Under Defeat HD: Deluxe Edition (PS3)
When countries at war agree to a ceasefire, the cessation of hostilities is usually scheduled for some time in the near future. This allows both sides to effectively communicate to all troops on the ground that the fighting is over without anyone potentially being held accountable for attacks made while the information is being relayed to all forces. However, this period before the ceasefire can also be seen as the last chance to deal significant damage to an adversary, some forces attacking right up to the last second it’s allowed. The vertical shoot ’em up Under Defeat makes the rather atypical decision to set its action during this strange period of war, the action not some effort to win the conflict yourself but instead an attack on a nation right before it is about to be disallowed. However, considering both sides are whipping out experimental vehicles to use this chance to test powerful weapons in the dying embers of this conflict, perhaps it is wise to take out as many as weapons as possible to ensure the enemy won’t be fit to fight a war again soon.
Under Defeat HD: Deluxe Edition is a remake of an arcade and Dreamcast title that had not previously left Japan, and as part of leaving Japan, another curious element of Under Defeat’s set-up was seemingly scrubbed away. The particular nations that were at war are simply known as the Empire and Union here, but it appears they are meant to be alternate universe version versions of the Axis and Allies from World War II, right down to the specific vehicle choices and languages used by each side. The player actually finds themselves fighting on the side of the Axis stand-in, although there is no recognizable symbology and with fictional maps depict their own made up nations, people playing this version would have no reason to suspect this game was even inspired by the conflict save perhaps in terms of the somewhat realistic depictions of army hardware. While there are vehicles you’ll face that are far beyond the sizes of real weapons of war and even a few that veer into the area of robotics, Under Defeat HD: Deluxe Edition is mostly about tanks, warships, and helicopters that look somewhat close to life but with some added firepower save for the deliberately exaggerated boss fights.
The particular vehicle you will be in control of is a special helicopter with a unique ability. Like in many vertical shmups, you’ll be carried through a level automatically but can move around most anywhere on screen, the player firing in front of them to take out whatever foes are in their path. However, the helicopter also has the ability to angle its fire, the forward-firing machine guns able to hit targets by tilting your aircraft towards the left or right. You can still move about while pointing your weapons at an angle, the player able to better prioritize targets and dodge incoming fire while firing back thanks to this touch. However, if you utilize the default controls, you might find this option disorienting and outright a hindrance at times. By default, if you want to point the helicopter towards a target, you need to not be firing and then angle your craft in the desired direction and then open fire to lock it into that angle. This can lead to moments where you are just trying to move about and accidentally point in a direction or you want to maintain fire but have to be moving around frequently yet your aircraft is trapped at an angle unless you let up on pressuring your target. Thankfully, Under Defeat HD: Deluxe Edition includes a twin stick control method instead that simplifies things greatly, one stick used for movement and the other letting you point your weapons towards whatever angle in front of you that you desire. This does not trivialize the difficulty and actually makes play rather smooth, especially since many enemies take sustained fire to destroy and bosses in particular have many specific parts to target that will unleash unrelenting salvos if they’re left intact too long.
Once you’ve got the basics of angling your attack down, your helicopter has another option to consider in something literally called Options. If you stop firing for a bit and have the energy charged for it, a small weapon will appear alongside your aircraft, joining you in firing on foes for either as long as it has ammunition or until it has been hit. The specific weapon of your Option is determined by pick-ups enemies drop, and each one has its advantages. The Vulcan machine gun will lock in one direction and open fire with rapid weak shots, it quick to recharge so it is useful for tearing through hordes of small targets. The rocket will only fire one massive explosive shot and needs quite a while before it’s ready to be called in again, meaning it is great for dealing hefty damage to a boss or tough vehicle but you likely will use it less since you don’t want to waste it on easy targets. The cannon is a good middle ground, able to target foes independently and fire strong shots with a middle of the road recharge time, a player likely able to form a preference or even plan which one they’d want to bring to the fight ahead once they become more used to the game’s stages. Bombs also give you a way to quickly deal severe damage to all targets while giving you a period of invincibility, and with bombs refreshing after each death and being a common enough drop, there’s little reason to be shy about dropping them when you feel you’re in a bind. They don’t trivialize the action even if you’re overzealous in their use, but they are one of the most likely things to trigger the game’s rough moments of slow down. Like many shooters where you’re weaving around bullets at high speeds and die in one hit, technically slow down can be a boon as it gives you more time to react, but for a game with HD and Deluxe in its name, it does feel unusual the game will sometimes chug when doing standard expected actions.
Under Defeat HD: Deluxe Edition is structured like the kind of game you need to attempt a few times to learn before you beat. The campaign only features five unique levels, the background music rather good and there are some unique locations despite the battlefield theming like one stage focused more on the war by sea and the final level even being a bit of a bleak reminder of war’s cost initially. A successful run will likely only take you around 40 minutes, but the difficulty means you won’t be able to hit that ending on the first few attempts. This is partly because the game starts you off only with a few continues and no chance to earn more than the standard amount of lives for each of them, although you can at least set a default lives per continue to five if you want more time to figure things out and there are difficulty options from Easy to Hard as well. Easy isn’t a pushover though, but Under Defeat HD: Deluxe Edition makes the perhaps short-sighted decision to allow you to unlock additional continues but only via playing the game for hours on end. Unsurprisingly, people online recommend just starting a run, pausing, and leaving the game on for eight hours to unlock infinite continues, but it’s not so hard that you need that much of a cushion. Besides, this Deluxe Edition contains the VKL6.02(A)P as an alternate playable helicopter that routinely launches a rocket as part of its standard fire, it essentially the game’s true easy mode if you only wish to clear the game.
If you do take the time to train up and maybe gather some additional continues, the five stage campaign is enjoyable because your ability to fire at different angles is frequently tested by an enemy rich battlefield. An aircraft carrier will be dotted with plenty of turrets to shoot down, huge groups of tanks will drive in at once, and larger vehicles take sustained fire to wear down while you’re still being pestered by more standard craft while trying to wipe out the big threat. There are times danger can come from behind, usually with some hint it will happen or allowance so that you don’t get destroyed while sitting in the usual safe area, but most fights will have you highly mobile as you want to set up your best angles and weave through the very visible bullets. The somewhat drab realistic warzones benefit you there as the bright weapons fire stands out well against it, and since the game will every now and then whip out something like a giant tower of guns or some hovering robot tanks, you also get more outlandish foes that can test your movement in new ways.
Under Defeat HD: Deluxe Edition does technically offer two ways to tackle the main campaign. New Order and Arcade are, in many ways, the same adventure, but some elements are impacted by their primary difference: the screen size. Arcade has a thinner vertical strip meant to match the original arcade release in terms of enemies present and the display. New Order, on the other hand, will use the entirety of the screen to depict the action. Inherently, this means New Order can pack in more enemies to fill the screen with more bullets, but you also have more room to dodge about. The differences in terms of the enemies that show up isn’t always immediately tangible between the two in terms of what you’re facing, but the need to play a bit differently and the technically low runtime means once you conquer one, it can be interesting to go tackle the other and see how well your skills transfer. Both modes also have an unlockable Extra mode that again mostly comprises of subtler changes, the more apparent alterations being things like removing the snow from the snow level or changing the after mission art rewards of the two female pilots to more casual and playful illustrations for the Extra run. While greater changes would give a player more reason to pursue each mode and make this package potentially a better product, having essentially four alternate modes for an entertaining and challenging shoot ’em up at least gives you some way to keep the action fresh after your first clear of the campaign.
THE VERDICT: Under Defeat HD: Deluxe Edition isn’t always as clean as it should be with its surprising moments of slowdown, but the core shooting supplemented by an awesome soundtrack is almost intoxicating once you get a handle for this game’s style of action. Angling your aircraft to better hit targets as you dodge around makes the two control stick control method satisfying to utilize without it robbing the game of its strong difficulty, and while it could do with more truly unique modes, having four technically different takes on the short campaign also mean that effort spent learning how to clear it extends beyond just one clean run through.
And so, I give Under Defeat HD: Deluxe Edition for PlayStation 3…
A GOOD rating. Under Defeat HD: Deluxe Edition is actually not likely the definitive edition of this former arcade game, a newer release for systems like the Switch, PS5, PC, and Series X likely cleaner while papering over some of the little issues here. They don’t expand the game much more beyond what this PS3 title offers though, because while it is a bit lean if viewed only for the time it technically takes to clear a campaign, it ignores that process of figuring out the opposition and then using that knowledge to clear the extra modes. Having that extra level of control over your helicopter is definitely what gives this game its unique thrills, the player better able to handle a battlefield that can afford to get crowded with somewhat durable targets because you have the ability to zip around while still maintaining productive weapons fire. The Options encourage you to let up on the gunfire at times so they can deploy, but the bombs are great for getting you out of a jam and they’re doled out with the right level of frequency that you will try to save them but don’t need to treat them as something too precious to utilize. Once you toss aside the default controls, you find a shoot ’em up where you are given some pretty flexible tools where smart play can drastically shrink the level of danger you’re in or you can clear a tough boss much more quickly. It does feel like Under Defeat HD: Deluxe Edition should have been much more adventurous in terms of altering its core design for the four technically unique campaigns or it could at least throw in more playful additional modes. Two player co-op exists that adds another fun layer and room for replayability, shooting for high scores or trying to earn achievements for clearing different difficulties or playing well in a certain way also technically add a touch more, but even just an extra stage or a unique boss or two to truly vary things up might have been the key to make you want to stick it out through the similar modes to see what’s in store.
While its set-up is certainly strange whether or not you include the WWII elements and the ending even adds an additional odd turn, Under Defeat HD: Deluxe Edition is a shoot ’em up for people who are fans of the fast-paced action of the genre but want something with a bit more flexibility. As simple as being able to aim somewhat to the left and right can be, it opens up a great deal of design room and gives you an extra layer of control, and as you grow accustomed to it, needing those extra continues and bombs less and less, you get that excellent sensation of improvement that comes not only from learning what lies ahead, but coming to truly understand the potential of the tools you’ve been granted for your battle with a war’s worth of combat vehicles.