For a vertical shooter, I appreciate that Project S-11 has a bit of a story to it. The story is that you’re on a top secret mission to penetrate enemy defenses in an effort to deliver crucial intelligence. That’s it, that’s the story and again, I really appreciate that there is a story behind the game. It’s not necessarily rare that we see a story in a shooter, but can be a bit of an uncommon occurrence when it comes to shooters on the GameBoy and GameBoy Color. So for that, I really appreciate the little bit of back story we have for this fun shooter.
Project S-11 is a vertical shooter that has you flying a spaceship through eight levels and taking down numerous enemies. As you take down enemies, you earn points and can collect power ups that change your weapon and even your strategy. In addition to the different weapon power ups, you have a bomb you can drop that acts as a clearing special weapon of sorts and can be collected in the same way as weapon power ups, which is by taking down enemies. The power-ups you can get are five weapons, the bomb special weapon, and extra lives. As previously stated, the weapons can and will change your strategy.
You have the laser which is your default weapon, the Sonic which has the best coverage of all the weapons, the falling flame which is a flame thrower type weapon, the Sinus which is a laser type weapon with interlacing rings, and finally, the Missile. The Missile. is the most powerful weapon in the game with it’s only drawback being that it’s slow reload time. Each of the five weapons can be powered up three times and each is pretty powerful, but I’ve found all but the falling flame and the missile weapon to be awesome and fun to use.
Project S-11 is a rather impressive game in the graphics department. Each of the eight stages are all different, bright, and really shine on the GameBoy Color. Each ship, enemy, and all of the bosses look clean and crisp. For a vertical shooter on the GameBoy Color, there really is a lot of detail to everything in the game. It’s a real breath of fresh air for the platform when it comes to shooters.
Performance wise, the game is extremely fast. I am not saying the game is over-clocked because it performs extremely well as it’s been optimized to take advantage of the GameBoy Color. As fast as the game is, there isn’t any blur or flicker to the graphics at any point, not even a hint of slow down.
Project S-11 feels like it took queues from Wipeout on the Playstation when it comes to its sound track. I mean it hits hard, in a good way! The sound track in this game is phenomenal and really fits the game perfectly. Each stage has a different hard hitting, pulse pounding track that really makes you feel like you’re part of the action! I mean it shouldn’t go this hard on the GameBoy Color but it does. Each killer stage track is better than the last and sounds like nothing I’ve heard with previous shooters on the GameBoy Color.
It’s like the guys behind Project S-11 looked at Wipeout and told it to hold its beer and showed just what it’s capable of.
I’ve really praised this game because it deserves it. The game is the best vertical shooter I’ve played on the GameBoy Color to date. There is a reason this game was released as a re-release, because nothing needed to be changed, this game is perfect just the way that it is. If you missed out on the original run of this game, do yourself a favor and pick up this re-release from ModRetro!
Disclaimer: A review unit was provided
You can purchase the game here
In addition to writing articles, Ryan Byers also creates content for his YouTube channel called "Obscure Games and Consoles", collects video games, and dabbles in video game development.