Games have toned down their do or die scenarios that permeated the arcade market back then.  Much of this was because they wanted you to lose so that you would have to plunk more quarters into the machine.  But even in early games that didn’t require coins such as the C-64, the Atari, etc, scrollers didn’t apologize for their difficulty.  As Yoda said once, there is no try, there is do or do not.  And Sine Mara’s main marketing reflects this philosophy.  The only goal is to complete the game.  But getting there requires a lot of practice, a lot of luck, and a lot of hand-eye coordination because as the game progresses, it gets more and more difficult until the boss round seems like torture to get through.  But with the pain, comes the gain.  And that is what makes these satisfying.  That when you win, you feel as though you really accomplished something and wasn’t coddled along the way as some games do.

Getting there is a pretty beautiful experience.  There are some amazing graphics in the game with a diesel punk theme that ranges from Tokyo to mountains with waterfalls.  These are surely meant to be stunning, but they are distracting too, taking you from the play at hand, something you have to be careful of.  Admiring the scenery will get you killed pretty easily and the game will be over.  But unlike some of the more violent ways to die, hits are registered differently in the game.  Instead of taking on damage, you get points off of a clock that is ticking down.  If you don’t reach the next time extension because you took too long or you were too badly shot at, that is all she wrote.  And you will have to try again, causing no end of frustration, but a valuable lesson on concentration.

Sine Mora is available on the Xbox Live Marketplace for 1200 MS Points, or $15.00 in real cash, which isn’t bad for a newly updated blast from the past.  But be warned, this ain’t no Ace Combat…