Denizen

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Denizen is gushing all over musical shooter Rez like a high school love letter.

There's no getting away from it - on almost every level, Denizen apes the Dreamcast classic. This forward-scrolling shooter attempts - rather superficially - to link your actions with the tech-based soundtrack in much the same manner Rez managed all those years ago.

Yet, like buying a dodgy DVD off a market stall and finding out you've picked up a video recording taken from the back of the flicks, Denizen just isn't the real deal. Though it might share many a trait with what is undoubtedly its inspiration, it it pales in comparison to the original.

What is similar, though, is the game's plot. Equally confusing and nonsensical, you guide a cheap-looking Transformer replica named Xio around a polygonal world fighting off rogue software intending to infect the system. This involves traveling down a series of tunnels by using the virtual thumbstick to move while avoiding enemy fire. There are five stages, each of which is split into three separate levels.

The cancerous software in question takes a variety of forms and the idea is to repeatedly tap each target or swipe across a series of foes to eliminate them before they have a chance to fire upon you. In the harder levels, managing that is increasingly tricky as more and more enemies come at you.

While blue nodes lined throughout give high-score chasers a trinket or two to aim for, the lack of variety becomes tiring. There's no real sense of momentum in the levels, the music simply tinkering away in the background instead of coming to any kind of climax, your actions having little effect on the atmosphere.

The bosses that mark each level's end are equally uninspired, and usually a case of taking out set targets in order - sometimes one by one, sometimes jumping to and fro.

None of this comes with any real explanation, either. Denizen can only be pitched at an audience that has previous experience with Sega's trance-laden shooter because you won't have any idea just what is going on if you haven't played it.

What's most damning, however, is the fact that the Rez fans development studio sprimp is clearly eager to attract are more than likely to view this as an especially meek and mild clone.

It feels like a basic take on famed designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi's quest for synesthesia - like a plump meal with all the taste drained out of it.

To praise Denizen too heavily would be to completely misunderstand what Rez achieved a decade back, and for those who who never sampled that particular title's own struggle against the system this tame take will do little to inspire them to investigate further.