It's hard to make a list of quality game developers that stay true to a certain console. Sony has the likes of Squaresoft; Nintendo has...Well...Themselves (‘Nuff said). What developer has shined over here on our side of the lawn? Few can make this claim to fame, but one company that has never let us down with quality and content is none other than the Sega-born company, Smilebit. Every game shipped out of their doors pushes the boundaries of what we call "innovative” or "genre bending”. Simply put, we've yet to see a bad game come from their side of the gaming arena. Smilebit games have always come with great hype, Panzar Dragoon Orta and Jet Set Radio Future both being in that category.

Ported and optimized to the Xbox late in its development this has to be one of the few games that has flown under the gaming radar, only attracting mild attention from the Smilebit diehards and the hard-core Sega fanboys. But can it measure up to the likes of Smilebit's other releases? Does it soar or sputter?

In the year 1835 Halley's Comet approached the earth spurring massive technological leaps in many fields. One man stands as the single biggest contributor to these scientific bounds, Dr. Hebble Gate. Known throughout the world for his genius, he had ascended to almost god-like status but out of nowhere Dr. Hebble disappeared under a shroud of mystery that left the planet in a state of shock and sadness.

Taking place in the British Empire in 1906 AD, you assume the role of one of two characters, Kelly O'Lenmy or Saburota Mishima, each one of "Halley's Chosen”, able to harness the power of Halley's Comet. You've been sent to investigate a string of strange happenings that have been occurring throughout the world, that have been traced back to Dr. Hebble. The story takes the more "creative” path that leads far away from what we're used to experiencing in normal, sci-fi action-shooters.

The core structure of any game relies on its playability, and GUNVALKYRIE doesn't slack off in this department. GV relies heavily on your characters flight suit, or "Gear-Skin”. Almost every level has platform-elements scattered throughout it forcing you to make good use of your Gear-Skin. Using the left trigger to boost into the sky. Your character is controllable in mid-air through a series of directional clicks on your controllers left joystick. Each click enables your character to jet in a different direction depending on what way the stick has been clicked. Each one of these boosts consumes a small amount of fuel from your Gear-Skin's supply. This idea works very well until you actually realize how much fuel that even some of the smallest jumps require. Just boosting into the air will give you about 3-5 seconds of airtime, but skilled players will notice that the extra directional clicks consume little to no fuel to engage, enabling the best of the best to sometimes go minutes without touching the ground once.

While you are soaring around the massive canyons and cramped indoor environments, you're going to be gunning for your life the whole time. GUNVALKYRIE does an excellent job here via the very accessible and upgradeable targeting system. Firing and destroying enemies is as simple as pressing the right trigger, but holding it down will enable you to target multiple enemies, blasting them all at the same time when you release the fire button. After the first mission or two, you'll be plenty comfortable with the targeting system and working it in-mid air during intense firefights. The levels in GUNVALKYRIE range from spanning outdoor canyons to small indoor corridors chained together by narrow hallways, all which play out well once the player is used to the controls.

But I won't lie to you; the game's difficulty goes vertical about one-fourth of the way through. I'm not talking about you just saying to yourself, "Oh well, better try again!” I'm talking about threatening to snap the game disc if you die again. You'll have nightmares about the games incessant need to deplete your Gear-Skins fuel supply 2 inches from the next platform, forcing you to plummet miles to the ground to try again. I've even threatened to send hate mail to Smilebit and boycott their offices in Japan. Sometimes it just gets that bad. The one thing that I can tell that causes most of these problems and frustrations is the games overly complex control setup. Now I know that there are over 30 some functions in game that are useable through different combinations of button presses and such, but when you're in the middle of a firefight, clicking in on both right and the left thumb stick's while boosting into the air WHILE nailing all sorts of baddies down below can be a big task. Now, I'm not saying that the controls are bad, I'm just saying that they will take more time than should be necessary to learn than most other games. Don't let it get your hopes down; the game's rewards more than make up for this.

This is one area in which the Sega and Smilebit boys never let us down. GUNVALKYRIE is filled with over the top visual effects that remind us how powerful and great that our Xbox really is. GUNVALKYRIE sports a great particle system that enables spectacular explosions, rocket-trails and flat out beautiful special moves.

The enemy models are also very well detailed and bring a much-needed change to the action genre's standard baddie. Smilebit opted to give the enemies more of an "organic” feel that was instantly attainable thanks to GUNVALKYRIE's triple-A texture work. Most of the time you will be fighting twenty to thirty enemies at the same time. (Making the game itself a bit hectic) but thanks to the top-notch graphics engine, the action stays nice and "overwhelming” (If you know what I mean). The numerous and creative enemy models really help bring the games spanning vistas and grim indoor environments to life.

More to its credit, reflections are mapped across almost every surface giving them a clean, yet mysterious shine to what would otherwise be bland and boring architecture. As I mentioned earlier, each characters special moves are a treat to witness. These path-clearing moves fill the screen with a visual splendor matched by few other games. You might think that with graphics as crisp as these, GUNVALKYRIE might chug in the more creature-filled area's but it doesn't. GUNVALKYRIE keeps all that gorgeous eye candy without letting the games silky smooth frame-rate take a hit.

If there were one area of GUNVALKYRIE that I would have to complain about and yet praise at the same time, this would be it. Directional sound seems evident throughout most of the game, enabling you to hear the cries of your enemies far off. I really dig that effect as it adds to the games atmosphere and brings the intensity level up a few notches. This feature is also evident in the tightly packed indoor levels, never letting you feel totally safe. That's what I love about GUNVALKYRIE's sound effects; they blend so well with the game giving it personality and originality.

Now I won't lie to you, the game does have good music. The scores are all original, and they're good, but that's not the problem. The problem lies in the games placement of the music. All too often, the game throws down a techno-beat that would go well with something other than the situation at hand. I found myself asking, "What the hell were these guys on?”

More than a few times when trekking through one of the games cave environments while listening to a nursery rhyme straight from a children's music box. To amplify the games already terrible placement of music, that same level has Dr. Hebble's VERY annoying voice played over it asking questions about humanity that start to repeat themselves after the first few lines of dialogue. This only intensifies the games ability to make you contemplate suicide from its daunting difficulty level and flat out murderous song placement. You'll be screaming bloody murder after that 9th try to reach that "top-platform” only to be plunged to the base of the canyon, forcing you to stomach more of the games, sometimes brilliant, but overall ineffective music.