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"A SEQUEL/PREQUEL OF THE ORIGINAL, WHICH IS ITSELF A PREQUEL TO THE THIRD INSTALLMENT, WHICH SWITCHED FROM SHOOTER TO RPG... WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON??!!"

Now that the Saturn is dying a slow retail death here in the States, it's a race against time for Sega's faithful gamers to collect the 32-bit gems that are dirt-cheap but not exactly easy to find. If you find a copy of "Marvel Super Heroes", "Powerslave", "Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo" or "Congo" (yeah, right!), you better snatch that up before they get buried in some Arizona Desert ditch next to the grave of discarded Atari 2600 cartridges. "Panzer Dragoon II Zwei", the sequel to the first-generation on-rails shooter from Sega's Team Andromeda that was the graphical cornerstone of the RPG sequel ("Panzer Dragoon Saga") is one of those hard-to-find gems that has received critical acclaim and cult-like following, and recently I was lucky enough to receive mine as a prize from a videogame site (www.seganet.com). Was it worth it?

The storyline, derived from the excellent FMV cinemas and story from the game manual (which is ridiculously thin and uninformative), is worthy of the RPG spin-off this series eventually developed: villages in a war-ravaged fantasy-meets-technology world fear genetically-mutated animals that populate the land, and try to live a day-to-day existence taming or disposing of the beasts. Little dragons from a race named Khourieat (wow, every vowel is used in that one!) are killed at birth to prevent their blue-light throats to eventually allow them to become flying beasts. A young man ignores the law and adopts a little Khourieat, which he keeps hidden from public view, raises over several months and names Lagi. After some time, Lagi and you not only become best friends but partners in a revenge crusade after the Imperial fleet of flying ships destroys the young man's village with a deadly explosive that wipes it off the map. With Lagi now able to ޭrun fast and capable of lifting himself and our hero off the ground, it's war on the skies in a shooting-spree against all sort of environmental hazzards and amazing end-level bosses.

GRAPHICS / VISUALS: B
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Cutting-edge back in 1996, when the Saturn was struggling for respect and a decent market share in the 32-bit war against Sony's PSX, but not as advanced and flawless as early hype might lead you to believe. The frame-rate is an improvement over the original ("Panzer Dragoon"), which moved at 20-24 frames-per-second; "Zwei" moves at a brisk 30 fps, and sometimes even faster when there are no enemies or major obstacles ahead. To keep the game moving at this constant speed there is a noticeable absence of eye-candy and all sort of "Wow" special effects that are common in shooters like "Colony Wars" and "Thunderforce V": no transparencies, minimal light-sourcing, pixelated textures, rough-looking objects with no smooth surfaces, etc. If you consider that the game has your Dragon running 'on-rails' through a small confined path, the accomplishment that is the speed of engine gets lost in the small details (kinda like "House of the Dead" and its miserable slwodown... on a track!)

But what the game lacks in visual and technical fireworks it makes up in atmosphere and artistic design; there simply isn't another series of games on the Saturn (or PSX/N64) that is oozing this much atmosphere and creativity in a world that is a hybrid of several cultures and concepts. The Arabian-like structures and outfits, the Middle-Eastern look of the characters and empires (ala your typical console RPG), the Norweigan viking ships that can fly in the air and control massive technological weaponery, etc. Thanks to the many well-rendered FMV cinemas that advance the plot and further enhance the involvement of the player with the on-screen actions (who wouldn't sympathize with a dude that has lost it all and wants revenge?), "Zwei" is a darker and stylish visual tour-de-force that contrasts sharply with Sonic Team's cheerfully surreal "NiGHTS".

MUSIC / SOUND EFFECTS: B-
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An eclectic mix of musical styles that isn't easy to understand or like, yet its catchy and inobtrusive as background music during your shooting spree; had I not listened to the more orchestral soundtrack of "Panzer Dragoon Saga" before playing "Zwei", maybe I would have been more impressed (you may like it more than me, if you're an open-minded gamer with the will to experiment). Sound effects are dead-average, with plenty of explosives and flashy weaponery around your surroundings which are filled with fire and exploding debree. Maybe I'm having trouble figuring out what an organic creature would sound like if it were able to fire energy and lighting from within its body, which kinda makes me whince when I hear the sounds in "Zwei" (unlike the giant bugs in Paul Verhooven's "Starship Troopers", which came across as totally convincing! :-P).

GAMEPLAY / FUN FACTOR: B-
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Unlike most Saturn gamers, I became acquainted with the nuisances of the last "Panzer Dragoon" installment (the RPG) before going back and replaying the previous two games more thoroughly (remember when you could rent them? Oh my, those were the days). The consistency of the series has been remarkable and its ability to keep the Saturn gamer entertained, despite limiting the playing field to an invisible 'track', underscores Team Andromeda's awesome level-design and well-placed enemy challenges. With that said, I'll be honest and say that after playing the rich and well-developed RPG control schemes of "P.D.Saga" its hard to go back to the simplistic and shallow style (by default, compared to the RPG) of gameplay found in "Zwei".

There are only a handful of levels in the game (less than 10) and although each has its own series of unique paths and shortcuts, each part of that level feels and looks the same with minimal surroundings that might suggest it's advantageous to be there. The levels are decent in size (they certainly last longer than your average "Colony Wars" mission) but feel small and unexplored when you have to be 'rushed' fast by the track-based engine ("P.D.Saga" corrected that 'wasted exploration' flaw in its RPG elements). The difficulty level is fair and expert shooters will have a challenge going through the whole game in one sitting in order to open the 'Pandora's Box' cheat, which shouldn't tkae more than an hour.

Switching cameras so you can fight/avoid enemies from all fronts is a neat idea, but can lead to plenty of confussion and awkward moments in the heat of battle. The radar screen and ability to dodge fire is somewhat compromised by the limited movement (within the invisible 'track'), but the analog controller adds some maneuverability to your beast in moments of intense and extreme danger. And the addition of a Tamagotchi-like ability to raise your Dragon's ability to fly and run faster depending on your performance during the game adds some depth to the otherwise "Starfox 64"-like shallow proceedings. All of the gameplay elements in "Zwei" were polished and slightly improved for the RPG sequel, which therefore gives "P.D.Saga" an advantage and a slight boost in the fun factor over the visually-improved sequel/prequel to the original "Panzer Dragoon". Still a blast, but too short and repetitive to go up against other shooters on the Saturn and competing systems.

OVERALL: B-
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Give Team Andromeda a Dreamcast development system, and good things are bound to happen for Sega gamers and "Panzer Dragoon" series fans alike in the coming months. If you crave shooters and can tolerate the shortness of the game, the sameness of the levels and the repetitive tasks required of you, then you'll be glad to know that the Dreamcast version of "Panzer Dragoon" is rumored to go back to its shooter roots and will not follow the RPG footsteps of the third installment (because of poor domestic sales back in Japan). Until then, look long and hard in order to find a copy of this game, and tell me what would you do if you had a collector's item within reach and you had let it go.

Did I also mention that Nickelodeon's "The Secret World of Alex Mack" is moving to Mon-Fri at 6:30PM beginning October 5th? Shameless plug, I know, but you got yet another free quality-review from yours truly... cut me some slack!