Thanks to EastAsiaSoft for the review code
Title: Soldner X-2: Final Prototype Definitive Edition
System: Ninteno Switch (eShop)
Price: $14.99
Release Date: 05/14/2026
Story
Set years after the Virus War from the first game, the alien invaders return, and it is once again up to you to go out and destroy them all! Like with the first game, there aren’t much in the way of cutscenes besides the between stage transitions, but the aspect of getting different end stages based on how many keys you collect is still the case here, so you won’t get to experience all ten stages without some hunting.
Presentation
Just like in the first game, Soldner X-2 is a 2.5D horizontal shooter, and you thus have a similar look to that original game, with 3D models over a 2D space. The environments in X-2 are by and large a lot better looking than those from the first game, although I wish the bosses looked more visually impressive than they currently do, and they still don’t manage to look all that memorable in the sense that you’ve seen a lot of bosses of their kind before in other shooters.
Still, you have a fairly solid glowup from that original game, and the in-game gallery mode here has tons of concept art and key art pieces to unlock and go through, offering a lot of cool behind the scenes on various aspects of Soldner X-2’s visual presentation.
Also like last time, the sound design is excellent. The music continues from the heights set by the last entry, and keeps the high energy mood going. You can really tell the composers wanted to outdo their prior work to see if they could make a great OST even better sounding, and I think they nailed it pretty well here, with the new compositions making for yet another CD worthy score. Even when replaying stages over and over again for keys, the excellent music made sure the tedium didn’t drag me down too much, and I had a lot of fun playing this with some excellent tracks.
Gameplay
Soldner X-2 is yet another horizontal shooter, bringing back the chaining system from the previous game and largely going for a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mindset. You have new ships with their own unique weapons, but the original Soldner ship returns as well, and by and large this is Soldner X but much, much better in terms of the level design. Your multiple weapons are back, as are the ability to build up limit attacks by picking up repeat collectibles, and of course the series’ signature chaining system.
The original game’s levels weren’t bad by any means, hence why I still recommended it, but a lot of extra polish and tightening up has gone into these stages, making them much more engaging from A to B regardless of how many times you’ll inevitably replay them. It also helps there’s a rank system here, determining the difficulty on the fly and helping to challenge you depending on how well you perform, (albeit if you want to increase the overall difficulty, you have to unlock the harder difficulties and unfortunately can’t jump into a higher challenge) and yet again the quirky scoring system of the first game returns too, again with online leaderboards. Overall this feels really nice to control and the levels are pretty darn fun to replay, and while the bosses might not impress visually, they’ve also gotten some rather interesting patterns, being rather fun to fight.
Is more of the same a bad thing? I don’t think so for Soldner X-2, since a lot of what I enjoyed about that first game is present in this sequel and overall much better. Berserker mode is back, as are the shock bombs and limit moves, so you still have those emergency techniques to make use of, and thus that meant the risk/reward I liked so much goes along real nicely with better stages involved this time around. You also have a brand new challenge mode, featuring a ton of challenges that task you with going through certain levels or specific levels and completing an objective. Some of these challenges are gauntlets of multiple levels in a row, yet I oddly didn’t find that to be too much of a bother since the X-2 levels are more engaging to play.
Unfortunately, what I do find a bother, and the weakest part of Soldner X-2 as a whole comes from the key hunting. Yes, five hidden keys are in each stage and yes, you have to hunt four from all stages to unlock all the levels. There’s baked in DLC this time around which adds more total levels than the original Soldner X, but even these you have to fiddle with keys in order to open up. That means you’ll be playing the game as normal the first go-around, then have to backtrack and throw your head against the same stages shooting every last enemy and obstacle to find keys. Pretty satisfying when you stumble upon keys on your own, not nearly as much when you need them to see every stage the game has to offer, especially when you keep replaying a stage looking for a single key and just can’t find it.
The keys were the worst part of the first game, and this mechanic stings more in X-2 considering just how good the rest of the game turned out compared to its predecessor. Oh well, at least the amount of challenges to take on and unlock gives you something else to do while hunting the keys down. (and you can even find said keys during challenges, so you can kill two birds with one stone this way at least) I just wish this weird way of artificial padding wasn’t present in favor of a typical route system ala Darius.
Conclusion
Soldner X was a pretty fun game I had nostalgia for from the PS3 era, but I never got around to playing this sequel until reviewing it here and now, and I really wish I picked it up sooner. The level designs are better, the bosses are more fun, the chain system is refined and a lot more enjoyable, and the oodles of extra challenges and a fun scoring system lead to this one being the slightly better of the two. I wish it was a giant leap over the last one, but that key system still being as much of a pain as ever drags things down more than you’d expect. Once you finally get to unlocking all the stages though, this game becomes quite the fun followup.
With the DLC from the original PS3/Vita release baked in, you have a pretty sweet all in one deal here, and for the same price as that original game, you can’t go wrong playing this one if you tried the first and remotely liked it in any capacity. If you weren’t sure about that first game, then you can be sure that Final Prototype is the genuine article to stick with, being one of the most impressive Euroshooters i’ve played in a really long time, and one that stands real well next to some JP shooters I’ve played over the years.
The key hunting needed to see the entire game might not be your cup of tea though, but if you enjoy the hunt and the desire to revisit stages for better ranks and a higher score, the replay value here is more than enough for this be a great shooting romp. I just really wish that Key nonsense wasn’t required to unlock all the stages, as then this game would be even better. This is the first time in a while I regret not having a half point system around here, but rest assured, this one does edge out the original, and that original game is still a fun stepping stone into this gem of a shmup.
I give Soldner X-2: Final Prototype Definitive Edition a 7 out of 10.