Prismatic Solid
A forced rail shooter with simple and stylish graphic spaces consistent of primitive and solid figures. Numerous amount of particles and tremendous amount of projectiles will thrill you.—heloli, the description of Prismatic Solid
Prismatic Solid is an indie vertically-scrolling Shoot'Em Up for the Xbox 360 from the indie developer of heloli. It was developed by Hayashi Yoichi (under the handle of "YO1 KOMORI"), a former Sqaresoft programmer who also worked on Bushido Blade in 1997 and a little-known tube shooter titled iS - internal section for the original PlayStation back in 1999. Prismatic Solid shares similar aesthetics to iS - internal section as it features copious amounts of Sinister Geometry. The music for the game is also composed by Shinji Hosoe and Ayako Saso.
In Prismatic Solid, you take control of a green crystalline ship sporting a red, blue, and yellow options that offers your ship six different weapon formations. The gameplay itself is in the old-school style of Bullet Hell Shoot 'em Ups where you must play through the game start to finish, shoot down anything that isn't you, and collect several Power-Ups and a few 1-Ups along the way. Thankfully some of the game's Fake Difficulty has been averted by ship's options, which may shield your ship from certain doom, but remains challenging throughout the game. There's also Stars to earn along the way for performing certain feats, such as fully powering-up your ship or clearing a stage without getting hit.
The was game released under the Indie section of the Xbox Live Marketplace on June 3, 2010 for the very affordable price of 80 Microsoft Points[1], with an original soundtrack later released at the 78th summer Comiket on August 14, 2010.
- Abnormal Ammo, Enemy Summoner: One of the enemies of Stage 4 spews those atomic atoms-esque enemies at you.
- Attack Drone: The three options that float around your ship can sprout "arms" to extend their ability to shield your ship oncoming fire and hurt enemies if they come into contact with them.
- Bullet Hell: Although certain bullet patterns are too dense to even dodge, and if it weren't the the options shielding your ship, this game would of been impossibly hard.
- Beam Spam, Frickin' Laser Beams: Stage 4's boss, especially in higher loops.
- Color Coded for Your Convenience: Take a good look at the Homing formation.[2]
- The star-like prism power-ups are also color-coded to match with the ship's options.
- Cosmetic Award: In the form of "Stars" that act as Playstation Network-esque trophies.
- Cool Ship: Your green crystaline ship is armed with six different weapons formations and your ships' options can sprout "arms" will save you from enemy fire.
- Dual Boss: Stages 1 and 4 have you fighting against two bosses at once during the second loop, and this gets worse with each progressing loop.
- Every Ten Thousand Points: Extends are earned after reaching a certain point criteria, and it changes with each loop of the game.
- Harder Than Hard: Each loop of the game becomes progressively harder than the last.
- Homing Projectile: The "Homing" formation. Stage 4's boss also uses these.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The key feature of your options once they've been powered-up.
- Shields Are Useless: In the case of facing a barrage of bullet with pitifully-leveled options, they won't be much of use to you.
- Meaningful Name: The title of Prismatic Solid itself refers to the fact that the artistic aesthetics of the entire game is based around geometric figures.
- New Game+: You can start a new game with your options already powered-up from the previous loop, although the game will also become harder.
- Nintendo Hard: The game becomes brutally hard by the time you get to the third loop and beyond.
- Scoring Points
- Scenery Porn: This game really shows what the XNA engine is capable of, ranging from its dazzling particle effects to its simple yet stylish aesthetics, and the game shows no sign of slowdown at all.
- Scenery Gorn: The water in Stage 2 during "even" numbered loops is turned red and looks suspiciously like blood.
- Secret Level, Brutal Bonus Level: Stage 6 can only be accessed by finding the hidden green star item in Stage 5. It's around the large turnstile near the end of the stage.
- Shoot'Em Up
- Sinister Geometry: This whole game is all about killer geometric figures.
- Smart Bomb: And in three different flavors.
- The X button fires an X-like rays of lasers sweeping across the screen, the Y button clears the screen with a triangular blast, and the B button unleashes a circular blast to rid the screen of bullets.
- Suspicious Videogame Generosity: Just before the final boss fight with the Polyhedron in Stage 5, there are TONS of Power Ups waiting to collected inside the boxes they are in.
- Spread Shot: The "Split" and "Shower" formations.