Hi, folks. I could have put this post in the Retro Core thread, but I guess I'll post it here. Thanks, Yakumo, for covering this cool game on your Retro Core video; I had actually seen Sokyuu Gurentai (henceforth SoQ) in my local games shop for years but I didn't think about buying it until recently when I wanted to get some more shooters for my systems. After I saw your review, I jumped to go buy it. Although the graphics are mostly great, there are some parts in the game where the mix of hand-drawn or rendered graphics clashed a little with the digitized graphics; but overall, it's a beautiful shooter. As for the gameplay, it's great; the enemy movements and their shooting patterns are really tricky. There are a couple of elements that I didn't like, but they definitely add to the challenge of the game. The first is the fact that after you pick up a power-up, your ship isn't invincible for a short time like most modern shooters. So, lunging at power-ups is risky enough in itself, as your greed could get you killed. Power-ups offer no cover in this fast-paced game. Second, you have to stop shooting in order to use your web/laser tracking thing, which makes sense, but I suppose I've been spoilt by the likes of Layer Section which had regular shots as well as the tracking laser. The version I picked up is called "Soukyuu Gurentai Otokuyou", which seems to be some sort of economical re-release. Does anybody else's version have a playable level of Battle Garegga in it? Also, a few cool things I noticed: the CD has an "Omake" folder with HTML pages about SoQ and Garegga, which show level info, as well as the rules on how to unlock the options in SoQ's extra mode. Other nice touches in the game include the date/timeline when you start the game: it sets the beginning of the game's timeline to 50 years plus the year and minutes in the Saturn's internal clock. Also, the high-score list has some nice names going vertically, like "SEGA TITAN VIDEO" and so on. So, a cool game. Finally, I've made up some X-Terminator cheat codes for SoQ, and they should work on an Action Replay as well. If you don't like cheating, avert your gaze. Master Code: F6000914 C305 (the usual) 3607EBDA 003E - invincible 360C5D76 00xx - infinite bombs 36090328 00xx - infinite continues 360C5D74 00xx - infinite lives 360C5D3C 0001 - low weapon power 360C5D3C 001F - high weapon power
