Review - The Sega Saturn was a wonderful machine but it was released on the market with poor timing. Had it come out as little as a year earlier, it would have probably had a much wider success. Generally considered to be as the PCE heir, the Saturn was capable of displaying among the best 2D graphics ever and because of this, many great 2D shooters graced Sega's 32bit powerhouse.

Layer Section is an unbelievable “sprite fest” in which you have all kinds of graphical special effects such as zooming and scaling backgrounds which suddenly accelerate while huge planets beautifully scroll by underneath your ship! The scrolling is furious and silky-smooth and can handle many layers of parallax scrolling with no hesitation! Graphically, this game is simply mind-boggling.

I read somewhere on the internet that the game could look a bit dated by today's standards but trust me, Layer Section still looks stunning even compared to modern 3D shooters. Sprites are big and very well drawn, while some bosses are very impressive (like the golden robot in level 5, pictured above). Also, the attention to detail is simply staggering. Try to picture the following situation:

You are fighting level 2 boss in the proximity of a planet's upper atmosphere and when you finally destroy it, it explodes in a myriad of pieces which are attracted towards the planet while they burn up from the high temperature of atmospheric entry. From the vacuum of space you fly directly into the planet as your ship heat shield is exposed to atmospheric re-entry temperatures. As you get closer to the zooming planet you fly through many layers of clouds from which seemingly endless waves of hostile alien ships suddenly materialize…

All this is gloriously framed within very appropriate and evocative “spacey” music (from Zuntata). There are 7 levels to complete and the game difficulty is high. There is no easy mode and the game provides the player with only 4 credits (although it is possible to double them by pressing a certain combination of buttons). Layer Section difficulty really skyrockets by level 6 where it often happens to be killed without even understanding what happened. This can sometimes be a bit frustrating but it only really happens in the last levels. The play mechanics are interesting as you have a standard upgradable main weapon and a lock on system. Using both weapons is fundamental to clear yourself a path also because there are NO smart bombs (and you will miss them more than once…) To wrap things up, Layer Section is a state of the art 2D shooter with very appealing audio-visuals and tough gameplay. It is one the cheapest Saturn games and paradoxically one of the best!!

Bottom line: top vertical shooter which really pumps some serious power out of the Saturn...Too bad the last stage is so damn hard though...8/10