Soldner-X is import retail site Play-Asia's first attempt at publishing a video game. It's a blast from the past: a classic 2D side-scrolling shooter. Only, now with HD graphics made possible by the PS3. Already released on PC, this shooter will attempt to capture the hearts of PSN fans. Considering the amount of attention games like Super Stardust HD received, we're pretty sure that Soldner-X will be quite successful with the PS3 audience.

Up to this point, all we've seen of Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer were screenshots, but thankfully, developer Side Quest Studios has released a great gameplay trailer of the upcoming PlayStation Network downloadable game. While it doesn't seem like Söldner-X will stray too far away from the tried and true shmup recipe for success, everything we've seen from the game just looks so darn good.

If you have no idea what Soldner-X: Himmelsstürmer is, think back to the glory days of the original PlayStation, to when Square-Enix was still Squaresoft. They tried out different game genres, one of which was a horizontal space shooter called Einhander. The game meshed 2D and 3D in a really unique way and kicked a lot of ass. That's what nostalgia we get when staring at the Soldner-X screenshots, or those contained in our gallery below. The little power-up bar along the bottom is incredibly reminiscent of the Gradius games, too. Two of our favorite horizontal shooters combined into a pretty 720p, 60fps masterwork? We'll download.

Some of the key features in the title are standard fare: unlockable difficulties, power-ups, etc. There are a few tweaks to the genre to make it stand out, though. One of these is a "tactical" element system like chaining, berserker mode, and effectiveness systems. We could draw parallels all day, but to have these all in one place is a nice effort. We can't wait to see if the "over the top" boss fights really are insane. What do you guys think? Would this be a welcome change from the dual-analog shooters plaguing the PlayStation Network?

[via PS3 Forums]