These different factions are also rivals, however, Shyna just happens to be half Silhouette, half Mirage. Waking with only partial memory of her purpose, Shyna assumes she is a Messenger of Justice, sent to fight evil, which leads to her single-handedly facing off against both factions, through seven incredible levels of non-stop action, in an effort to reach her ultimate destination, a computer system known as Edo. Storywise, Silhouette Mirage is not bad at all, with just enough surprises along your journey to keep you playing. Storyline aside, Silhouette Mirage is an action-based platformer at heart; you run, you jump, etc. However, this is as far as tradition gets in Silhouette Mirage. The amazing people at Treasure, being the truly inspired geniuses of gameplay that they are, have injected Silhouette Mirage with a large amount of originality. First and foremost, since there are two unique factions, there are also two very different attributes. Each enemy falls into one or the other and in rare cases, both. Shyna must be turned so that her red Mirage side shows to kill Silhouettes, just as her blue Silhouette side must be showing to kill Mirages. However, what would happen when you shoot a Silhouette with your Silhouette side or a Mirage with your Mirage side? It's simple really; by doing this, you steal their Spirit Status.

  You see, Shyna must have Spirit to use her weapons, known as "Parasites", but we'll get to those soon. In the Japanese version of Silhouette Mirage, Shyna would only remove enemies' Spirit, but in the American version, if you are running low on Spirit, you can restore yours by stealing your enemies'. This comes in handy, since weapons, in the American version, take various amounts of Spirit to use. Like I said before, weapons are known as Parasites and allow Shyna to attack in a variety of ways. As you continue through the game, you'll come across a rabbit who sells Parasites, for a price. Enemies carry money, so the best way to get money is to beat it out of your enemies' pockets. To do this, you come up close to an enemy, press Circle to grab them, then press Circle multiple times to do the "Cash Bash". You will definitely earn much more money this way then by just blasting your enemies to bits, making this a vital move for advanced players. Shyna can carry a total of three Parasites at one time, but there are seven altogether. Her sole Parasite, known as Surosa, is the standard issue straight shot parasite, and therefore is the cheapest, as well as the default.

  Priday is the boomerang parasite, which allows Shyna to shoot out multiple boomerang shaped energy projectiles. Angara is the explosive parasite, which allows Shyna to shoot proximity mines at unsuspecting enemies, not to mention setting them on the ground. Rasti is the gaseous parasite, which allows Shyna to project a nasty toxic gas cloud, which suffocates any enemies in or near it. Grattoni is the ultimate laser parasite, which allows Shyna to pump out a thick, powerful laser beam. Cavitas is the homing laser parasite, which allows Shyna to lock-on and fire at multiple targets at fairly close range. Envia is the wing laser parasite, which allows Shyna to project a kind of shield beam that looks like two wings that can be modified. Of course, I will admit that there are some slight problems with this remake. The first is unavoidable; from the first time you play Silhouette Mirage, you'll just know that it wasn't designed to run on the PlayStation. There is minor slowdown during some of the multiple enemy encounters, though it mostly rears its ugly head during boss encounters. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does, it makes you wish it was running on the good old Saturn. The second is that while the voice acting is pretty good, it sometimes seems very stressed and somewhat unnecessary. More than once, I wondered why Working Designs chose to replace the charming Japanese dialog of the original, when it all seemed to fit the various scenes so well before.

  Now, I know what you're probably thinking: "Why on earth would I want to play something so inferior to the original?" However, that's just it; it isn't. While the American version of Silhouette Mirage is somewhat different from its Japanese counterpart, that's no reason to avoid playing it all together. Just think of the PlayStation running Silhouette Mirage as an amateur magician that's having a difficult time duplicating that flourish of flowers that the master magician known as the Saturn seems to pull off with such ease. I'm sorry, but anyone who doesn't get a rush from fighting a boss that is much stronger than they and winning with only one point of life left is really missing out on what gaming used to mean and still does for the few of us who have a genuine love for the genre where everything is two-dimensional and extremely challenging enemies that are each defeated in a variety of ways are the mainstay. There is one very good reason Treasure is still making two-dimensional games while almost every other company seems to have written them off as outdated: because, when made right, a two-dimensional platformer with multiple weapons, a vast array of moves and challenging gameplay is all the challenge and fun you could ask for in a game. This year, I received one such title, Silhouette Mirage, which while not without its problems, is still one of the most unique platformers I've ever played.
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