Iridion 3D
It's amazing how many people underestimated the GBA's 3D capabilities. Yes, it was designed primarily for 2D games and it does have a considerably better ability to work with simple, flat or Mode 7 graphics. Some people took the whole thing too far and decided that the GBA couldn't do 3D at all. Trust new developers Shin'en to prove them wrong...
About a year back, Shin'en announced their first game. It was to be an old-fashioned side-scrolling shoot-em-up game for the Game Boy Color in the style of classics such as Gradius and R-Type, but then it mysteriously disappeared. Recently, however, Iridion 3D triumphantly re-emerged, sporting dazzling 3D graphics of an undreamt of standard for a handheld console. The game is based around the classic tale of an alien invasion and a valiant hero being given the task of going to their home planet and putting a stop to it once and for all. The home planet in this case happens to be called "Iridion", forever dispelling the mystery as to where the game's name originated.
Although billed as completely 3D, Iridion is partly Mode 7, so as not to push the GBA's hardware too far. This is in no way a bad thing, however, as it allows for much more graphical detail than would be possible using just polygons. Your quest plays very similarly to Starfox. You fly in a forced-scrolling, behind-the-craft view shooting enemy ships as they fly past, and avoiding their laser fire. The game seems to feature a good variety of foes so far, ranging from the standard drone to an aircraft with three gigantic laser arms spread out in three different directions, and they all come in a number of different formations.
As with all scrolling shooters, there will be huge and incredibly tough bosses to deal with at the end of each level. You also get five extra weapons to use in dealing with them aside from your standard laser beam, although nothing is known of them yet. The game contains a total of eight levels - not very much from the sound of it - but Shin'en promise they'll be huge! If you want to know what the game sounds like, I can only recommend listening to this MP3, showing Shin'en's high intentions for the GBA's sound chip.
With stunningly beautiful graphics, great music and brilliant looking gameplay, Iridion 3D certainly seems very promising. Whether relative unknowns Shin'en can pull it off perfectly remains to be seen, but for 3D shooter fans, the only thing that could top this at the moment would be Nintendo announcing Starfox 2. Well, I can dream, can't I?
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