We get a lot of mail here at the GamesRadar offices. Games, contest entries, press materials by the yak-load, the latest pile of scrawlings calling us biased for one article or another... all sorts of things, arriving in volumes that can give the mailman a career-threatening backache. But we've rarely had such a satisfying delivery as the one we received today, in an average, unassuming padded envelope: a final copy of The Red Star for PlayStation 2, courtesy of EBgames.com.

What's that? You've never heard of The Red Star? Small wonder. Based on an excellent but under-known comic series, it was originally scheduled to arrive courtesy of publisher Acclaim - one of that company's few solid titles - clear back in 2004. When Acclaim died, this was the one game that needed to survive. But, given a severely old-school gameplay style that literally merged side-scrolling pummelings with top-down blasteration, it seemed unlikely that the game would find a home in this modern  era of crime shooters and movie knock-offs.

Over the years, The Red Star has become almost mythical. Rumors constantly swirled that it could return, but nothing was concrete, and even when the game reappeared on retail websites, we remained skeptical over publisher XS' ability to bring it to market.  

Thankfully, we were wrong. The long, soap-opera story is over and the PS2 version of The Red Star has officially hit store shelves once and for all. And we're thrilled. Now, feast your eyes on the niche-tastic explodagation below. It's heartwarming, isn't it?

April 25, 2007