Today, I’m going to review a brand new Mega Drive (or Genesis, for the heathens) game. It was developed with the 16-bit system’s limitations in mind, is a shoot ’em up like half of the library of any system from that era… but as of now, it’s only available on PC. Not even on the Switch as of the time of writing. Whatever was the decision to make Earthion debut exclusively on computers at first remains to be seen, but still, a brand new shoot ’em up made by well-respected industry veterans will always be something I consider worth checking out. That is, even if there isn’t a single speck of innovation in it, at all.

If it looks like a game from, like, 30 years ago, it’s because it was developed with that idea in mind.

I don’t want to be a downer. Earthion is a pretty good 16-bit shooter, but it’s just that. If you’ve ever played a Gradius, an R-Type, any horizontal-scrolling shooter from that era, you know exactly what to expect, with the exception that, maybe, this game might actually be considered a tad bit easier and more forgiving than the aforementioned titles. Which, granted, isn’t an issue at all, and doesn’t make Earthion a pushover in the slightest. It’s still a challenging time, with a crapton of bullets and rays being fired from all directions.

Meanwhile, you have just a handful of weapons at your disposal. You have access to a normal fire button, a special weapon button, and an additional button that lets you fire both at once, which makes me wonder why would anyone even bother pressing anything else in this game. You can carry up to two different special weapons at any given time, and swap between them with a button. Get blown up, and you lose your current weapon. Beat a handful of levels, defeat some bosses, and that’s pretty much it until you reach the very end of the game. As mentioned, there’s no way to make Earthion feel spectacular or revolutionary; it was developed with a Mega Drive in mind.

You can turn off the CRT filter, but can’t extend the screen size.

The game’s main highlight is its soundtrack, composed by legendary video game musician (and also owner of the developmental team behind Earthion in the first place) Yuzo Koshiro. The man behind the soundtracks of classics such as Streets of Rage, ActRaiser, Shenmue, and many others, is responsible for what’s easily, without a shadow of a doubt, the best thing this game has to offer. The man’s got chops. I’d go as far as to say that Earthion is basically a banging electronic soundtrack that comes packed alongside a standard shooter.

I wish I had more to say, but this is a typical case of “what you see is what you get”. Earthion is a pretty good horizontal shooter.. but that’s basically it. You’ve played dozens, maybe hundreds of similar games released since the early 90s. What might make it stand out a bit is the fact it’s got a TRULY FANTASTIC score by Yuzo Koshiro, and was developed by his own studio, but this is just another shooter in a genre where there’s little room for innovation or improvements, especially when you consider the fact it was developed with the limitations of the Mega Drive in mind.

Earthion is available now on PC. Coming out as an actual Mega Drive game later down the line (yes, really).

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB and Asus ROG Ally.

A copy of Earthion was provided by the publisher.