Another PSN downloadable game that seems made to fill the Geometry Wars void, Stardust brings quick needed excitement.

User Rating: 8.3 | Super Stardust HD PS3
By ynfive | Review Date:
I looked forward to this game up to at least a month before its release as I felt I needed something on my PS3 comparable to the 360s Geometry Wars, a finely designed shooter. The most awaited aspect of Stardust to me was the "outside the box" play of traversing over a fully rotating sphere. At the first playing of Stardust I was immediately hooked in that its pacing and need of quick strategy was quite welcome over the straight point, shoot and don't get cornered play of Geometry Wars. Stardust has an assortment of three distinct firing modes, all of which upgrade, and have each a distinct use and feel. Plus there is the ever universal take on the "smartbomb". There is also a dash ability which helps to get the F out of any tight situation, plus also turns your ship into a mildly steerable invincible torpedo that also while in use gives the player a chance for bonus point combos. Of course this dash must need time to recharge, but has an infinite use and gives and an awarding feel in skill mastering its use.

The enemies of stardust can feel somewhat limited. Most of what gets blown up are benign asteroids. These asteroids offer the games powerups and bonus points. The most notable danger of the asteroids is their breaking up into multiple smaller pieces that litter the playing field, which we all know that this particular gameplay is well over two decades old, yet still hasn't gotten old in its freneticy. The actual enemies however will usually get dropped directly on top of your ship. These moments usually take split second reflexes, and offer the better tense moments of the game.

Stardust is split into different levels, or planets, each which have five stages, or phases in themselves. Each Phase entails beating certain types of enemies in succession before advancing to the next phase. Even though there is a pause between stages, all remaining debris and powerups from the previous stage remain to litter the next phase. At the fifth phase there is a boss battle, which in playing many many shooters in my life left very little to impress. Completing the boss starts the next planet.

For a little over one week I was completely engrossed in this game to try and get up higher on the worldwide leaderboards [at one point I was 35th place out of 13000 some on one of the planet challenges, i was proud of myself], but after a while I grew tired and really couldn't match the peak of excitement that needed to feed a climbing high score.

So Stardust was fun, but it only lasted for a little while. I can't see this game giving much of the longevity other similar games can provide, except only to the calculated perfectionist.

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