Fast Striker is a port of the NEO GEO and Dreamcast game released years ago that has now found its way to the PlayStation 4. Learn more about it in our Fast Striker review!

 

For its PlayStation 4 debut, the game has retained its original retro look, but you can choose how you want the game to fit the screen, as well as apply filters to it to make it look as it would have looked back in the day in old-school displays. Fast Striker has only six stages with different difficulty levels ranging from Novice, which is the easy mode to Omake and Maniac, which is the toughest option and should only be attempted by vertical shoot ‘em up experts.

While the game may sound short, it certainly stands out as a unique type of release. What vertical shooter have you heard of with just a few stages to play that has more than 40 types of enemies? First Striker won’t be boring in that sense, with a wide range of enemies available in all shapes and sizes, as well as different levels of firepower. The game is very challenging despite its short nature, so you might have trouble finishing the game the first time you take it for a spin.

Fast Striker offers alternative endings as well, and in order to see the true ending, you’ll have to complete the entire game, that means all six stages, in a single sitting, something that is going to require some practice and a bit of trial and error as you learn the movement and attack patterns of the enemies you will run into. The difficulty also ramps up as you progress from one stage to the next, so I suggest you perhaps play in the Novice option at first so that you can get the hang of things.

Fast Striker features solid CGI graphics, and its gameplay is set with a heavy emphasis on scoring, and that means tons of replayability as you try to beat your previous best performance. The higher the difficulty setting, the more enemies you’ll need to battle and the more enemy attacks you’ll need to avoid, and this also plays a part in changing a bit how you approach the scoring streaks in the game. Once you’ve gained enough experience and feel you’re up for the challenge, you might want to considerably increase the odds by having to complete the whole game in a single credit. Do you have nerves of steel? You’ll soon find out!

If you are a fan of retro vertical shooters then Fast Striker from eastasiasoft is definitely a good option, especially since it’s a cross-buy release, so you’ll be getting both the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation Vita versions with one purchase. There’s also a physical copy available in very limited quantities from Play Asia, which you can pre-order by clicking right here.

Disclaimer
This Fast Striker review is based on a PlayStation 4 copy provided by eastasiasoft.