6.2? Come on GameSpot, that's weak. It's got a lot of cool power ups, and after playing Mega man 9, it's not THAT
Simple to play but hard to master top down shooters that Game Spot doesn't think is good enough for them.
I personally haven't played any other of the Star Soldier games, but from what I here, this is one of the best, if not THE best in the series.
The concept is simple: Shoot down the bad guys before they shoot you to rack up the points, while collecting power ups to get out of sticky situations, and eventually fight and destroy the boss at the end of each level.
There's also 2 and 5 minute modes, which are good for starters and people who like to compete for high scores (But you do get points in the single player as well for each enemy you kill).
One of the most important parts of any shoot-em-up, is power-ups:
In the 5 minute mode, you only get one power up (The standard shot which eventually turns into a multi-directional scatter shot).
In single player however, there's a cool bubble thingy which turns into a Contra style spread gun, a flame thrower which is self explanatory and can be compared to the flame thrower from Contra 3, which eventually turns into a duel flame thrower that waves across the screen, the one from the 2 and 5 minute modes is also in single player, and finally a electric lazer thing that's like the flame thrower only it's more stiff and grows into a 3 way long range zapper apposed to a duel waving one. There's also homing missiles and a rotating shield.
And each power up is equally as useful as the last.
The graphics are nice and colorful, although they aren't too impressive, and there's always tons of enemies to make sure you're never bored, with almost no lag at all.
Final good comment: The power ups are very balanced and it's highly addictive.
Final bad comment: Yeah yeah yeah, the game's hard. But so are other great games like Mega Man and Ninja Gaiden. And there's not really any story (But what did you expect).
In a nutshell: It's a must have for SHMUP fans. It has lots of great flashy and useful at the same time power ups, the difficulty changes a very short game, to one that will last you much longer than it would being easy. I give Super Star Soldier a 9 out of 10, 4 stars, or 90 out of 100.