Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer is a 2007 horizontal shooter from German developer SideQuest Studios and publisher EastAsiaSoft. It was originally released on PC, but it did get a port to PlayStation 3 shortly after. It has now been ported to Nintendo Switch, priced at $9.99, and we’ve played through the first few hours to give you our thoughts on how it stands up today. We are big fans of EastAsiaSoft‘s releases and recently reviewed Makis Adventure, which retro fans may also be interested in checking out.

Any fan of the shmup genre will understand what we mean when we say Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer is a very Western-style shooter. Its use of a life bar, usually found in European-developed shooters, makes it a different kind of game from Japanese-developed shooters that normally have a one-hit, one-life principle. This doesn’t make it any better or worse, but it does mean the game is almost designed in a way that encourages you to take hits rather than avoiding getting hit altogether. This is worth pointing out as fans of the Amiga era of arcade shmups will really love the gameplay mechanics of this one.

As with any other shooter, the aim is to take down all the enemy fighters, hit a high score, and survive long enough to reach the final boss. Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer is very much a typical shmup on the face of it, but it does have some devilishly deep gameplay mechanics for those that want to hit the very highest of high scores as well as see the best of what it has to offer. For casual players, they can simply stick it on the easy setting, blast away, and enjoy seeing the awesome artwork and listening to the great arcade soundtrack. But those who like going deep into shmup will find some excellent gameplay tropes here to master.

Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer uses an intuitive weapons system that rewards restraint alongside steady progress. There are five weapon types to collect, starting with the two basic ones. Each weapon has a certain amount of energy and requires cooling down as the energy drains. If you allow the energy to drain all the way, any combo chain you have built up will be gone. Each time a chain builds in one weapon, you must quickly switch to the next and build that chain before its power runs dry. This is a great mechanic that will leave genre veterans salivating.

While chaining combos together isn’t required to get through Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer, high scores and reaching the limits of the ship’s powers rely on completing successive chains. It becomes a great risk-reward mechanic that really adds strategy and depth to the gameplay and takes some time to master, especially on the hardest difficulties. The same is true of the power-ups and buffs that can be collected; many only appear when you complete a chain. The weapon and power system is one of the standout aspects that make Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer a great shooter.

The graphics and sounds are of high quality, and there are some great effects for the explosions and backdrops. The color palette is a bit dark in places, but this does actually fit in with the overall style of the enemy army, which is very metallic looking. Each stage also has a distinct look with different enemy types that add some variety. One of the standout levels is set in a jungle where dinosaurs roam, and Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer is certainly different in look and style from the usual run-of-the-mill space settings. Overall, this one is for more expereinced shmup fans, although the easy mode is accessible for newcomers to the genre.