Einhänder

Einhänder is a shoot 'em up game of the scrolling shooter subgenre in the tradition of games like Gradius, in which the player controls a fighter spacecraft that must destroy enemy craft in side-scrolling levels. The game's graphics are in 2.5D, that is, in 3D with occasional shifting of camera angles, but with the player's movement restricted to a two-dimensional plane. Pre-rendered full motion videos are used to illustrate pivotal scenes between stages.

The player can choose between multiple difficulty settings and three different models of the "Einhänder" fighter, in addition to two secret ones. The Japanese version also features a difficulty setting called "Free", which grants unlimited continues but disables the score. The player's fighter can move at different speeds and is equipped with a default machine gun as well as a manipulator arm, which is used to collect gunpods left by destroyed enemies. Gunpods have varying amounts of power, ammunition and range, and include cannons, guided missile launchers, aircraft-sized lightsabers and other types of weapons.

Einhänder takes place in a fictional future during a war between the Earth colony, Sodom and the Moon colony, Selene. The "First Moon War" resulted in the destruction of most of the Earth's surface and the creation of a totalitarian regime on the planet. The game recounts the events of the "Second Moon War" in which the Moon attacks the Earth again for natural resources. Selene's tactics consists of sending one-man fighter spacecraft called "Einhänder" on kamikaze missions to cause as much damage as possible on the planet before being destroyed. The player takes on the role of one of these pilots attacking the Earth capital city.

As the player progresses through the game, the Selenean military satellite Hyperion relays command orders and objectives. The on-board central computer "EOS" synthesizes orders. EOS also records and relays the player's flight and battle record data back to Hyperion. After completion of the last objective Hyperion informs the player that the battle pattern of the latest EOS unmanned fighter is complete.

Einhänder was the first 3D shooter developed by Square, a company otherwise mostly known for their role-playing video games. It was directed by Tatsuo Fujii, who had previously worked at Konami as a programmer on shooters such as Gradius II and Xexex. The developers used German terms extensively for naming things in the game, in addition to a number of references from Greek mythology and the Bible. According to the gaming website IGN, a lot of the effects Square learned from creating Final Fantasy VII were also put in use in Einhänder.

The game was showcased at the Tokyo Game Show in September 1997 and was initially planned for a Japanese release on October 16, 1997. Square released an unrelated game the following month, Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon, which came with a bonus "Mysterious Data Disc" featuring memory card data for various Square games, including Einhänder.

Einhänder received "generally favorable reviews", according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.

American gaming publications stated that the game was especially notable for a shoot 'em up as it had no strong competitor on the PlayStation at the time of its release. The website AllGame referred to the game as the best side scrolling shooter "to come out in the post 16-bit era of video gaming", while Eurogamer called it "the most successful of Square's expeditions into non-RPG territory". Next Generation said in a contemporary review that it "makes no effort to be anything more than a traditional shooter, with the addition of 3D backgrounds and enemies, but waiting to see what's next is a rewarding experience, as any game should be. It's a welcome challenge for those gamers dying to play a good shooter; and hopefully, Einhander can inject some life into a moribund genre." All four members of the review team for Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) regarded Einhänder as far superior to any recent shoot 'em up, and Kraig Kujawa went so far as to call it "the best shooter ever".