I am, by dint of a three-year gig at Working Designs, intimately familiar with the process of localizing Japanese video games for the North American market, so I understand why certain choices (and mistakes) are made. Yet despite my gobs of experience, I couldn't begin to tell you what was going through the minds of the people at when they localized the seven-year-old PSX shoot-'em-up, Gunbird, and the one-year-old PS2 shoot-'em-up, Shikigami no Shiro. These localizations of otherwise decent games were done with absolutely no respect for the Japanese developers or American gamers.Before we document the litany of pain, let's talk about the two gameplay elements that make (aka Shikigami) a surprisingly strategic shmup, and very hard to resist at the budget MSRP of $15. First is the dual-attack system. You can press and hold the square button to autofire your weapon, which eliminates enemies more quickly, but generates fewer power-up coins - or you can press and hold X for a spirit attack that generates more coins and automatically collects them, but slows you to about half your normal speed. MLF2's risk/reward gameplay is further enhanced by the Tension Bonus System; the closer you are to enemies and enemy bullets, the more points you receive, and the stronger your attacks become. It's a fantastic gimmick that literally requires you to flirt with danger for higher scores.MLF2 is on the short side, even by shmup standards, with five levels of three stages each, and several 'stages' are simply just boss battles.

Of course, virtually every stage requires a dozen or more play-throughs to learn the enemies' attack patterns; even with ten continues and an adjustable difficulty levels, this isn't a game you'll quickly beat. ( MLF2 includes a practice mode to let you replay any stage you've gone through without losing a life, at which point you don't need the practice.)MLF2's plain 3D backdrops and 2D enemies are hampered by occasional moments of slowdown, which can be eliminated by turning off the 'wait' option (though leaving it on is more faithful to the coin-op from which the game was ported).

May 02, 2003  Mobile Light Force 2 is actually a vertical scrolling shooter that began its life in Japanese arcades under the name Shikagami no Shiro and later came home as an Xbox title in Japan.

The music is generic techno, and the sound effects are unremarkable (except for the voice clips, about which more shortly). As my shmup-lovin' editor reminded me, however, shmup fans aren't in it for the audio/visual splendor, but for the gameplay.And now we must document all that went wrong during the localization process. First, the renaming of two completely unrelated games - different developers, different gameplay styles - to Mobile Light Force and Mobile Light Force 2.

Mobile Light Force sounds more like a tactical FPS than a shmup, and Ikaruga came to the States with its 100%-Japanese title intact, but XS apparently believes (not completely without merit) that American gamers must be deceived into thinking these are anything but shmups. MLF2's nifty character-art gallery. Second, XS has thrown out the Japanese cover art and commissioned all-new, all-heinous artwork by Moore Design Group. MLF2, on its packaging and title screen, features three leather-clad, gun-toting babes running down a city street.

While I have no problem with leather-clad babes as a whole, and have in fact participated in several rallies to support the Second Amendment rights of leather-clad babes, I do have a slight problem with the fact that leather-clad babes have nothing to do with this game!