Iridion 3D (GBA)

Iridion 3D

Platform: Game Boy Advance Year: 2001 Developer: Shin'en Multimedia

Iridion 3D is a quasi-3D rail shooter video game developed by Shin'en Multimedia. A launch title for the Game Boy Advance portable game console. The player controls a single starship defending Earth from the alien Iridion. The game spans seven levels from Earth to the aliens' home planet, each following a linear path that culminate with a boss.

Iridion began development as a shooter for the Game Boy Color; when Shin'en decided to drop development and shift their focus to the Game Boy Advance, Iridion was the first game by the developer to appear on the system. Though billed as a 3D game, Shin'en used realtime encoding and resizing to manipulate the size of 2D sprites instead of creating a true 3D environment. More room on the game cartridge was available for graphics due to the game's use of the GAX Sound Engine, which allowed real-time decoding of song data in a small file size.

On release Iridion garnered generally mixed reviews. The graphics and sound were generally praised; a year after its release, critics at Extended Play still considered it the best-looking game on the platform. In contrast, critics derided the game's repetitive and frustrating gameplay. Despite lukewarm reception to the title upon release, Iridion 3D was a financial success, and influenced future Shin'en shooters such as Iridion II and Nanostray.

Screenshots

Opening cutscene. Title-Menu screen. Start of the stage. Gameplay. Pre-boss. First boss.

Music

This is Manfred Linzner's first GBA score, which was heavily inspired by Chris Hülsbeck's works.

Recording

These recordings were made using foobar2000 with exporting to OGG (Vorbis) format.

#	Title	Composer	Length	Listen	Download
01	Opening Sequence	Manfred Linzner	1:11		Download
02	Main Menu	Manfred Linzner	1:09		Download
03	Game Over	Manfred Linzner	0:18		Download
04	Boss Intro	Manfred Linzner	0:10		Download
05	Highscores	Manfred Linzner	0:58		Download
06	Stage Intro	Manfred Linzner	0:03		Download
07	Escape Through The Disposal Tunnel (Stage 1)	Manfred Linzner	2:16		Download
08	Refuser (Stage 1 Boss)	Manfred Linzner	2:12		Download
09	Dogfight Above The Pacific Ocean (Stage 2)	Manfred Linzner	2:28		Download
10	Cytector (Stage 2 Boss)	Manfred Linzner	1:54		Download
11	Air Combat Above The Clouds (Stage 3)	Manfred Linzner	2:32		Download
12	Stratosphere Base (Stage 3 Boss)	Manfred Linzner	1:32		Download
13	Moon Assault (Stage 4)	Manfred Linzner	2:54		Download
14	Lunar Guard (Stage 4 Boss)	Manfred Linzner	1:42		Download
15	Outer Space Asteroid Field (Stage 5)	Manfred Linzner	2:50		Download
16	Prospector (Stage 5 Boss)	Manfred Linzner	1:20		Download
17	Iridion Home Base (Stage 6)	Manfred Linzner	3:14		Download
18	Reactor Core (Stage 6 Boss)	Manfred Linzner	1:02		Download
19	Planet Iridion Prime (Stage 7)	Manfred Linzner	1:55		Download
20	Main Frame (Stage 7 Boss)	Manfred Linzner	1:32		Download
21	Stage Clear	Manfred Linzner	0:03		Download
22	Credits	Manfred Linzner	3:16		Download

Credits

• Ripper: unknownfile
• Recorder: IgoreshaZhu
• Game Credits:
  • Music and FX: Manfred Linzner
  • GAX Sound Engine v1.99d by: Bernhard Wodok (Shin'en Multimedia)

(Sources: 1, 2; ROM credits)

Albums

Iridion 3D & II Arranged Soundtrack Perfect Selection 2003-08-01

Game Rip

Format	Download
	Download (Info)

Releases

USA Title: Iridion 3D Platform: Game Boy Advance Released: 2001-06-11 Publisher: Majesco Sales, Inc.     EU Title: Iridion 3D Platform: Game Boy Advance Released: 2001-09-21 Publisher: THQ

Links

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridion_3D - Wikipedia.
• mobygames.com/game/11283/iridion-3d - MobyGames.
• gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gba/454599-iridion-3d - GameFAQs.