Although verticle shooters may have been all the rage around the time of Gradius and even Defender, they have become an almost non-existant genre since the dawn of true 3D gaming and the fall of the arcade. Psyvariar Complete reminds me why I love vertical shooters so much, while being very true to the roots of vertical shooters, it’s innovative gameplay places more of an emphasis on how you play rather than completing the game, but let’s break down some of the details.

Psyvariar Complete Edition is actually a two game compilation, consisting of Psyvariar Medium Unit, and a significantly updated version titled “Psyvariar Revision”. The gameplay hinges around the “Buzz” feature, a unique gameplay element that requires the player to come in almost near contact with an enemies bullet in order to level up. Every time you level up you gain nearly a half a second or so of invulnerability which enables you to get even closer to bullet patterns making it possible to have massive level chains. The level up feature infact is truly the crux of the gameplay, not only does it determine what levels you play, but at certain level thresholds your ship itself “upgrades” itself, changing in both appearance and firepower.

Revision however is truly the shining star of the two pack, it offers up enough core changes to the gameplay mechanic that it has the most replay value. The most major difference between the two is that in Revision you are able to buzz off from the same bullet multiple times (Medium Unit only allows each bullet to be buzzed once), consequently, The level structure is also different, at the end of each stage you choose your next destination, the destinations available are dependant entirely on what level you reached by the end of the stage. The stages are gauged in levels from Easy, Normal, and to Hard, the hard levels however offer the best oportunities to gain levels and not reaching a certain level threshold by the end of the stage will cause you to end up with a gameover.

The controls in Psyvariar complete are spot on, you even have a button for easy “rolling”, allowing you to spin your ship just by holding down the R1 button instead of waggling the left analog stick repeatedly. The graphics in Revision tend to feel more “utilitarian” than truly spectacular, they do however get the job done.

Bottom Line:

Graphics: They get the job done, being able to change the screen ratios is a big plus.

Gameplay: Some of the more dificult levels are actually rather intense, The Buzz gameplay mechanic absolutely Makes this game.

Sound: No real memorable sounds, although after long plays I found myself getting excited every time I heard “Warning”.

Import Friendliness: This is about as import friendly as it gets, almost all menus, the option screen and HUD elements are in complete English.

Overall: [xrr rating=4/5]

It’s worth mentioning that there is one screen on Revision that does contain Japanese text, besides that it’s all Anglo-Saxon goodness.