Sine Mora – Geekscape Review
Whenever I pick up a game that features a sort of ship flying horizontally across the screen whilst shooting down enemies, my mind immediately goes to the Gradius series.
Upon seeing gameplay trailers, Sine Mora immediately piqued my interest. Releasing on the Xbox Live Arcade today, should you drop 1200 of your hard earned Microsoft Points or settle for an old favorite like Aegis Wing?
Sine Mora uses a blend of time travel, talking badass animals, and steampunk-inspired bosses. Visually, the Sine Mora looks fantastic. Not once did I get tired of looking at the assortment of backdrops and bosses the game had to offer. Character designs are also unique in that there are no actual Humans, but rather animals on a fictional warring planet.
To explain key plot points, Sine Mora does not employ the use of cutscenes, but instead displays a paragraph or three of English text while a voice actor reads it over in Japanese. This method is definitely a preference, sometimes shared by gamers. Nevertheless, depending on how invested you are in the story and characters, this screen of text can go away with the press of ‘A’.
Sine Mora suffers from a case of the enjoyment of killing things more than caring why you’re doing so in the first place. Being a game that’s not supposed to scare away “newcomers to the genre”, newcomer or not, it all depends on if you like to read between stages.
Combat in the game is unique in that each character/plane comes with a set of attacks and special ability. Some special abilities include speeding up, slowing down time, and a range of devastating attacks which can only be used after collecting the right orb. Players must defeat enemies before a timer located at the top of the screen runs out. Killing enemies will increase your time. While this can prove frustrating at times, it does provide the necessity to strategically utilize everything in your arsenal.
Upon destroying some enemies, you’ll see a variety of power-ups floating around. These power-ups extend your time to prevent you from dying, increasing your firepower, increasing the amount of special attacks, or sometimes provide extra shielding.
Sine Mora does not offer co-op or multiplayer of any kind. The game does include leaderboards for the three different modes, which are: Story, Score Attack, and Arcade. Each mode uses the same set of environments provided in the game’s story. Players can also practice against bosses you’ve already faced.
While I don’t think Sine Mora‘s story was as rewarding as its gameplay, some gamers may find this title to be worth the 1200 Microsoft Points. Then again, if you’re looking from some standard action reminiscent of my beloved Gradius, save your money and download Aegis Wing for free. Sine Mora is available today on the Xbox Live Marketplace.
