Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Dezaemon 3D is less a traditional game and more a creative playground, offering players the tools to build their own 3D shooting experiences from the ground up. While the cartridge comes with two fully playable shooters—Solid Gear and Usagi—the real draw is the robust editor. Whether you’re mapping out floating islands full of enemy turrets or scripting waves of robotic bunnies, the editor gives you near-complete control over level layouts, enemy behavior, and weapon parameters.

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For those who prefer to jump right into action, the two sample games on the cartridge showcase the engine’s versatility. Solid Gear throws you into the heart of a mechanized war, challenging you with wave after wave of tanks, warships, and colossal mechs. Each level ramps up the difficulty, forcing you to master both precision targeting and evasive maneuvers. Usagi, on the other hand, leans into surreal Japanese humor, pitting you against everything from guided missiles to hordes of oversized rabbits. Its bouncy, unpredictable enemy patterns make for a delightfully chaotic experience.

Delving into the editor, you’ll find an array of tools for designing 3D models, painting textures, and even composing background music. The learning curve is steep—assembling a custom mech or crafting a catchy theme tune takes time and patience—but those willing to invest the effort will find the reward of playing through a stage of their own creation deeply satisfying. The intuitive grid-based interface guides you through object placement, while real-time previews let you tweak lighting and camera angles on the fly.

Players who aren’t interested in building from scratch can still enjoy the fruits of other creators’ labor. A small but passionate community has sprung up around trading cartridge saves or dumping level data online. In this way, Dezaemon 3D functions both as a solo creative toy and a collaborative platform, extending gameplay well beyond its initial two demos.

Graphics

Visually, Dezaemon 3D embraces the limitations of its hardware, delivering low-poly models and simple textures that nonetheless convey personality. The editor’s texture-mapping tool lets you customize surfaces with your own pixel art, meaning you can transform a bland cube into a rusted tank hull or paint a friendly rabbit with neon patterns. Color palettes are somewhat limited, but clever use of contrast and pattern can evoke surprisingly detailed environments.

The sample games highlight different stylistic approaches. Solid Gear opts for gritty, muted tones to underscore its serious wartime setting. Explosions are relatively modest in polygon count but compensate with dramatic screen shakes and particle effects. Usagi, by contrast, bursts with bright pastels, exaggerated shapes, and comical caricatures. The bunnies in Usagi might look like simple spheres with ears, but their playful animations—hopping, spinning, even taunting the player—inject a sense of fun that belies the technical simplicity.

During gameplay, frame rates remain stable for the most part, even when dozens of projectiles fill the screen. The camera system, though fixed in angle for many levels, can be adjusted in the editor to create dynamic fly-throughs or tense chase sequences. While you won’t see texture filtering or advanced lighting, the charm of seeing a world you designed come to life in three dimensions is a unique pleasure that more polished shooters can’t replicate.

For aspiring creators, the graphics editor is a highlight. You can sculpt basic shapes, apply UV-mapped textures, and position light sources to set mood and visibility. Though there’s no mirror mode or sculpting brush, the combination of primitive shapes and layerable textures allows for a surprising degree of detail—provided you’re willing to invest the time into mapping each face carefully.

Story

By design, the narrative in Dezaemon 3D’s built-in games is straightforward, allowing the emphasis to remain on gameplay and creation. Solid Gear casts you as a lone pilot sent behind enemy lines to dismantle a war machine from the inside out. There are rudimentary cutscenes of radio chatter and mission briefings, enough to frame the action without overwhelming it. The story doesn’t break new ground, but it provides context for why you’re dodging artillery fire and strafing armored convoys.

Usagi’s story, in contrast, revels in absurdity. You play as a lone defender on a pastel-colored battlefield besieged by anarchic bunnies, agile missiles, and mechanical contraptions that defy logic. Sparse text prompts and jubilant jingles serve as scene setters rather than deep plot devices. Here, the narrative is more of a quirky backdrop—an excuse to unleash mayhem and laugh at the sheer weirdness of ducking bunny bombs.

Ultimately, the story element shines brightest when you create your own game. The editor’s event scripting allows you to insert dialogue boxes, mission objectives, and even branching paths. Want to craft a spy thriller with cloak-and-dagger twists? You can. Prefer a wild west shootout in a dusty desert town? That’s possible too. While complex storytelling tools are limited, the foundation is there for imaginative users to weave basic narratives around their custom levels.

Both sample games demonstrate how story can be integrated with gameplay without overshadowing it. Whether you’re racing through enemy lines in Solid Gear or fending off furry foes in Usagi, the narrative context remains accessible and unobtrusive, letting the action speak for itself while offering just enough thematic flavor to keep you engaged.

Overall Experience

Dezaemon 3D stands out as a bold experiment in handheld game creation, bridging the gap between player and designer. For those who approach it purely as a toolkit, it delivers an impressive suite of editing features that rival early PC game editors, all squeezed into a compact cartridge. The sense of ownership you get from playing even a rudimentary shooter you built yourself is genuinely thrilling.

As a packaged product, the included games—Solid Gear and Usagi—offer immediate value. Both are solid shooters in their own right, showcasing the engine’s capabilities and providing hours of challenge and comedy, respectively. They also serve as learning templates, giving new creators a blueprint for level pacing, enemy placement, and environmental design.

The biggest hurdle is patience: crafting 3D models, applying textures, and fine-tuning gameplay loops can be time-consuming. Players looking for a quick, pick-up-and-shoot experience might find the editor intimidating. However, the two sample titles cushion this learning curve, allowing newcomers to appreciate the cartridge’s potential before diving into full-scale creation.

In the end, Dezaemon 3D is a niche gem. It won’t replace big-budget shooters in terms of graphical polish or narrative depth, but it offers something far rarer on consoles: the joy of creation. If you’re the type who dreams of designing levels, composing tunes, and unleashing your own robotic armies on unsuspecting players, this cartridge is a must-have. Even if you’re not, the inventive sample games alone make it worth exploring.

Retro Replay Score

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