Einhander

Einhander means “one hand” in German, but do not let the name fool you. You need both hands to survive this non-stop adrenaline rush, where you just cannot shoot fast enough at the endless torrent of bad guys. It is a furiously paced one-player spacecraft shooter with 2D scrolling, action sweeping from right to left, and it is a deeply satisfying dose of unrepentant ballistic mayhem.

The title refers to how you fly: your ship has a manipulator arm, a hand, that grabs weapons called Gunpods. Destroy the right enemies and they drop a Gunpod your Einhander can snatch and hold, then you select, swap and replace these weapons depending on the threat in front of you. There are eight to choose from, including homing missiles, grenades and a laser sword, each rated for power, range and ammo. It turns a straight shooter into a constant tactical scramble: grab, judge, swap, fire.

You begin by picking one of three fighters, each with its own mix of the default rapid-fire 20mm machine gun and a specific Gunpod capacity. As the difficulty climbs, the “pro” model, with one 20mm gun and the ability to load and fire two Gunpods at once, proves the best of the bunch. My own preferred loadout is a gatling gun paired with a 120mm cannon, the necessary blend of speed and firepower. Choosing the right fighter and the right Gunpods is genuine strategy, not an afterthought.

And then there are the bosses, huge robots of every shape and size that spit lead like there is no tomorrow. You battle a pistol-packing cyborg, dismember a goliath transformer, strafe a runaway train, dodge a hyper battletank, and take on heavier hitters once you drop into the tunnel toward an underground cavern. Each one is a set piece, and each one earns the white-knuckle build-up that precedes it.

Square brings the same polish to a shoot-’em-up that it usually saves for its RPGs, and the result is one of the genre’s standouts on the PlayStation. Fast, stylish, and smarter than it first looks.