Esprade: AD 2018 Tokyo (Arcade) (1998)
Developer: Cave

Review by Faididi and Co.

These kids can tell what they're getting for Christmas

Story: Excellent

The setting is Tokyo on Christmas Eve, but something big is stirring, and it's definitely not nice. Ms. Garra Ono, the leader of the evil Yaksa Corporation, seeks to conquer the world with her secret fleet of war machines, her army of psychic troops, and her bad tastes in goth loli fashion. The only ones who can stop her are a trio of young heroes who also secretly harbor powers based on anime-style extrasensory perception (ESP). For its genre, the game has a most unusual story and style of presentation. The characters are cool and eye-catching, and the multiple endings (depending on the number of Players or on your character if playing alone) are another big plus.

Gameplay: Excellent

Cave's Esprade: AD 2018 Tokyo (also known as ESP Ra. De.) is actually a 2-Player space shooter along the lines of Donpachi and Dodonpachi, except it's brilliantly dressed up as an anime story. Equipped with the power of flight and the ability to emit energy blasts, the heroes soar through 5 vertically scrolling stages, mowing down bad guys in their way. They each have a different pattern of fire. Yusuke, the typical-looking highschool student, shoots concentrated streams. J-B, the super-emo kid, has spreading attacks. Irori, the sweet little girl, shoots in wider, column-like barrages.

The game takes its story's psionic themes in stride, incorporating them into its equivalent of megabombs. The heroes can expend their limited amount of special energy to shield themselves from enemy fire as well as to unleash extra-powerful deathrays. The cool part is how the longer the shields are maintained (costing more energy), the more the resulting deathrays increase in strength and size, adding a clever tactical depth to this often simple element among space shooters. All three heroes also possess a free-to-use secondary attack that recharges over time, an offensive bonus option that's rarely seen in the genre.

The enemy and level designs are no less impressive, either. The Yaksa forces consist of hulking tanks, fearsome warships, and a wide array of other battle craft, along with evil psychic agents who rapid-fire wads of energy bullets. The game's setting allows the stages to avoid the same boring outer space scenery, taking place instead at colorful metropolitan locales, including schoolgrounds, a large shopping center, a sunny waterfront, subway tunnels, and then a towering corporate headquarters for a breathtaking final showdown. Depending on which character you play, the order of the first three stages can change, too.

Controls: Excellent

The responsive controls are flawless. Moving around and firing the different types of shots are all easy to do.

Graphics: Excellent

Esprade literally looks like an anime show come to life, made possible by the vividly drawn characters, the richly decorated backgrounds, and the ultra-fluid animations. The visuals are a joy to watch, whether they're the way the heroes twist and lean about in the air as they weave through enemy fire, the cloaking effects of the tank miniboss, or the chic image art displayed in between the stages.

Audio: Excellent

Working in perfect unison with the beautiful graphics are the impressive audio effects. Psionic blasts burst out forcefully, while moving machinery clangs about noisily. The pop techno music is both inspired and moving, establishing an atmosphere never encountered before in the Donpachi series. The plentiful vocal effects are clear and crisp, too.

Overall: Excellent

Esprade ignites the senses with its fantastic story and presentation, awesome special attacks, thundering audio effects, and absolutely lovely visuals. Space shooter fans looking for an exquisite new classic will be mesmerized by this work of art's most creative take on the entire genre.

OST: Excellent

Published by Cave, the Guwange and Esprade soundtrack collection repackages the music from the two space shooters into a convenient bundle. Released almost a decade after the original editions of the soundtracks, it throws in a few neat extras, most of which are the sound and vocal effects from both games. The Guwange portion is more interesting, because it contains some unused phrases and a few prototype tunes (of the first two stages and the bosses). It also features an original vocal version of the third stage's song. Unfortunately, the Esprade portion doesn't include the bonus remix found in the earlier release of its respective game's soundtrack.