PSP World

Vanguard Review

Vanguard is a new release on the PS Mini store, but it is not a new game. Rather, it's a re-release of the 1981 arcade classic. Vanguard was a unique title for its time, with many firsts within its genre. It was among the first to allow multi-directional firing and obstacle avoidance, as well as battling enemies. This particular release is more or less a straight port of the original classic, designed specifically with the PSP controls in mind. Unlike the original, this will not require you to keep plugging quarters into a machine endlessly.

Vanguard is a side scrolling shoot em up, predecessor to genre classics such as R-Type and Gradius, and in playing, you can see how those games drew their roots from it. Despite its aged appearance, the gameplay itself is solid. With your ship moving ever onwards, and an onslaught of enemies shooting and careening towards you, fast reflexes are a necessity. Unlike a lot of shoot em ups both past and present, your ship in Vanguard is able to shoot in four directions, forwards and backwards, as well as up and down. There are no upgrades available to you in Vanguard, save an energy pickup which temporarily allows your ship to turn into a weapon on its own while robbing you of the ability to shoot.

Vanguard is another trip down nostalgia lane, but also a solid example of how old ideas can still hold up in modern days. You won't be impressed by Vanguard's visuals, and the sound effects won't appeal to anyone who didn't grow up in the coin gobbling arcade 80's, but for fans of the genre Vanguard can provide an excellent time capsule to what has become such a staple in gaming today.