Silpheed (Sega CD) Playthrough
246A playthrough of Sega's 1993 shooter for the Sega CD, Silpheed.
Played through on the normal difficulty level.
Silpheed for the Sega CD is often regarded as a remake of Game Art's 1986 PC88 game of the same name, though the sheer number of differences between the two games position it more as a sequel than anything else.
This distinction wouldn't have meant much at all to American gamers in 1993, though. Sierra On-line's localized Dos port came and went without much fanfare back in 1989, so this Sega CD title ended up being the many people's first point of contact with the franchise.
Silpheed places you in the shoes of a space jockey tasked with taking down a terrorist group that has hijacked Earth's central computer network and launched an all-out assault on the planet.
Like the computer game, it's a vertically-scrolling, pseudo-3D shoot 'em up that tilts the viewing angle to make it appear as if you're flying into the screen.
There are twelve stages in total, and between stages you can outfit your ship, the SA-77 Silpheed, with weapons that are unlocked as you hit certain score thresholds.
Similar to Namco's Starblade Alpha (https://youtu.be/C3pDFLgff1Y) and Galaxian 3 (https://youtu.be/lWREr5C1Qzc), Silpheed creates the illusion of 3D by superimposing polygonal figures over an FMV backdrop.
The full-screen FMV backgrounds are filled with clean, flat-shaded, smooth-moving shapes that minimize the heavy dithering and compression artifacts typically seen in Sega CD FMV games, and they mesh perfectly with the simple 3D models used for the enemy and player ships.
The graphics looked impossibly good for a console game of its time, and many reviewers believed that the backdrops were being rendered in real-time, leading to numerous comparisons with Nintendo's Star Fox (https://youtu.be/2EkVHxE0Y8I). As you might imagine, Silpheed turned many a head back in 1993.
The gameplay is standard 2D shooter fare, but the controls are tight and the challenge ramps up nicely over the course of the game. The punchy, orchestra-hit laden soundtrack is a fantastic complement to the action, the cheesy wingman chatter lends the game a fun bit of personality, and the FMV backgrounds make for some super memorable and fun set-pieces.
Silpheed is a real showcase title for the Sega CD, and I'm glad that Sega has decided to include it in their upcoming Sega Genesis Mini 2 console. It's just as good now as it was twenty-nine years ago.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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