Star Parodier (PCE CD, 1992)
Graphics-8 Sound-8 Control-8 Challenge-7.5 Story-5
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-7/8* Fun-7.5 Originality-5
Overall Score-7.5
*Dying at the wrong time or picking up the wrong power up
+
Pretty well produced music w/ some synth/chiptune elements (some boss tracks are also pure chiptunes)
3 different ships (bomberman, star soldier ship, pc engine console; different weapon arsenals)
Manual speed adjustment (3 levels)
Upgradeable shield (take up to 4 extra hits)
Gun drones (bomberman ship) - gradius/astro warrior-style trail and you can have up to 3 follow you
Mini-bosses (sometimes two per level)
Good variety
Nice firepower when fully upgraded (blue and yellow weapons and/or bomberman with 3 gun drones)
Good bosses overall (one of the bosses (lvl 2) is kinda reminiscent of the transforming bosses in Gunstar Heroes and Contra: HC, ) and very good final boss (4 phases though the first two are easy with enough upgrades/the blue bomberman weapon)
Pretty nice art direction overall (similar to Twinbee but a bit generic and more simplistic at times), Good intro (kinda long though) and ending, great visual variety within levels overall, expressive sprites and some are quite large, some nice visual effects (sprite scaling, parallax)
Smart bombs of sorts (they don't remove/protect from stronger boss attacks though and they don't cover the whole screen - the pc engine ship's AoE is pretty small)
Pretty good length (8 levels/~50-60 mins)
Little to no slowdown (besides in lvl 7 without the right weapon)
+/-
The heart power ups let you respawn on the spot if collected (you lose your weapon upgrades so it can be bad but you do regain 3 smart bombs and in the last couple of levels they are rare, the game doesn't hand out new power ups after dying either - seems there's a slow stream of them during boss fights but they can also be negative)
Fairly frequent 1-ups are handed out in the levels (you also gain some at point intervals). Easy to rack up extra lives
Fairly long levels overall (lvl 4 is kinda short though)
Difficulty options but the difficulty mode text is in JP
One negative power up (orb with JP text on it - downgrades your weapon one level) and one random weapon power up
When you run out of hearts you start at the beginning of the current level - no checkpoints
Can change ships only after using a continue
Unlimited continues?
No gun drone formations
Getting hit when the shield is below level 4 means you also lose 1 weapon level
Pretty nice artwork stills in-between levels though they should've let the player continue instead of removing them automatically almost as soon as they're shown
No contact damage from walls
Some star soldier series and bomberman series cameos in the levels
Lvl 7's music sounds like Mystic Cave Zone from Sonic 2
Can destroy some enemy bullets
Bomberman's red weapon is weaker (only benefits are the backwards diagonal shot (rarely useful) and that it can't be interrupted by enemy shots unlike the balloon bomb weapon (yellow) though if you have some gun drones you should be fine). Might be good vs the lvl 8 boss to avoid getting shot at by both the fireballs though. The PC engine ship's red weapon is also rather situational (shooting to the sides)
Powering up a weapon past its first level also gives you some shield back
-
Some control/interface issues (no weapon inventory (also can't make weapon power ups cycle through the weapons - sometimes you're showered with only one weapon type that you might not want and the power ups become a distraction or the one you do want doesn't show up for almost the whole level), can't grab a power up during the invincibility time after taking a hit or dying - items eventually move off screen so it can mean that you'll miss one, can't change speed while the game is paused, kinda small hit box on power ups)
Upgrading the shield will remove ALL gun drones currently following you and picking up a gun drone downgrades the shield 1 step
Some trial & error (lvl 8, not clear what the hearts and yellow orbs do (the latter are for points), boss patterns, some attacks, occasionally hard to tell if you're damaging a boss - lvl 3 fish)
The first 3 levels are mostly too easy and some bosses are too easy (lvl 4 walrus mini-boss, lvl 5 snake mini-boss, lvl 6 bosses - safe spot vs the mini-boss)
Some music is either overly happy and cutesy like in a kid's show or bouncy and dissonant
A few bosses have fairly long invincibility periods
Only three different weapons per ship
Bomberman's bomb weapons don't make any noise when exploding (also no sfx when hitting the blocks in lvl 6)
Minor sprite flicker
The hand enemies can steal power ups and they're pretty quick - doesn't happen often if you have some upgrades though
Too hard to recover after death so you rely on the regained bombs instead
Difficulty spike at lvl 8
Lower rate of fire for bomberman's blue weapon's highest level - can throw you off at times and you can't manually downgrade it for those situations
Unskippable staff roll
A few longer pauses in the action
Kinda scratchy voice samples
The pc engine ship's homing weapon is too good overall (occasionally won't fire at all at an enemy or obstacle however making those parts tougher - would've worked better with a weapon inventory)
Notes:
-Beat it as the bomberman and pc engine ships
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-7/8* Fun-7.5 Originality-5
Overall Score-7.5
*Dying at the wrong time or picking up the wrong power up
+
Pretty well produced music w/ some synth/chiptune elements (some boss tracks are also pure chiptunes)
3 different ships (bomberman, star soldier ship, pc engine console; different weapon arsenals)
Manual speed adjustment (3 levels)
Upgradeable shield (take up to 4 extra hits)
Gun drones (bomberman ship) - gradius/astro warrior-style trail and you can have up to 3 follow you
Mini-bosses (sometimes two per level)
Good variety
Nice firepower when fully upgraded (blue and yellow weapons and/or bomberman with 3 gun drones)
Good bosses overall (one of the bosses (lvl 2) is kinda reminiscent of the transforming bosses in Gunstar Heroes and Contra: HC, ) and very good final boss (4 phases though the first two are easy with enough upgrades/the blue bomberman weapon)
Pretty nice art direction overall (similar to Twinbee but a bit generic and more simplistic at times), Good intro (kinda long though) and ending, great visual variety within levels overall, expressive sprites and some are quite large, some nice visual effects (sprite scaling, parallax)
Smart bombs of sorts (they don't remove/protect from stronger boss attacks though and they don't cover the whole screen - the pc engine ship's AoE is pretty small)
Pretty good length (8 levels/~50-60 mins)
Little to no slowdown (besides in lvl 7 without the right weapon)
+/-
The heart power ups let you respawn on the spot if collected (you lose your weapon upgrades so it can be bad but you do regain 3 smart bombs and in the last couple of levels they are rare, the game doesn't hand out new power ups after dying either - seems there's a slow stream of them during boss fights but they can also be negative)
Fairly frequent 1-ups are handed out in the levels (you also gain some at point intervals). Easy to rack up extra lives
Fairly long levels overall (lvl 4 is kinda short though)
Difficulty options but the difficulty mode text is in JP
One negative power up (orb with JP text on it - downgrades your weapon one level) and one random weapon power up
When you run out of hearts you start at the beginning of the current level - no checkpoints
Can change ships only after using a continue
Unlimited continues?
No gun drone formations
Getting hit when the shield is below level 4 means you also lose 1 weapon level
Pretty nice artwork stills in-between levels though they should've let the player continue instead of removing them automatically almost as soon as they're shown
No contact damage from walls
Some star soldier series and bomberman series cameos in the levels
Lvl 7's music sounds like Mystic Cave Zone from Sonic 2
Can destroy some enemy bullets
Bomberman's red weapon is weaker (only benefits are the backwards diagonal shot (rarely useful) and that it can't be interrupted by enemy shots unlike the balloon bomb weapon (yellow) though if you have some gun drones you should be fine). Might be good vs the lvl 8 boss to avoid getting shot at by both the fireballs though. The PC engine ship's red weapon is also rather situational (shooting to the sides)
Powering up a weapon past its first level also gives you some shield back
-
Some control/interface issues (no weapon inventory (also can't make weapon power ups cycle through the weapons - sometimes you're showered with only one weapon type that you might not want and the power ups become a distraction or the one you do want doesn't show up for almost the whole level), can't grab a power up during the invincibility time after taking a hit or dying - items eventually move off screen so it can mean that you'll miss one, can't change speed while the game is paused, kinda small hit box on power ups)
Upgrading the shield will remove ALL gun drones currently following you and picking up a gun drone downgrades the shield 1 step
Some trial & error (lvl 8, not clear what the hearts and yellow orbs do (the latter are for points), boss patterns, some attacks, occasionally hard to tell if you're damaging a boss - lvl 3 fish)
The first 3 levels are mostly too easy and some bosses are too easy (lvl 4 walrus mini-boss, lvl 5 snake mini-boss, lvl 6 bosses - safe spot vs the mini-boss)
Some music is either overly happy and cutesy like in a kid's show or bouncy and dissonant
A few bosses have fairly long invincibility periods
Only three different weapons per ship
Bomberman's bomb weapons don't make any noise when exploding (also no sfx when hitting the blocks in lvl 6)
Minor sprite flicker
The hand enemies can steal power ups and they're pretty quick - doesn't happen often if you have some upgrades though
Too hard to recover after death so you rely on the regained bombs instead
Difficulty spike at lvl 8
Lower rate of fire for bomberman's blue weapon's highest level - can throw you off at times and you can't manually downgrade it for those situations
Unskippable staff roll
A few longer pauses in the action
Kinda scratchy voice samples
The pc engine ship's homing weapon is too good overall (occasionally won't fire at all at an enemy or obstacle however making those parts tougher - would've worked better with a weapon inventory)
Notes:
-Beat it as the bomberman and pc engine ships