits the definition far closer than any other Shmup you could mention that I know of – which is why I used it as the defining example.

  • ynohtna #37 6 years ago

    I'd describe it something like "wide choice of weapons augmentable through usage."

    As presently put, it sounds as if only the primary weapon is upgradable (via unspecified means) which barely differentiates RS from nearly every shmup possessing powerups when I'm sure you'd agree its way more innovative than that.
    Edited by 1 at 02/06/06 @ 13:32

  • N.A.T.O #38 3 years ago

    Shit! I'm three years late!

    Just bought this bad boy off ebay...