279. Simple 1500 Vol. 35: The Shooting (C.I.I., Playstation, 2000)

Like with most Simple Series games that do not have a reputation (which is most of them), when I popped Simple 1500 Vol. 35: The Shooting into my PS2, I was expecting a rinky-dink shooter with no ideas and maybe some cool music, but it turns out this baby's got legs. Localized in the west as Shooter: Space Shot, The Shooting is a typical horizontally scrolling space shooter starring a team of 3 pilots as they fly around a set of diverse levels shooting anything that gets in their way. 

You only play as one of the pilots, with the other 2 providing the occasional Star Fox-style buddy dialogue. Before each level, you are "treated" to a terrifying, pre-uncanny valley CG anime cutscene. The characters both look and behave like Thunderbirds-style puppets. The actual in game graphics are not much better: while they are at least less offensive to the eye, they are blocky and not very inspired. Backgrounds are lifeless, ugly 3D landscapes, and enemies are ugly drab ships.

But the gameplay is where The Shooting gets good. In addition to a machine gun that fires forward, your ship is also equipped with 2 gun satellites that you can aim in any 360 degree direction around your ship, just like in game #60, Grid Seeker, so you are effectively controlling 2 characters at once in order to maximize your bullet coverage. The other fire mode is a lock-on style where the 2 satellites form a cone that you can lock-on to any enemy inside, though I found this to be middling at best during gameplay. My favorite control feature, though, is an 8-directional dash that kills enemies on contact. It is linked to a limited boost meter and it can be very dangerous to use haphazardly, but when the dash is useful, it feels so cool to use.

The bones of a quality shooting game are present in The Shooting: enemy patterns are varied enough to keep things interesting, their bullets are very easy to see, and your ship's hitbox is nice and small. Bosses were a bit on the easy side with not too many attacks to memorize, bu I can't complain too much there. The enemy patetrs very much play to the stregngths of the full 360-degree aiming, which also makes certain levels pretty challenging, but also interesting and novel.

In addition to the main story mode, there is also a training mode that plays out like a puzzle mode in most games, with a series of short singular challenges that teaches you to use a particular facet of the game's controls. These were very welcome for getting used to The Shooting's several attack types. I can't wrap this up without mentioning the music: The first level's music is this distorted bass & organ jam that I loved. I had to pause the game to turn it up. Other levels did not quite have the groove factor of the first level, but I could also say that for a lot of games.

4/5, a diamond in the rough shooter with ugly presentation but exhilarating, inventive gameplay