If you're going to craft a shooter, the unwritten law of games dictates that it must have a catchy and kick ass name that'll stick in the minds of the sick freaks that are going to gleefully absorb its punishing AI. Ikaruga, Galaxian, Galaga, and Einhander are all fantastic names, and now I'm adding Xyanide to the mix. Now that's a name that'll no doubt turn some heads, but there's a lot more to Playlogic's latest game to get excited about. Coming out of nowhere and capturing my attention like a dinosaur rampaging through Manhattan, this one's definitely worth a look.

Xyanide's one kick ass shooter, not exactly as polished or as entertaining as the best games on the market, but considering the Xbox's library of old school inspired shooters (and how dusty that section of the library truly is) this game has a semi good chance of standing out and attracting a fan base not only because it's well designed and fun but also because it actually features a good story.

That's another unwritten law: thou shalt not inject a shooter with a story because no one gives a crap. That's held true for years and there's some truth to it, because no matter what the tiny paragraph says in these game booklets (gibberish, really), you're always the last starfighter, some brave guy who's risking his life to save all mankind, but Playlogic is smashing this rule to bits. Xyanide's intriguing narrative is actually one of its best features. Set in the distant future, a race of aliens living on a planet called Mardar have brought a witch named Aguira to trial. Resembling a young and innocent girl, Aguira's one maniacal female that so dangerous that she's also known as a devastator of worlds.

Found guilty of her crimes, Mardar's inhabitants sentence her to death by Maelstrom AKA a black hole that's been with the planet for as long as anyone can remember. The judges select a pilot named Drake (that'd be you) to transport her to her doom, but en route to your destination a meteor composed of these funky crystals called xyanide collides with the gigantic alien craft. Free of her captors, Aguira harnesses the power of xyanide and causes unholy hell, designing hostile worlds that consume all of her aggressors save one, that being Drake and his specialized craft that's able to mutate into organic and mechanic shapes. And all of this unfolds through positively gorgeous CG cut scenes. The red hot sun, the excellent cloth physics, the fabulous Fifth Element-esque space ship designs, and Aguira's lifelike face look extraordinarily realistic. These are just gorgeous, gorgeous sequences.

The actual game isn't bad either. An on rails shooter, Xyanide plunges you through fantastic looking industrial corridors and spins your ship about in a host of different directions. You don't have direct control over where you do, but it's just cool going along for the ride. The various twists and turns give this game a wonderful sensation of speed, and it helps that the backgrounds are so finely detailed.

Unlike most shooters, you don't fire with a specific button. I learned this the hard way when I first began playing, as I was frantically jamming on the face buttons and pondering the idea that I'd received a very incomplete version of the game. But thanks to Xyanide's game booklet (see, reading them does serve a purpose) I learned that all of the shooting it controlled with the right analog stick, so basically, if you want to destroy the robot on your left, all you have to do is move the right analog stick left. I found this system to be a little awkward at first because it's so uncharacteristic, though I embraced this system once I got the hang of it. It's quite comfy firing in a 360 degree plane, and since enemies come at you from all angles and swirl about the screen (unlike in other games, where they'll fire off a few shots, then disappear), this freedom is an absolute necessity.

Similar to Ikaruga, you can change the makeup of Drake's ship with a single button press. In this case, pressing the right trigger will morph between organic and mechanic forms, and these are handy in dispatching certain types of foes. Small enemies are more vulnerable to Organic fire while the opposite holds true for the bigger ones, so the gameplay boils down to shooting the little guys with Organic stuff while blasting the big ones with Mechanic energy. It's definitely not as fun or as sophisticated a system as the black and white switching in Ikaruga, but for the sake of the gameplay it works well enough that it's not annoying.

What I haven't gotten used to is the secondary fire. Whenever the left trigger is pressed a targeting reticule appears, and using the right analog stick, you can place it over an enemy and launch missiles at it. Not only are these missiles very simplistic looking and therefore not too impressive, but I'm also having trouble steering my ship and aiming this cursor at the same time. In order to get it right I have to stop moving which leaves me open to enemy attacks. I'm just not feelin' it.

Some of the enemies in the game leave behind special items after they explode and they make Xyanide really interesting. Extra lives are always welcome but they're not the coolest things to pick up. Power-ups will allow you to slow down time, increase your health bar, add an extra weapon to your craft, stick it inside of an energy shield, and make it invulnerable to attack, but it's the Specials that are really cool. Mapped to the controller's face buttons, all you have to do to unleash these attacks is tap X, Y, A, or B and cool stuff will happen. You'll fire multiple laser beams, create an earthquake, detonate a nuclear device, infect bad guys with a virus, freeze them, zap them with lightning, and perform other devious attacks, and they all for the most part look pretty decent. These special powers didn't always get me out of tight spots, but there's no denying their coolness.

Another reason why I'm impressed with this game is because of how long the levels and boss fights are. There's a lot of great shooters out there that can be beaten in roughly 30 minutes, but Xyanide's levels stretch on well past the ten minute mark and that doesn't include the boss fights which may go on for an additional ten minutes. I definitely get my fill of each and every level, though my only criticism is, throughout the first three levels (haven't been able to get beyond that point), almost everything looks the same. The bosses and some of the enemies change, but the environments are the same old sci-fi stuff from the opening level. The structure is somewhat different but the color scheme remains the same and therefore gives things a very familiar appearance. I just want more variety from Xyanide, and I'm hoping the later missions will afford me that luxury.

The only seriously disappointing thing about this game is no one seems to know when or if it'll ever come out in the U.S. Playlogic's definitely piqued my interest and I expect them to shoot this title onto retail shelves, because if it doesn't...well...I'll just have to play the preview build. As for you, cross your fingers.