Rez HD

Sega’s Dreamcast seems to have a permanent entry on the wall of Gone-Too-Soon Milestones in gaming — evangelized in hindsight to near-divine geek status for its ambitious hardware design (online console gaming back in 2000?!) and a library chock full of classic but wholly whimsical software. Samba de Amigo, anyone? How about Space Channel 5? Aside from our time with the occasional reappearances of these gems on Live Arcade or Nintendo DS, us gamers just don’t get to exercise our fruity side nearly often enough.
Enter Rez, the brainchild of Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Space Channel 5 creator and Sega alumnus). It serves as a great example of the fanciful side of games that defined not only Dreamcast, but also a specific, still-relevant era in gaming.

Strip away Rez’s artsy visual trappings, thumping techno bassline, and strange backstory (involving the evolution of life, hackers, and a giant security system that really just wants to be loved), and what’s left? A snappy fast-paced, straightforward 2D-ish shooter, complete with an aiming reticle, power-ups, and boss battles. But Rez HD is really more than the sum total of all its embellishments.

Drag your reticle over targets by pressing and holding down the A button, then demolish them by releasing it — your moves and targeting trigger musical notes or drum beats. Doing it all in orchestration gives the soundtrack a significant boost, pulling you deep into the trance state for which Rez is clearly aiming. It’s fast, simple, and mesmerizing — and it made our thumbs sting and smart like only a true arcade-style shooter can. When you face a multi-target snake-like boss with the music turned high, the beats pounding relentlessly, and your character “evolving” (leveling up) into a throbbing green nucleus, it’s easy to imagine Rez’s fundamental shooter play as something much more transcendent. Or it can be seen as a shallow five-level targeting-fest buried under layers of artistic pretense. (Granted, that fifth level — “eden” — will tax your gaming-endurance skills with its boss-a-thon ending that elevates the challenge for genre veterans.) Obviously, we choose to place Rez HD in the first category.

Sure, the game’s $10 price might not exactly justify its lack of multiplayer or short-lived content — Score Attack and a “story mode” (playable in HD or original low-res visuals). But Rez HD hits a rhythm that feels absolutely right for those willing to try something perpetually new, no matter what year it actually debuted.

_{[NOTE: In the print editon of the review, the bottom filler text stated that the XBLA version of Rez HD was to be compatible with the import-only Trance Vibrator (originally released for the PS2 edition) peripheral. It's not compatible with the peripheral, but instead the 360 version supports Trance Vibration. This means that if you hook up three extra controllers to your system, you can recreate the vibration effect via those extra controllers. We apologize for the confusion. ]}