Graphics:
The graphics in Sine Mora Ex are simply beautiful. A 2D game with 3D elements, the colors pop on the screen and the scenery drawsGraphics:
The graphics in Sine Mora Ex are simply beautiful. A 2D game with 3D elements, the colors pop on the screen and the scenery draws you in to the game. From the clouds in the sky to the oceans below, each element in the game is highly detailed and a wonder to see.
Sound:
The sounds in Sine Mora Ex complement the graphics perfectly. With many different enemy ships, types of ammo and levels, each sound can be differentiated on the screen. This is impressive considering the fast pace of the game and amount of enemies that are attacking constantly. The music, composed by Akira Yamaoka, Sound Director of Silent Hill and Shadows of the Damned, is amazing and a blast to listen to. The voice acting is great and provides a movie like feel to the characters.
Cinematics:
Sine Mora Ex’s cinematics are top notch. Level intros have a neat conversion between 2d and 3d which is very smooth and eye catching. Boss intros have a great anime feel and are just as entertaining as fighting the boss itself.
Content:
Sine Mora Ex has great replay value by providing 5 game modes and 7 levels of gameplay.
Story Mode is more open to novice players or players who are new to the genre and the story line is intriguing.
Arcade Mode steps up the difficulty and removes the story elements of the game. I found this mode is much faster paced and the enemies were much less forgiving.
Score Attack mode allows you to go back through completed stages to gain your best score. Again, in Score Attack mode the game ramps up the difficulty only allowing you to choose Hard or Insane difficulties…this mode doesn’t mess around.
In Challenge Mode, you play party game like events that are so difficult I couldn’t complete the first one…so be ready to die, again…and again.
The last mode, Versus, you can play against your friends locally on the same machine. You can also team up with a friend to Co-Op the story mode part of the game.
Unfortunately there are no Online versus modes, which was disappointing.
Controls:
Sine Mora Ex is smooth as butter when it comes to the controls. Maneuvering the ship is very satisfying and responds perfectly to button presses. The controls are perfect for the fast pace of this game and you will only have yourself to blame for the many deaths that will occur. With the time slow down feature you will be doing your best matrix in a plane impression with ease. Another cool control feature is the cut scene fast forward button, allowing you to fast forward any cut scenes you have already seen or if you are just in a hurry to keep fighting.
Gameplay:
Sine Mora Ex gameplay ramps up the side scrolling shooter genre with cinematic boss battles and many power ups that enhance your weaponry. Featuring boss designs by Mahiro Maeda, one of the most prominent Japanese anime creators, Sine More Ex’s boss battles have the best animation of just about any game out there. With 2 boss battles per stage, the game brings a frequent challenge that won’t leave you disappointed and you won’t mind fighting again when you inevitably die.
Power ups appear frequently after killing enemies and collecting tokens will give you upgrades as you go along. The cool thing about the weapon upgrade system is that after collecting 10 weapon upgrade tokens the upgrade becomes permanent. However, before you get 10 tokens you need, enemy hits will cause the tokens to float out on to the screen but you can collect them again before they disappear, a very cool gameplay feature saving you a little frustration.
Instead of a health bar, Sine Mora Ex is all based on time. If your timer ever runs out, your ship explodes and it’s game over. To gain more time, each standard enemy kill adds 2 seconds to the clock. Killing weapons off of a boss provides up to 12 seconds to the timer. Timer upgrade tokens also appear after killing some enemies and will add 5 seconds to the timer. The downside is that each time your ship is hit you lose time, making your dodge skill very important to your survival. When you die, you get continues that lets you start from the last place you died. Each mode only gives you so many continues and each one used penalizes your final grade.
After completing each level, the game grades you based on score, hit ratio, penalties and continues used. After defeating a level, the game unlocks the boss fights to fight in a Boss Training mode and the level is unlocked to select at the beginning of story mode or score attack mode.
Summary:
Sine Mora Ex is a unique side scrolling shooter with 2D and 3D elements working in harmony. With beautiful graphics, many game modes and fun controls, Sine Mora Ex is a must play for any gamer looking for a challenge and fun gameplay. The only real complaint I have is the absence of an online mode but that doesn’t keep this game from being a blast to play. I score this game a 9 out of 10.… Expand
