Say, have you ever read the review of a game that is NOT coming out to a video game dealer near you anytime soon? You are now.

If you are a fan of, say, Turok or 100 Bullets you might have been majorly bummed by the recent bankruptcy of Acclaim. And, of course, if you actually WORKED for Acclaim then by all means you are most sorely bummed since that means, well, you are now out of work.

Of course the whole going out in a blaze of bankruptcy might be because they've made in the past some odd games in the recent past. Huh? Odd games? Top on my list of "odd games" I heard of is something X-Play mentioned about a "topless bike racing" game from Acclaim. Topless? Now I take it, from the reference and the way it was mentioned, that they were referring to topless female bike racers... otherwise I don't see the point if it's guys... really. No point if it's guys, alright? Alright.

HOWEVER if the bankruptcy of Acclaim has done wrong by some, there is one spot of the sad event which shine rather brightly as a positive thing. And what might that be? That'd be the bright light of the positive slaying of the horrendous The Red Star video game before it came out to disappoint and demoralize Red Star fans across the world. Eh? Am I serious? Oh yeah.

The game, whose only sign of it's "existence" is in a demo disc from Playstation magazine some months ago, is about as bad as bad can be. I should know, I played it!

Taking place, at least as far as the demo shows, from The Red Star II #1-up, you control three of the main characters as you plow your way through The Red Star universe. The characters were fairly good picks, and interesting picks as to playable characters at that, but the problem is that for a universe so deep and intense as The Red Star the game is a total letdown... to say the least.

To me it's part X-Men Arcade (the endless hack and slash through an endlessly boring parade of lookalike enemies) and part Contra (the overhead shooting scenes versus giant boss things) and that is so wrong.
This game, which is in such a detailed

and unique world, screams RPG treatment -- something the people at Acclaim ignored to their failing. Nostalgia? Nostalgia is good, and I don't have a complaint with nostalgia which is alive and well in a host of Museum/Collection games revamping the video game history of companies like Atari, Midway and Namco. But it's NOT good for a game that should be deep and profound as The Red Star should have been! If you want a hack/slash beatdown nostalgia game then do it on a title that nobody cares about. The Red Star isn't the title that deserves a travesty like that, it deserves better.

The small demo I played was boring. Boring, boring, boring.
I could only control two of the three characters in the game, and somehow they didn't seem very different from one another. They just bashed/slashed and used power attacks to move on.
The playable level was boring due to it's monotony. The enemies were carbon copies of each other and also boring to witness. And the two characters were pretty much just simplistic things to control. No depth, no skill needed to use them -- after all what kind of skill do you need to master the ancient art of "push the X button until everything is dead" method anyway?!?
In other words if you are looking for something unique and different in games this isn't the place to look.

But then again I think this bankruptcy will do the game some good... that is, of course, if whoever inherit's the game would please destroy this version of the game and forces Mr. Gossett and associates to go back to the drawing board and remake the entire game from scratch.
The first thing that needs to be done to "heal" this video game, and it's "universe", is a complete overhaul from the ground up. What does this game need to succeed? Let me count the ways.

1 - It needs to be an RPG! Preferably a good one ala the original Star Wars : Knights of the Old Republic, Final Fantasy, or something good. The fighting system also needs a complete overhaul to make it good, if not better, than the RPGs I mentioned above.
2 - The story need to start off with a mind expanding opening cinematic sequence that starts off the

same way The Red Star #1 starts off (at the huge national cemetery) which sets the mood of the story.... Which means...
3 - The game HAS to be attuned to the series itself. With cinematic sequences and great amounts of grand battles and epic cut scenes.
4 - YET the game needs to have a few quirks to make it unique! One, for instance, is the chance to keep a certain fan favorite character from dying if you choose to play as her from the start of the game.
5 - Another is the promise that the game will be substance over style alone. It needs to be deep, have lots going for it, and just be something you can't stop playing!
6 - Hmmm... you know what would come next? An online version where you can generate your own character and explore the world of The Red Star in greater detail that even the first game couldn't provide!
7 - Nostalgia is nice, folks... but not here. Innovative gaming that just grips you and holds on tight is what the doctor ordered for this game.
8 - I can't think of anything else, but I'm sure someone will think up of new things.
9 - Anyone ever see this topless bike racing game?
10 - Umm... must we have another Turok game? I didn't like any of the previous ones.

When, and I do hope it's when since the game has great potential if only the right people work on said game, when this game releases I do hope it's been remade and done in a better light.

This game, as it stands right now, is a bomb waiting to explode. Only through a lot of work can this game be made to not only be at least playable, it can be made to be a hit and worthy of the series it's based on.
But until then the game is an embarrassment, and everyone involved should be glad it died a quick and painless death by bankruptcy before it could be dragged onto store shelves where it would have died a slow and painful death by critics.

The breakdown doesn't seem necessary, but here it is all the same.

The Red Star Breakdown
What's Hot? - Right now, sadly, the only hot thing about all this is that the game has

been stopped in it's tracks by the bankruptcy of Acclaim. Hooray!

If this game is released the way it is now expect nothing good to come from said release.
The game must be taken back and redone from the ground up, revisualized and redreamed to be far better than it is now, and that is a good start of what should be a great revival.

What's Not? - Whoever thought the game would have been just so much fun if it was buried chest deep in needless nostalgia gaming that just sucked when it comes to this game is a Not in my opinion.
This game deserved so much better, and yet it got the exact opposite of what it needed. Way to go, guys.

Moments to Remember? - Nothing. Absolutely positively nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero.
Not having a game to remember does that to it's chances of having any memorable moments to remember.

What to Ignore? - Hopefully nobody ignores my advice! This game can be far greater than it was supposed to have been if Acclaim hadn't gone out of business! Now all they need to do is go back to the drawing board and remake this game to actually make it good!

This game is NOT fit for human "consumption" at this point! It must be remade lest it will be thrashed the moment it hit's the shelves! Please, please, please REMAKE THIS GAME!
Heck, even a 3rd or 1st person shooter game would have been better than this game they were working on!
Anything! Please do anything to remake this game! Please!

Overall? - What do you know?! It's the first time bankruptcy has done us all a world of good! Go figure!
Now if only Sony Pictures had the decency to have their so called "animation" dept. go belly-up prior to the long dreaded release of Lil' Pimp on DVD... what the heck WERE they thinking, anyway?!?

The short of it? Forget about the game. Just don't ask anymore. The game is doomed, let it go.
Hopefully it'll get a revamping and soon, if they knew what was good for them. If they do not? Then this is just a short prelude to the massacre that will come if they release this game in it's same substandard format that it is right now. Nuff said.