Before I start previewing Red Star, I'd just like to clarify my credentials for this type of game. I'm not a big side-scrolling beat-'em-up player. I played a bit of the various Turtles games back in the arcade, some Simpsons, more Golden Axe than I actually enjoyed, and even a few rounds of Guardian Heroes back on the Saturn. I can see why people like the genre, but when I was done I went back to playing Rolling Thunder or something similar.

Having said all that and destroying any chance of being taken seriously by fans of the genre, allow me to rattle on for a bit about the demo of The Red Star, a throwback to the beat-'em-ups of old. But first, the obligatory details, blatantly ripped from Acclaim's web site:

• Choose from 3 different customizable characters, each with 10 different upgradable weapons and abilities.
• Experience integrated cooperative play, with the ability to modify & enhance each other's attacks.
• Play through 25+ levels of pulse-pounding action, from the gundecks of a massive Skyfurnace to the war-torn city of Nokgorka!
• Fight the state using an innovative combat system built upon generations of fighters & shooters.
• Achieve excellence to unlock a variety of extra game modes and secret levels.
• Try to survive against massive mechanical bosses!
• Visually stunning special effects and protocol attacks help provide a constantly evolving action experience!
• Set in the award-winning universe of The Red Star, recently named as one of Wizard Magazine's top 100 comic book series of all time.

If you don't like Web site marketing, then it boils down to three selectable characters, solo play or two-player co-op, twenty-five levels, upgradable weapons and abilities, melee and ranged weapons, lots of bosses, and unlockable goodies for those skilled enough to earn them. Judging from the demo, it's coming together nicely.

At a guess, I'd say the demo takes place on the abovementioned "gundecks of a massive Skyfurnace." You walk left-to-right along metal surfaces against a repetitive background (that I really didn't notice was buildings flying past below until I looked at the screen shots) and beat on things until they stop moving. Much like "Fly up the screen and shoot things," it doesn't sound that entertaining until you sit down and do it, at which point the game starts being good to you. You have a choice of two characters in the demo, the big, burly, slow guy - Kyuzo, and the smaller, weaker, fast female - Makita. Most of the shots here are of the guy but I enjoyed the girl more, it's just that her moves are so fast I found it tricky to get good shots of them.

Both characters have a useful number of moves at their disposal, and against the level-one pinheads we get to fight in the demo, they can tear through their enemies like lightning or an avalanche, depending on whether you choose the guy or girl. Neither is a copy of the other in either the melee or the gunplay, showing that a fair amount of thought has gone into them, but both of them cleared the area with equal skill. Big guy Kyuzo, for example, has one machine gun that when fired heats up fast but cools down fast as well, while fast girl Makita's dual pistols heat up slower but cool down slower to compensate. In the long run it's all the same, but it does give at least the illusion of individuality. Both characters also have an identical shield move, but I didn't use it much due to a desire to get in there and beat on things. Where the real differences come in are the melee attacks, and seeing as that's most of what you'll be doing, it's probably for the best.

Melee attacks are pretty straightforward: hit the attack button up to three times for a combo. It's when you use the lock-on capabilities that you start doing more than just whaling on whatever's in front of you. Kyuzo can grab, spin, smash, and throw enemies at each other while Makita can rush in or away from them, throw them into the air, and perform a variety of air combos before smashing them down. It's simple enough to do and fun to see, and once you get the hang of it the demo's horde is just there waiting for you to toy with.

The aspect I really enjoyed, that really got my attention, was the boss fights. There are three of them in the demo, and though the last one is fairly straightforward once you figure it out, the first and second show influences from Cave and Treasure shooters in the bullet patterns and enemies. Geometric shot patterns, laser webs, enemy drones that split in half when shot, and big fat lasers all show up to try and make your life just that much shorter than it was before. The first boss has a gimmick that I particularly liked, in that he attacks from windows hanging in space. Quite cool.

The second boss encounter dumps the windows but pulls in the firepower with the laser webs (broadcast a few seconds before firing - there's plenty of time to dodge, but it is level one), laser sensors that shoot both fat lasers and bullet patterns at you, and ship exhaust. Tricky the first time, but very pattern-based.

And then there's the final guy who's just . . . a big guy. Hit him, dodge the shockwave, don't let him regenerate health, repeat. Makita in particular took him apart; her dash ability took the threat out of the shockwave once I got the hang of it. Still, the first time I fought him he did unpleasant things to me repeatedly until I got his pattern, so like all games of this sort it's hard until you know what to do, and then (depending on what level you're on) it's just a matter of doing it.

After all is said and done, the game grades you on performance. Each grade gets a point value, and points go towards either upgrading the weapons you've got or buying new ones. Then, once you've made your purchases, the demo stops cold. Just as I was really getting into it, too.

I was pleasantly surprised by this demo in several ways: it's a throwback to side-scrollers of days gone by, it adds some new tricks seen in modern-day vertical shooters, it looks decent, the character skills seem well-thought-out and balanced, and it just felt right while playing. The familiar pace of enemies-mini-boss-enemies-mini-boss was stale on the consoles once but now seems retro, and the presentation is solid enough that I hope Red Star's trio of characters grabs a bit of attention in the coming deluge of holiday titles. We'll see how they fare in the full version, coming to an Xbox or PS2 near you sometime this September.

· · · James Cunningham