Side scrolling shooters, on any system, are fewer and far between these days, so when a high-quality title comes along it must be given notice, and Einhänder is one of these titles. With beautifully rendered polygons, heaping handfuls of action, and a quality soundtrack, action fans have found a hero on the Playstation. Einhänder is classic side-scrolling at its finest. You pilot a spaceship through several levels, collect weapons, defeat huge bosses, and defeat wave after wave of enemies bent on your destruction. The gameplay is nothing we haven't seen before (shoot, dodge, repeat) but the beautiful graphics and unique features of Einhänder make it stand apart from the crowd. Selecting from one of three ships, each with varying attributes and weapon loadouts, players can unleash destruction through standard laser weapons, grenade launchers, W.A.S.P. homing missiles, and countless other different weapons which you can pick up off of destroyed enemies (always just when you need a big gun, because enemies come in droves). Controlling your weapons is a breeze as well, with on-the-fly alternating between various gunpods in order to best fight your current enemy. Einhänder does fall in a few places however. Like nearly all side-scrolling shooters, depth is not a quality to be found here. The game itself is relatively short, and for those outside the die-hard audience, a rental will likely be all you need to see everything there is to experience. In addition, Einhänder commits a grave misdeed with the lack of a two-player option. All told, I had a blast with Einhänder and it is the best side-scroller to come out for the Playstation since The Raiden Project, (which came out around system launch). If you're looking for plenty of thumb-blistering, trigger-happy fun, Einhänder fits the bill nicely.
Einhander (there are 2 dots horizontally placed above the “a”) for the Play Station can be called an “experiment” by Square; it was released in 1997 in Japan and 1998 in North America. As it was coming from Square (it wa... Read Full Review
Einhänder was released nearly a decade ago, but it remains one of the most unique and great games to ever come from Squaresoft. This 3D scrolling shooter was perhaps one of the most unique (And perhaps still is) games of... Read Full Review
