Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer Review: Infectious Schmup

When seeing the umlaut in Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer, I was hoping that German wasn’t required to be able to play it, as mein Deutsch ist nicht so gut. Thankfully, this Eastasiasoft published title is in English and features a run-of-the-mill sci-fi narrative that’s easy to follow. The control system? Perhaps I overthought it to begin with, but as it’s a shmup, you could pick up and play this within milliseconds.

As with most things, looks are often the first thing one notices, and on the Nintendo Switch, this is a really nice-looking game. It instantly reminded me of the Amiga 500 days (immediately a good thing), though the presentation was spot-on for my little playing Nintendo Switch 2. Don’t buy one yet. It’s a waste of money. Anyhoo, yes, the presentation is excellent, and somewhat on par with Sine Mora Ex, only without the fancy cinematics.

And while Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer is a good-looking game, it also means it’s a slight flaw, too, as the backgrounds are so good that it’s quite hard to see enemy units – and we all know how hectic a shmup can be. Regardless, that, plus the decent soundtrack is a good start. No German ability is needed to play the game, nor do you need to understand how to play a side-scrolling shmup, as they’re so intuitive. Though it’s far from the complexities of Pawarumi.

Beginning with two basic weapons, you can switch between them on the fly based on your current strategy. Taking down waves in one go is more likely to award more points, and ideally drops, and each weapon has its use. However, the basic weapon is limited, and each has its own energy levels. Without collecting drops that replenish this, it’s important to switch between your available weapons effectively – not just for crowd control, but also because you have to wait a short time for them to refill.

Another aspect that is important to Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer, which I initially couldn’t grasp, was switching back and forth between weapons when you’ve earned a full charge. Using the same weapon to repeatedly take down waves of enemies will unlock extra power and potential upgrades, and I think this is where I struggled most, as it felt like an age to win these weapon upgrades. That’s not to say that the game isn’t doable with those you have available, but having a weapon that shoots in multiple directions is an absolute godsend. When you die, you lose it.

Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer does have difficulty levels in addition to tutorials, where you can learn to perfect a level, ideally to earn bragging rights on the leaderboards. More importantly, though, is learning the level structures, as sometimes it’s quite easy to get caught in the scenery and lose a lot of health, or better still, learning the patterns so you don’t miss anything. Dying does cause a restart, however, as mentioned, fine-tuning a stage you’re struggling with is very welcome. Just be mindful that you can only do one stage at a time and are unable to go any further once you beat the boss.

Bosses in the game are good enough and offer a fair amount of variety, as well as strategies. My first attempt at a serpent-like boss had me elated in thinking I’d worked out how to cheese it as beat it first time with minimal damage, though on subsequent attempts, it handed me my arse on a plate. Still, I like that (the challenge, not my derrière on mum’s finest bone china).