Einhänder: Ай және Жер соғысының батыры

1997 video game

Einhänder is a scrolling shooter developed by Square for the PlayStation console. It was released in Japan on November 20, 1997 and in North America on May 5, 1998. It was also re released for the Japanese PlayStation Network on June 25, 2008. The name Einhänder is German and denotes a type of sword that is wielded with one hand, here used to refer to the single manipulator arm possessed by the player's spacecraft. in which the player controls a fighter spacecraft that must destroy enemy craft in side scrolling levels. The game's graphics are in 2.5D, that is, in 3D with occasional shifting of camera angles, but with the player's movement restricted to a two dimensional plane. Pre rendered full motion videos are used to illustrate pivotal scenes between stages. The player can choose between multiple difficulty settings and three different models of the "Einhänder" fighter, in addition to two secret ones. and the Moon colony, Selene. The "First Moon War" resulted in the destruction of most of the Earth's surface and the creation of a totalitarian regime on the planet. The game recounts the events of the "Second Moon War" in which the Moon attacks the Earth again for natural resources. Selene's tactics consists of sending one man fighter spacecraft called "Einhänder" on kamikaze missions to cause as much damage as possible on the planet before being destroyed. The player takes on the role of one of these pilots attacking the Earth capital city. The game's narrative then skips to one month later when the pilot re emerges in space flying an armed Einhänder spacecraft. Hyperion communicates that the player is committing an act of treason and must remove their armament and surrender. Still, the player fights their way through the Selenean fighters and faces the Hyperion, the game's final boss. The ending sequence depicts the player's spacecraft damaged and drifting in space. The pilot engages its thrusters and dives into an army of Selenean spacecraft with the Moon in the background. An epilogue shows the actions of the lone Einhänder pilot ended the war by destroying the armies of both sides — leading to an eventual peace. Yet, the pilot's name and deeds were stricken from the records and they are remembered only by veterans of the war. In a post credits scene, a lone Einhänder spacecraft is shown powering up. It was directed by Tatsuo Fujii, who had previously worked at Konami as a programmer on shooters such as Gradius II and Xexex. The developers used German terms extensively for naming things in the game, in addition to a number of references from Greek mythology and the Bible. According to the gaming website IGN, a lot of the effects Square learned from creating Final Fantasy VII were also put in use in Einhänder. The American publisher Working Designs was interested in publishing the game in North America for its Spaz brand of shoot 'em ups, but could not as Sony Computer Entertainment used their priority over Square titles to publish the game themselves. For the North American version, the speed of the arm switching was increased and some power ups were altered; the game mode called "Free" was removed; and the Gallery was given a modified interface and different pictures than those from the Japanese version. On June 25, 2008, Square Enix re released the game as a digital download on the Japanese PlayStation Network.

The music of Einhänder was composed, arranged, and produced by Kenichiro Fukui. Several tracks make use of genres of electronic music, such as progressive house, or other genres like hip hop, piano based music or opera. The soundtrack of the game was published in Japan by DigiCube, a subsidiary of Square, on December 21, 1997, and was reissued by Square Enix on July 18, 2007, after DigiCube's bankruptcy. The final track, titled "Beginning", was also featured on Square Enix Music Compilation 2, a compilation album published on May 1, 2008 for members of the Japanese Square Enix website.

A 111 page official strategy guide, titled Einhänder Official Guidebook, was published in Japan by ASCII Corporation in December 1997. Its content includes stage maps, information on the spacecraft and data tables. The development team behind Einhänder worked on the Gummi Ship portions for Kingdom Hearts III. In a similar vein as with Final Fantasy and The World Ends with You in previous Kingdom Hearts games, Einhänder is represented in Kingdom Hearts III in the form of the Endymion being a Gummi Ship and Schwarzgeist being a secret boss in the Gummi Ship portions of the game along with a remix of the latter's theme.

The game received "generally favorable reviews", just one point shy of "universal acclaim", according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. GameSpot further called the game's play mechanics "finely tuned" and featuring a "fascinating" plot, while IGN felt the tilting camera angles were one of the features that make the game "so exciting". The game was a runner up for the "Best Action Game" and "Best Graphics" awards at the 1998 OPM Editors' Awards, both of which went to Crash Bandicoot: Warped. In 2007, IGN ranked it first in a top ten of the best 2D space shooters.