Classic Game Room - SILPHEED review for Sega CD

[@GustavoValdiviesso]

Love it! One of my favorite games on the Sega CD, definitely. Now, a curiosity that was not mentioned in the review and actually so many people know about it: Silpheed is THE BEST use of FMV in a game! That is right! The Sega CD adds no extra math power to the Genesis. So what you see in this game are pre-rendered graphics. Everything in the background is "just a movie" and all the sprites are pre-rendered like in Donkey Kong Country, but using polygons with the same vertex resolution as the background, in order to blend in. That is why some objects can take a lot of abuse before exploding... because they only explode in a certain frame of the movie. Another game that uses the same trick to fool your eyes like this is Heart of the Alien. For me, knowing this doesn't take away the magic... it increases my appreciation about the hard work and creativity put on theses games by their developers. Silpheed, Sewer Shark, Heart of the Alien, Sonic CD... all awesome!

[@christopherfrost]

Your opinion of the graphics in this game is surprising. There was nothing on the stand-alone Megadrive that could even touch the graphics seen on Silpheed. The fact that the Mega CD, a unit not designed for true 3D graphics processing, could churn out polygons at such a groundbreaking rate in this game, was nothing short of a miracle at the time, and it still looks great. It's still hard to imagine exactly how the programmers did it.

[@JohnnyParrotJoe]

I think the polygons in the background were pre-rendered videos.

[@vyse128]

My favorite Sega CD game. Forgotten classic.

[@HexenStar]

Not forgotten. And definitely the best. Not just on Sega CD, in the entire genre. Unlike the vast majority of space shooters, where flying pencils have peas and beans thrown at them trying to pass for gameplay, - here you take part in a real space war, so spectacular, - that not even Star Wars could topple it. (Not in Rebel Assault anyway :-)...)

[@siricus]

I enjoy that "SCORE" in the top left is the same font as a Greek restaurant logo.

[@FIXTREME]

*GYRO*

[@retrofraction]

Really, watching this game recently. They really were on the edge of creating greatness here with all of the background interaction. Personally love the art style as something about raw polygons just looks better than the textured mapped stuff.

[@starphaser]

Woah, hold on, this game has an amazing art design! I, to this day, think the graphics in this game are astounding and stylish and it's probably my favorite shmup! I remember spending hours upon hours trying to finish this game, because it's really hard!

[@magicmost1]

the graphics are bad ass in this game...not every game has to be like a realistic painting. i like this digital looking arcade type shooter a lot, the music is fukin bad ass! the sound effects and above all else, the only thing that really matters in a video game, the GAME PLAY is SICK!!!!

[@johnsquarez6806]

Put a shirt on

[@HexenStar]

Absolutely. This game has everything going on for it. Besides, graphically it does, never better - a magnificent presentation of an epic space battle, where everything is not only different every time, but is done EXACTLY as it should be done in a space shooter title. I recall back in 1994, friends every now and then got a number of those cheap Megadrive/Genesis shmups (a la "Master of Weapon" and clones) that just scroll up or to the right, and generally are boring and annoying all at once...and i remember all of those guys marched straight back to the store to get rid of every single one - the very moment they could lay hands on Silpheed.

[@lestopliego]

I love this review, the game's music, its video sequences, still watching it every once in a while. KUDOS!!!

[@manmonkee]

I bought this at the time and still have it on my shelf, genius rendering the backgrounds with no Anti Aliasing, Texturing or smoothing so they'd match the real time 3D foreground models.

[@Sinn0100]

I know this is supremely old; However, Silpheed in 1993 was...mind numbing bleeding edge graphics. You have to remember, when this hit we were playing games like- Street Fighter 2 Championship/Hyper, Streets of Rage 2, Desert Strike, Sonic the Hedgehog CD/2, Super Mario All Stars, and Mega Man X, and The Terminator Sega CD. These were considered top tier graphical powerhouses for consoles at the time. I mentioned a few from 1992 as well that were still riding high at that point. Further, my little list is not exhaustive and only touches on the subject. The only thing that came close in my opinion was Virtua Racing released in 1992 for the Sega Genesis. That could even be considered more of a feat considering the supposed limitations of the Genesis (it is capable of so much through brute force but does not have specialized chips). I did not own or know about Silpheed when it was new. That hurts as I was a diehard gamer and I had every machine at the time minus the Neo Geo AES and Turbo Grafx 16 (I own them all now). I was not made aware of Silpheed until well into the PSX/Sega Saturn/N64 era (True 5th generation). At that time (1993), I was simply floored by the then new wave of polygonal titles hitting the arcades. That was also run by Sega- Virtua Fighter and Virtua Racing. I would have likely lost my mind had I seen Silpheed back then. The year 1993 was such a big year in gaming as it was also a time when PC gaming arrived as the dominant platform for graphics (you could say earlier but before 1993...with Wolfenstein in '91). But I digress...I have three complaints that I can lay at Silpheed's feet. First and least important, the ship should have been colored. It was so detailed for its day but was held back by being solid white. The second is the sound or voices were not the greatest especially when considering that it was from a CD not cart. My third and final issue is the pitiful length of this game. If you blink the game is over making it a tall order for $49.99 asa young kid. I could get a game (I know different genre) like Terminator CD or Lunar Silver Star/ Eternal Blue and have so much more for my money. In summation- I am so grateful to be a gen X kid as I grew up with a gaming industry that truly cared for its clientele. Yes, the graphics were primitive and the games stupidly hard but at least we got what we played for. Our games were made from original thought and not through outright malevolence we see today (EA, Activision, and Bethesda). We did not have politics jammed down our throats in our games either. No faux outrage, no screams of boycotts, and we didn't care what gender a main character was...still don't. When the gaming industry collapses under it's own vile games this is where I am going....back to when gaming was pure and good. Sorry for the length (not really) and thank you for the wonderful trip down memory lane. ;)

[@callmemarc]

I always loved this game despite all of the negative press it got.

[@HexenStar]

Negative press was only the result of envy. Back in the day there was no hardware that could do anything even remotely similar to that. So here you go.

[@something2424]

1:27 "God damnit, now I have to get a sega CD"

[@IronFury]

This game looks awesome. I enjoy the camera view. It almost reminds me of Gyruss with that semi foward look.

[@georgef551]

You got to remember, back in the day of this, and the Super FX Microchip (SNES), that plopping graphics onto polygons was a massive CPU hog execution, so leaving them shaded (plain) kept the speeds playable. I'm surprised SEGA didn't give this add-on hardware realistic sound, to compete better with the SNES's sampled sounds.

[@MrMJmusicLover]

I still own this game, scratch free and playable. I own a mint condition Sega CD System that is the original purchased model; its also scratched free as well as dust and dirt clogged free and brand new looking. I just ordered a Sega Genesis2 Game System, along with yellow white red cable; altogether everything cost $23 off of Amazon.com. It'll be at my door in a week or two. :-) SEEGGA!

[@boefjedewolf76]

All my stuff is scratched and used because im a true player

[@HexenStar]

This game is the definition of perfection. A mark of quality by which all others should be measured. For almost 3 decades it stands unmatched in the sea of samey-same-same copy-pasted space shooters. It had some negative reviews in the past, which stem only from human envy of the lesser system promoters, and their likes, such as the "snesies". Later, PS2 churned out such a lackluster sequel, that they rushed to bury it in the dust of time as soon as possible. There are only 2 games that come close to the accomplished flawlessness of Silpheed: Sega/Mega Cd's very own Soulstar, and the PC version of Novastorm. Noted, Sega/Mega CD has its own, and the best console version of Novastorm, but loses to PC by a large margin of visual quality. By the way, the name of the intergalactic terrorist is ZAKARTE.

[@Monacomaverick]

This is one of the first and finest shooters I have ever played. It actually made me forget about most of the other games that came out before it. I especially liked the music and radio chatter dialogue. Worth every penny if you own a Sega CD.

[@SlashZAKU]

Man this game had incredible music. One of the few good games on the Sega CD

[@13Bizz]

This game looks awesome. It's looks like its ahead of its time for a mid 90's game

[@rednight2476]

I love shaded vector graphics.

[@andrewsegers7942]

Bring back CGR!

[@navigatingel6104]

I LOVE THIS ANGLE! Never seen a shooter from this precise angle before

[@elgoog-the-third]

@Outlander11 First, it isn't the Genesis alone computing these graphics, it's the Sega CD. Second, it's pre-rendered.

[@awwrelic]

I still own this game (and a Sega CD on which to play it), and I can remember some of the negative press from back in the day. The ones that claimed that the gameplay was "standard" and one doozy was from a fan magazine that was published in the OSU area of Columbus OH (which I also own) that had problems with the occasional cuss word they heard while playing. If they're still playing some of the games nowadays, it'd probably kill them :) But I always thought it was fun, and when I hear people claim that the Sega CD was only for crappy FMV-type games, I point to this, Snatcher, Sonic CD, Panic!, the Working Design games, etc. etc...

[@philosophyoftrucking]

I have it now. Thanks for the review, Mark!

[@brbZoning]

And I'm back, 2 more yest has passed and this remains one of my most fav intro songs to a CGR video.

[@KEVS6975]

I had a Sega cd around early 90's, and I got silpheed cd back then. I still have that copy, I think it was phenominal for its time, with nice smooth rendered polygons moving quickly through cyberspace. only problem is hard difficulty is how I enjoy games, and this bieng a shooter is a real difficult game on hard. I still enjoy this game now.

[@ivand5699]

There is no polygons in this game, just clever video backgrounds and 2D elements made to look like low poly.

[@Squattingtiger9]

Daaaaamn! I remember this game well, one of my first games on the MegaCd, this takes me back, thanks for the review.

[@davidjackson9707]

Just picked up a Sega cd Model 1! This is one game i'm planning on buying.

[@mrnuage]

I am also wondering if your ship and ennemies being polygons is just some tricks or real. I'm not an exepert when it comes to 3d but as i saw, there's some polygon deformation when you move around and that's a typical flaw you can see on every old hardware which doesn't do texture filtering, in my opinion sprite scalling would not produce this kind of flaw. Also i think the genesis main processor is powerful enough to render this little amount of polygons while the sega CD is decoding the video.

[@Tinmancr1]

Silpheed great series another cool transitional game gotta get the cd for my sega

[@BigLebowski2000]

Wow, I played that game to death back in the nineties! Great music and great gameplay!

[@nviso209]

Awesome review as usual Mark! Loved this one back in the 7th-8th grade part of life.. Buddy of mine ran it on his C64 monitor and it looked GREAT then... :) YUP! Was a wonderful shooter!!! Haven't checked out the latest SILPHEED release yet on the 360 though...

[@illustriouschin]

That 3D intro was fucking badass. Can you imagine creating those 3D models with late 80's modeling software? They probably had to make their own modeling software too, those guys have some serious talent.

[@Snotnarok]

This is the review that made me buy the game. I had the original on DOS and never knew what it was. This review finally gave me the answer! Watching this review again makes me realize why I bought it. It's a great fun game that anyone can play...with amazing music.

[@georgef551]

@Lupucillo Or, they are true 3D, but are made to appear like the old side-scrolling platforms, like the last Mario games have been.

[@Crawdaddy79]

It's FMV with the overlay of a vertical scrolling shooter game. The obstacles you hit are set at specific times and coordinates when the background "movie" plays. It's not the same as Ground Zero Texas or Night Trap... but is more along the lines of Sewer Shark.

[@newton3010]

Say what you will of the graphics....as you mentioned this was a polygon based actual 3d game...if only the system had enough memory to apply textures it would be super sweet!!!

[@madmax2069]

@Outlander11 No we wasn't talking about the demoscene, i was using it as reference between a pre rendered CGI video and real time GFX.

[@Caparzoshow]

This games really needs to be released on the nintendo store for 3ds with 3D effect!

[@DevilMaster]

This, or its sequel for PS2.

[@FIXTREME]

The Iridion games are very similar

[@HexenStar]

Only in the camera angle. Otherwise it's an ox-cart against Bentley.

[@ProtoMario]

omfg i cant beleive you said that stage five weve gone plad lol omfg spaceballs referance.

[@imnotdavidxnsx]

except Spaceballs would've been a Silpheed reference.

[@Hugh_G_Rekshun69]

Thanks for the upload, GREAT game, epic soundtrack and awesome review.

[@frigginjoe]

I got the JVC X'Eye (it's a third party Sega CD console) and found Silpheed. It's just as frickin' good now as back then.

[@Helvetica_Scenario]

@rojman123 I forget how it was done exactly (not fmv), but it's being streamed off the disc. It's not real time polygons. Still looks impressive, though.

[@Zoey2k1]

Some very good times with this games. While I no longer hve a Sega CD, for some reason, i stumbled upon some game sI had and decided to do something. I put this and Sonic CD in my PS3 and it extracted the musical tracks. So now i have the music from this game on my ipod. brings back the good old times.

[@tenpack51]

the music sounds awesome, great review

[@madmax2069]

@Outlander11 Yeah the SuperFX 1 that was used in Starfox was clocked at 10.5Mhz. The 65C816 (Ricoh 5A22) in the SNES ran at 3.5Mhz and had a bit more to it then the IIgs's 65c816 (Western Design Center) which ran at 2.8mhz. The 2 CPUs was close to each other (the one in the SNES was a clone with added abilities over the 65C816 in the IIgs). The SNES also had built in hardware that would display sprites (that would not rely on the CPU). The IIgs lacked the hardware to handle sprites.

[@GEMINIVISION]

hey do any of you remember the code where the dialog used cursing. this game was the first i head that had curse words in the game. the code was in a game pro mag

[@bakaneiro]

i wanna play this since i saw some pictures back in 93 in a Sega magazine!

[@robotwo]

The laser sounds that start at 04:40 reminds me VERY much of the laser-blade sounds from Metal Warriors for the SNES. And that is by far one of the best shooters I've played , I've got to get my hands on a new SegaCD and a copy of it :)

[@ShinobiSlots]

I love Silpheed! Awesome graphics for its time with cool music to go with it. One of the few great Sega CD titles along with Lunar, Dark Wizard and Snatcher.

[@VanDammesCokeDealer]

@castlevania78 The backgrounds are FMV. The silpheed, small enemies, power-ups, and small bosses are all polygons done by the hardware. Polygons, not sprites.

[@Snotnarok]

I bought this because of the review, I'm looking forward to playing it when it gets here!

[@georgef551]

@Lupucillo Unfrtunately, SNES's weaknesses ultimately did it in. That, and the 64-bit arena.

[@3yE]

I also found Cyberia to be a notable FMV game. For Silpheed, i'm pretty sure that the processor is quite busy enough decoding the video, so i suspect that both the player and the enemies are just prerendered sprite sequences. Consider that the MegaCD graphicchip can do scaling and rotation, and that Iridion II for GBA uses similar tech for 3D effect. Also consider that BG video can be either completely raster encoded, or 2d polygon encoded, or use a combination of these.

[@georgef551]

@themadmallard Interesting. CD music was a good workaround. Albeit less powerful, the SFX xhip did the same thing for the SNES, although the in-cart thing probably limited the throughput quite some. (That, and keeping the game's costs down.)

[@Snotnarok]

@Alexei18XC I think he's more referring to the aliasing and fairly low amount of colors going on. I agree it's pushing the genesis+CD but it's not really as colorful as other titles.

[@infringementMAN]

The MUSIC!!! Not even MGS4 or FFXIII does that. Awesome. I wonder if I can find it on the internet somewhere because I'm sure video game soundtracks were not yet sold when this game was released.

[@5k4k1dhtp]

Oh my god this looks amazing! I wish I had a Sega CD just for this game, I'll have to check out the PC version or something, seriously, amazing!

[@itslouiemoo8018]

Yeah I gotta say I remember having this game for the Sega CD and it was definitely a way underrated game, was a lot of fun.

[@ArchaicStigma]

I can totally relate there are a bunch of old Gameboy/Gameboy Advance boxes my mom saved.

[@brbZoning]

This chan should have 5 million subs IMO.

[@betogalado]

This is SICK! Really good! Should be re-release on nowdays settings. RIP Takeshi Miyaji

[@Snotnarok]

I got this game because of Classic Game Room, and it's as good as it looks here, I love it. The music is as good as the gameplay and it's just something not to be missed. Though you DO have lives or "continues" after you die you go back to the main menu and you can continue up to 5 times.

[@PhilosopherGaming]

Indeed and the technology isnt what I think was a bad idea, it was a fantastic idea to go for the cd format. What I meant was that it made no sense to release it as an add on. It was a major addition and quite expensive to, it would have made more sense to release it as an entirely new console. And a few years later they did just that. Mind you for all I know they probably did properly understand the massive risk of price and their chosen format. But then looking at the 32x I have doubts.

[@apothicd8770]

This game was way cooler than star fox but I guess the kids liked seeing frogs and falcons appearing on their absent minded windows screen to tell them they missed a bogie. WTF do I know.

[@radix9523]

Man I loved this game. I'm lucky to still have my copy.

[@HASCH05]

Thanks! I really apreciate it as a sega cd fan! Saludos drom Argentina!

[@vacuumnoise]

that game looks amazing

[@elcarohw]

some of the levels remind of a game called I ROBOT an old arcade platform shooter great video keep up the swell job

[@SelbySavidge]

I wasn't sure if the was the case or not. Are the sprites true 3D though? The sprites and the FMW background just seem to mesh a lot better than most other games like that.

[@kainemaxwell]

i love the music in the first stage.

[@Disthron]

That's a good point, however I still think it's pretty impressive for the time. They used the resorses they had at the time to make a decent game. Also, I looked into the specs of the SCD a while back and it seemes to me that it could have dune games like starfox if some one had taken the time and effort.

[@madmax2069]

@Danaceb You got to remember that Starfox was all 3d in real time. SILPHEED for the sega CD was mostly Pre-rendered CGI that played like a movie in the background. the only real time 3d in this game was the ships. 2 layered, 3d ships on top of a CGI video. that is why it has better frame rates (because it wasn't really doing what the superFX was doing)

[@mrnuage]

What i meant by "FMV game" was a game which make use of FMV and in this case there's an intensive use of it. Of course all these games where the only thing you have to do is push the button sucks. But silpheed is different because it shows how you can actuallya use FMV but in an awesome way

[@bahbahblacksheep311]

What a great title this was. Still fun to play today, no doubt

[@milkbonebuddy]

You should do a review on the Starfox series. The first one on the SNES had 3D graphics.

[@johneymute]

amezing polygon graphics on sega cd,even the superfx 1 chip dit had view such impressive polygins in starwing that,s insane.

[@VisceriousZERO]

omg that was the best intro ever when i was a kid.

[@BendApparatus]

I hate to be the guy that replies to one of the Top comments, but you are 110% correct. The design is incredibly clever that you really can't differentiate from what is simply a prerendered backdrop and what is interactive. So you will be flinching and reacting to everything that goes on. Making the game incredibly immersive. Oh and I never was able to beat the last boss...lol

[@LukeBaty]

I never noticed this before when I've played the game in the past, but after watching this review I swear this game has a lot of the exact same sound effects as Final Fantasy VII.

[@Helvetica_Scenario]

@Outlander11 Don't be fooled by the graphics. The polygons aren't being rendered in real time. It's all pre-rendered. It's just a couple of small sprites placed over what basically amounts to video.

[@franco7363]

What is up with those scan lines on the screen edges? Is that normal? Same thing happens to me with that game.

[@frigginjoe]

Those are realtime 3d graphics. The trick isn't pre-rendering them, because for god's sake the the Sega Cd's video quality wouldn't hold up :( ...rather all the calculations were pre-computed and streamed from the CD to the polygons were plotted with the Sega CD being able to just draw instead of having to calculate the transform of each point.

[@aliencomppany]

I wonder if you can get Sega CD for the re-released Mega Drive / Genesis. You know. The Blaze one. With 15 games built in.

[@ChicoEdge]

I remember when Ed Semrad wrote in EGM that Silpheed was a better game than Starfox. He based that on a nonplayable demo that Sega stuck in the corner of their booth at a trade show. When both games came out, Ed actually gave Starfox a better score. Oh, and I had the Cobra Hydrofoil.

[@Disthron]

I'm not really a shooter fan but I can apreshiate the effort that whent into this game. Also, I think the graphics are amazing considering the time it was maid and what else was around on consols at the time. I mean compear the graphics of this to the graphics of Starfox or Vortex on the SNES.

[@Tio_Remi]

this looks gorgeous as hell!!!

[@DevyGLKF]

looks pretty amazing O.o they had some nice creativity they had back then.

[@rojman123]

Lets clear this up. Im pretty sure the backgrounds were not FMV.

[@maelstromexceptions5984]

For the sega cd version of this game, do you know if the background itself was a fmv playback or was that generated through real-time??

[@HEAVYMERGEAHEAD]

THEXDER! I had that cartridge for the Radio Shack Color Computer 3. MAN that game was sick

[@TalkernateHistory]

Is Silpheed a reference to the Siphs of "Rape of the Lock"?

[@rojman123]

@castlevania78 Are you sure? I played this back in the day. I remember the sega cds video playback to be pretty grainy.

[@echoesroll]

the best shooting in my opinion ( with ships ) the sound makes u feel like inside of action " movie style " I still have my original copy and megadrive , most buy the mega cd again !

[@MasterControl90original]

you HAVE to review the original silpheed on pc 88 or better in dos with ega graphics and mt-32 sound!

[@shanethefox]

Looks awesome I'm gonna go get one!

[@MatticusFinch1820]

@tnafan2345 yeah it is, i was wondering the same thing. i think he mentions it in the ps2 review. i also think the one that came out on 360 is related but im not sure.

[@JMChladek]

Thexder? Sure. I remember playing it on a High School PC (8088 processor I think) back in 1988-89 or so. I believe it still might have the original 3.5 floppy laying around, although it has seen better days. Silpheed is one game I never played way back then as I was more into true flight sims than shooters. But good review just the same.

[@Eth3realwarrior]

Just watching classic classic game room videos for fun. And giving likes alone the way.