The world of Silhouette Mirage is a beautiful one. Graphics tarts will no doubt be turned off by the old school graphics, while fans of the genre should appreciate its nice artistry. Character animations are pretty smooth, and some of the bosses are just downright huge and awesome. A few bosses, namely Dynamis, will cause the game to slow down a bit because of the sheer amount of sprites on the screen at once. This isn’t that big an issue since it doesn’t happen all too often, and can easily be overlooked. Weapon effects are quite impressive as well for this type of game, while the backgrounds could have used a little more parallax. They tend to be a little flat, but suit their purpose nicely. Nice job Treasure.

If there was one word I could use to describe Silhouette Mirage, it would be charming. This game is filled with quirky humour and tons of personality. From the entertaining dialogue, to the characters themselves, SM creates a world all its own. While I won’t get into plot details, I can assure you that you’ll be chuckling to yourself on more than a few occassions. The character of the heroin, Shyna, never fails to entertain the player with her sense of humour and witty remarks. “Holy, titanic tuna!” quickly comes to mind. Trust me, it gets even weirder than that. Playing the game for the dialogue alone would be good in itself, but where SM really shines is in its innovative gameplay.

As Shyna, you have the attributes of both silhouette and mirage. Depending on which direction you’re facing, Shyna takes on one of the attributes. This is where the interesting play mechanics come in. In mirage form, you can only kill sihouettes and vice versa. It takes a few plays to get used to this system, but you’ll know it like the back of your hand after some extended playing time. In addition to this, you’re also equipped with a cash bash manuevre that lets you beat your enemies to a pulp while smashing valuable credits out of them. This is one of the most useful moves in the game, since you’ll want to have tons of credits if you’re looking to upgrade your weapons at the many shops located in each level. While this does slow the pace of the game down sometimes, it’s a necessary practice.

In the sound department, SM is very competent and serves up a lot of enjoyable tunes. However, the voices of the characters are the real stars here. Adding even more to their personalities, bosses and other important characters have been given a few voice samples. For instance, when I first heard Grigg shout, “let’s get in on baby!” in an Australian accent, I had to laugh. Don’t let this mislead you, the game is very much text based, but at certain moments such as boss battles, the characters will speak their mind. Even as enjoyable as these voice are to listen to, a few will grind on your nerves near the end of the game. After the sixth time you hear Megido yell “burning arrow!” you may find yourself to be a bit more than annoyed. Still, the voices really do enhance the experience and definitely add a lot of charm.

With so much good, there’s always bound to be a bit of bad. In this case, SM is just a little too short. Spanning 7 levels, veteran gamers will no doubt run through this one in a day or 2. This problem is not that big of a black mark, since the game features 2 very different endings, and you’ll want to replay the title numerous times to try out all of the various weapons and find all of the little secrets. In addition to the 2 endings, there are 5 different paths in the game which are left up to the player to discover. Once all 5 paths are unlocked, you’ll receive a very nice reward for all your troubles.

Another minor issue that I have with the game is the abundant load times. They aren’t unbearable mind you, and give you ample opportunity to save your progress, but they do slow the momentum of the game a little. Like I said though, they never get to the point of being a burden as much as they are small breaks in the action. Plus, the load screens are usually splattered with beautiful artwork and scenes from the game, adding greatly to the overall presentation.

Finally, for those of you who already own the Japanese version, you’ll still want to pick this one up. Working Designs have made the game harder by charging more for weapons and making enemies more damaging. The font in the game was also changed to be more computer like, and full dual shock support has also been added. A “status” option was added so that players could track their progress in the game, and dual memory card support has also been implented. The animations have also been reworked to look better than the Japanese release. Finally, a worthwhile Lunar 2 preview video has been added to the disc. Very nice indeed.