We’ve known this one has been coming for a while, but we finally got a chance to get all up-close-and-personal with a very near-final version of XBLA’s Rez HD, a retooling of the visually experimental Dreamcast shooter. The “HD” in the title points to the fact that co-developers Q Entertainment and Hexadrive have, in fact, rezzed up (har) the original with new visual effects, as well as modernized the graphics and sound to accommodate the hi-def demands of 360 gamers. The result, thus far, is a faithfully tripadelic redux of the fast-paced arcade shooter, only with more cowbell.
But what if you never had the chance to play the original on your Japanese Dreamcast or U.S. PlayStation 2? Well, never fear — as hardcore as the game may look and seem, Rez HD’s gameplay really can’t be much more simple or basic. In fact, if you’ve ever played an arcade-style 2D shooter, you’re already two-thirds of the way there.
With the A button held down, you’ll enable your reticle — controlled with the left analog stick — to lock onto up to seven different objects. Once you release the A button, you’ll fire off lasers to destroy the highlighted targets. You can lock onto the same enemy object multiple times if it’s particularly tough — and you’ll have to do this in each of the game’s level-ending boss face-offs. Along the way, you can collect power-ups that enable a smart bomb–like screen-clearing explosion, or that gas up a meter that helps your character “evolve” into higher forms…like a throbbing green nucleus. But take a hit from an enemy and you’ll get kicked back down the evolutionary scale.
All of this sounds like so much fodder for every shooter that has clawed its way into old-school existence, but Rez’s special sprinkling of pixie dust is in its presentation and simplified ambition. Like much of Q’s past work (Lumines Live!, E4, Space Channel 5), Rez combines music and graphics to be much more than just shooting crap on a screen — there’s a definite attempt to elevate the experience to something more transcendent. The beats, bleeps, and blips in the game’s ambient, trance-skewed soundtrack correspond directly with the gameplay. Lock on to multiple enemies at once and you’ve just strung together a series of hi-hat riffs. Fire off those lasers and you’ve got a bassy string of squeaks. And let's not forget Rez HD’s pulsating backdrops and technicolor paint job. The better you do, the more elaborate the landscape becomes — keep excelling, and subtle differences in the stage reveal themselves to you. The whole affair raises the shooter experience to more of a mind-altering trip than anything — and luckily, it's done without veering too far into Space Giraffe territory. Sure, there’s plenty of visual over-stimulation going on, but you’ll never be confused or lost.
What the devs have added for this XBLA upgrade — aside from 5.1 digital sound and enhanced, retooled graphics — is minor at best. A leaderboard option is open to high-score addicts who go into Score Attack mode for pure point-nabbing pleasure. You’ll also be able to play Rez HD in its original resolution. But really, from what we’ve played of the game so far in its XBLA incarnation, Rez HD is more about recapturing an experience that many of us may have missed the first time out. We know we’ll be ready to download it onto our 360s come late January.
ing anal about it where we believe everything old should be free. Hell, one of these games hasn't even been brought over to the US before.
