{"id":151315,"date":"2025-09-21T14:32:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T14:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/151315\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T14:32:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T14:32:08","slug":"earthion-review-ps5-push-square","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/151315\/","title":{"rendered":"Earthion Review (PS5) | Push Square"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Earthion<\/a><\/p>\n

Seasoned SEGA Genesis specialist Yuzo Koshiro was always going to work wonders when he announced he was creating an all-new shmup with the 16-bit system in mind.<\/p>\n

But Earthion<\/a> is not just an outstanding homage to the intergalactic escapades of past \u2013 it may be up there with genre titans like R-Type<\/a> and Gradius<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The game walks an admirable tight rope, appealing to both old-school and contemporary sensibilities simultaneously.<\/p>\n

Leveraging a regenerating shield system which is intrinsically linked to a shot power meter, you\u2019re punished for taking hits \u2013 but it\u2019s not an insta-fail like in the quarter-consuming romps of arcade past.<\/p>\n

Piloting a super ship fashioned from the scraps of intergalactic invaders, you represent one of humanity\u2019s few remaining hopes, as half of the population seeks refuge on Mars, leaving the Earth open to attack.<\/p>\n

\"Earthion<\/a><\/p>\n

Across eight outstandingly action-packed levels, you\u2019ll weave between the scraps and shrapnel of a cosmic conflict, outrun a nimble alien nasty, and test your weaponry against a cosmic deity \u2013 it\u2019s all in the day of your average anime hero.<\/p>\n

A two-tier weapon system means you can blend the firepower of your standard blasters with a variety of pick-ups, including rocket launchers and scatter-shot lasers. Collecting energy powers up both your main and sub-weapons, but taking hits impacts their effectiveness.<\/p>\n

Automaton Pods can also be collected during each level and spent on either new power-up slots or the overall effectiveness of your shields and shot power. This risk\/reward allows you to forge your own path, and a password system enables you to carry your progress forward.<\/p>\n

This can make the demanding Hard and Hotshot difficulties a trifle more accessible, but it\u2019s ultimately up to you whether you want to take advantage of the passwords or not. Purists may prefer to start each run fresh.<\/p>\n

\"Earthion<\/a><\/p>\n

Credit must be attributed to Koshiro\u2019s mastery of the Genesis\u2019 timeless Yamaha YM2612 sound chip, with this being among his best ever work.<\/p>\n

The soundtrack is as peppy and melodic as you\u2019d expect from the composer behind Streets of Rage<\/a>, but it also has an air of grandiose which matches the sci-fi setting. Pair this with scratchy voice samples and tinny drum beats and you have a match made in heaven.<\/p>\n

But the pixel art \u2013 created by Ancient veteran Makoto Wada here \u2013 also deserves credit, with dramatic backdrops and enormous enemies filling the screen.<\/p>\n

This game is running an original 16-bit ROM through an emulator on the PS5 \u2013 a cartridge release is planned for SEGA\u2019s system in 2026 \u2013 and it\u2019s extraordinary how modern development tools have enabled a two-man team to extract this much power from the 37-year-old hardware.<\/p>\n

\"Earthion<\/a><\/p>\n

The emulator does allow you to tinker with the presentation a bit, offering simulated CRT screens with scanlines, but you may prefer to enjoy the pixel presentation in its original format. That\u2019s an option, too.<\/p>\n

A Caravan mode offers some longevity beyond the core campaign, offering some bespoke time attack and score attack challenges. But we suppose the only criticism here would be that you can see practically all the content of Earthion in an afternoon.<\/p>\n

We also find the PlayStation controls a little unorthodox, as it can\u2019t seem to decide whether it wants to settle on the traditional Japanese button layout (with Circle being confirm) or the more common Western setup (with Cross\/X being confirm) \u2013 but this is a minor nitpick.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/p>\n

Earthion is an outstanding achievement \u2013 a blissfully retro shmup experience with just enough modern sensibilities to make it appeal to an all-new generation of players. With sublime pixel artwork, a scorching score, and a creative campaign that keeps you on your toes, this is an absolutely outstanding effort from 90s dev Ancient.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seasoned SEGA Genesis specialist Yuzo Koshiro was always going to work wonders when he announced he was creating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[54748,5580,69498,59,127,112,129,2843,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-151315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-ancient","9":"tag-arcade","10":"tag-earthion","11":"tag-gb","12":"tag-playstation-5","13":"tag-ps5","14":"tag-reviews","15":"tag-shooter","16":"tag-technology","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}