Super Rebellion is the latest in our line of Gamerscore/Achievement-focused reviews. This one is a vertical shoot ‘em up, a.k.a. a SHMUP. The story premise is told over a series of still images at the start and in between each level. In the year 203X Earth has been invaded by a “malign race of Aliens”. Humanity has rebelled and “taken one of the largest cities in the world”, a few years after being enslaved by the Aliens. More words are typed, it makes little sense, and the translation is pretty terrible. You’ll choose between Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulties and a few different pilots who all seem to play the same.
The game’s controls consist of movent around with the left stick, right trigger is your main attack, and each of the face buttons is assigned to limited-use items you’ll pick up mid-mission. Graphically the game looks decent, utilizing a limited animation hand-painted 2D art style. Gameplay wise this is one basic-assed vertical scrolling shoot ‘em up. Enemies have set attack patterns and routinely come out of nowhere to hit with unfair attacks. You have a generous health bar and a limited number of revives per stage. Even on easy the game is unfair with how enemy and boss attacks work, and it is never fun. Most enemies are small, ugly spaceships. Bosses are normally large, with massive health pools and attacks that cover most of the screen. I was able to push through the entire game in about an hour and a half. Your ship feels slow on screen, the power-ups are rarely available, and your basic attack is a pea shooter.
The soundtrack is a mix of fun Kamen-Rider’ish tunes over top of forgettable but not annoying sound effects. There is no voice acting of any sort, and it was a stable experience outside of one freeze in between missions. There are 17 achievements to earn to get a full 1000 gamerscore and it shouldn’t take longer than two hours to get them all.
Wrapping things up
For $6 the ratio of time to earning all 17 achievements isn’t bad at all, and while it’s not fun per se it isn’t the pure torture that some recent titles I’ve reviewed have been.
Super Rebellion
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- Easy 1000 Gamerscore
- Fun Music
CONS
- Ugly Art Most of the Game
- Unfair Enemy Attacks
- Boring Weapons and Items
