Sousui

Sousui, or as I like to call it, Asteroids with Attitude, is a top-down space shooter wherein you shoot things in space.  Nuff said.  Sometimes you're escorting colonists to gates while shooting things in space, sometimes you're defending a base while shooting things in space, and sometimes you're just plain shooting things in space.

So, how fun is it to shoot things in space in Sousui?  Well, could be worse.  The sound effects are satisfying and all the weapons are very well designed and fun to use, but the enemies are just way too tough.  I don't care that the big battle cruisers take a long time to kill, but even the little grunts that may as well have a big neon sign above them that says "we die with one hit," actually take several hits to kill.

Even though the weapons are varied and cool looking, they're still not going to be as fun as they could be if killing even the smallest baddies weren't a chore.  There's a reason the expert mode in Starfox 64 only makes you more vulnerable rather than making the enemies more durable.  The former increases challenge and demands better performance on the player's part, whereas the latter just adds another layer of tedium onto the experience.

Apart from that, there are some cool little details that make the experience more enjoyable than your typical Asteroids wannabe.  first off, the graphics, music, and voice acting (voice acting?), yes, voice acting, are all well grounded in the second decade of the 21st century (but Sousui came out in 2008! Shut up, voice in my head...ahem). Also, the first level ends not with a proclamation of your awesomeness and victory, but with your enemy utterly destroying your entire base with one powerful attack.  This adds a whole new level of threat to the experience in a way not a lot of shoot 'em ups can claim to.  I don't know whether this or anything like it happens again, because I only played the first two levels.

But why did you stop after the second level, Dean?  I'm glad you asked.  Frankly, I thought the game had overstayed its welcome.  As I said before, killing enemies isn't incredibly fun, and the game also just throws way too many of them at you.  Because of this, I never really felt like I was progressing.  The scenery never changed, I rarely got any feedback from the high-pitched "Daniel Floyd in Extra Credits" voice over man, and the enemies just kept on coming.  It felt like I was stuck in one particularly long segment of the game.

I was so tired of picking away at enemies with my vastly inferior weaponry after the second level that I just decided to quit.  Maybe the game gets better later, but I couldn't tell ya.  That's all I got for now.  Until next time, stay pewpewin.

Links
So Sweet: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=1422