- Release Date: April 5th 2011
- Price: $7.99
- Genre: Action/Puzzle
- Publisher: Beatshapers
- Developer: TastyPlay
StarDrone is a very unique and interesting puzzle game downloadable from the PS Store for the PlayStation 3. I knew immediately that this was one of those games that would differ quite a bit from the rest of the Puzzle games I have played through out my gaming life.
In StarDrone you control a small drone inside of a closed in map in space. The maps have different shapes depending on the level you play on, your main objective is to light up all of the star figures inside of the map simply by passing near them, once all of the stars on the map are lit up, you have completed the map. Getting around to all of the stars isn’t as easy as it sounds, to navigate your mini drone, you must utilize the bigger drones on the map, which you can grab hold onto by pressing X that then swing you around in your desired direction to get you closer to the stars. But that’s not all, on some maps there are also bricks, or wall guards that shape the map which keep you from flying out into outer space. When you hit these bricks you gain points, as well when lighting up stars at certain speeds, but as you hit more of these bricks the more open the map becomes for you to fall out of and loose, so you always have to be careful. The game is very simple, easy to understand, but every unique at the same time in it’s own ways and will keep you interested for a good while.
Gameplay:
The gameplay in StarDrone is great, the game runs smoothly, the visuals keep your eyes glued, and the controls actually make the game function-able. In StarDrone there is also an option in which players can choose to either speed up, or slow down the speed of the game. Considering the mini drone in which you control throughout the game can get a bit hard to keep up with due to it’s sudden speed at times when after swinging on the larger drones, I find this option to be incredibly useful in gameplay and is also an option that I believe should be implemented into more puzzle based games to cater to a wide variety of players of the games. When controlling the mini drone in StarDrone it almost feels like you’re going on a sort of ride, especially when the map you are playing on is a larger based map and the mini-drone is speeding by quickly; it just adds a whole new feel to the game.
Features:
The game is a very small PSN title, while there are not tons of features, the ones included are fair enough to keep this game up for being a decent title. When you first start up the game you are presented the main menu which gives five options; Play Game, LeaderBoards, Options, How to Play, and Credits. Exciting, right? While the only two main options are Play Game, and Leaderboards, I still think Leaderboards was a great addition to the game. Like most games with a leaderboards feature, you can compare your stats with your friends and others across the world, and try to top their high scores. Though I believe level racing in this game would be much more fun than looking at the leader boards, I won’t complain, it was a good addition to the game. The other options do exactly what they say they do, in options you can choose your desired game speed, volume levels, music levels, brightness, screen size, and vibration. While in How to play and Credits, there is a short tutorial on how to play the game, and the credits are just credits. Though one feature in this game that stands out above all is the PlayStation Move capabilities, while I do not own a PlayStation Move it’s pretty obvious one would use the Move controller to move around the mini-drone to have a more in-depth experience with the game. The game was actually developed more for Move control than the PlayStation controller, but what’s great is that they made it work just fine with a standard controller.
Graphics/Visuals
Though I definitely wouldn’t say this game’s graphics are phenomenal, they’re still worth mentioning. Without all of the bright colors and vibrant visual effects, this games gameplay would not live up to what I am rating it to be. If anything, the gameplay is just the toppings on the meal. From when you activate the stars, to when you are flying across the map, the colors and effects just make the game much more fun to play, and look at without getting tired. At one level I actually felt like I was inside of a pinball machine because of the on-going color effects. I have, without a doubt, played many puzzle games with great visuals, but this one is definitely up there with the rest of them in terms of that.
Overall:
At the end of the day, the game is a merely “decent” game- nothing to amazing, but not to shabby either. There isn’t close to enough in this game for me to hop on the PS Store and purchase it myself, but I think it would definitely make a good title for those starting out with a PS Move and are looking for a small puzzle game to try it out with. Try it out for yourself, you never know, the colors might actually make this your favorite puzzle game of all time!
