Jupiter Strike PS1 Review

Jupiter Strike is a 3D rail shooter game that was released for the PlayStation back in 1995, and it was developed by Taito. 

The game was also known as Zeitgeist in Japan, and this was one of the earliest PlayStation games to be released both in North America and Europe, that goes all the way back to the early launch days of the console. 

The game also got a subsequent release on the windows pc at that time and the game allows you to take control of a futuristic fighter jet that primarily only has two main weapons. 

You have a standard laser cannon where you can shoot various objects on the screen but you do have like homing kind of like missiles that you can target multiple elements or enemies on the screen and you can destroy them with a couple of hits. 

But unlike other shooters the game does have limitations in terms of not having any active power-ups that you can utilize or interact with or even collect as you play through the game you're literally just limited to the two weapons you have on your ship so that can somewhat limit the gameplay feel and it's one of the reasons why the game got very low reviews after the launch as magazines primarily slated the lack of power-ups in the game but primarily the likes of the limitations in terms of the controls. 

The game does play and feel even very similar to the likes of star fox 64 that was on the Nintendo 64 or even the likes of the star fox games on the super nintendo as even though you can move around in 3d space but you are limited to the screen that you're in. 

But the one thing to note really with the game is and another reason why it was criticized is mainly because of even though you have both an inside cockpit view and you have a third person view from outside of the ship the camera alone doesn't really give you any ideas of incoming objects or enemies so it's very very hard to see where objects are coming from on the screen. 

So you have to avoid various different obstacles like broken down space stations and old ships and debris between asteroids and rocks that are floating within the orbit whilst you also have to contend with various enemies kind of almost in like a space harrier style theme where you they come at you in different waves and you have to dispatch them and eliminate them as they come towards you and then when you get to certain points in the level generally you'll have to fight either an end level or mid-level boss and that's where the game can get quite tricky as they have multiple attack moves that they can utilize to their disposal but they can quickly destroy your ship if you get caught out. 

Now from playing the game myself it is simplistic in its nature in what it's trying to do and in some ways it's not too bad, it is a very overall simple game to play but it's not to say that it's easy because it's not. 

The further you get into the game you'll start to see how difficult it is in terms of the difficulty spike with the likes of the enemies shooting at you and the obstacles and even the bosses that you have to encounter as you're playing. 

And even for an early PS1 game the graphics are decent at best for the most part and considering it's an early 3D game, a lot can be said for the qualities of the graphics even though it didn't get particularly good highlights in the magazines either. 

But this game was released at a time when 3D games were relatively new and were very early in the whole development cycle so the likes of the PlayStation even other consoles like the sega saturn even windows pc were still getting familiar with 3d games so they hadn't really pushed the boundaries of the limits of what was available so this game was just on that kind of borderline of what was possible. 

But if you are into 3d styled space shooters or even 3d rail shooters, jupiter strike is one of those games that would be worth a look at just for a quick playthrough and even if you just want to experience a very very early game that was released on the ps1 that in itself would be a reason to go and check it out and i would love to hear what stories and what ideas you have about this game if you have played it yourself and if so what did you think about it? 

Do you enjoy these type of 3d rail shooters or maybe not so much? 

Be sure to share it in the comments below and be sure to keep watching to see more content on other games similar to Jupiter Strike, you can check out the blog where we will be diving into the iconic elements of these classic video games and as always keep those gaming memories alive...