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Super Stardust HD
Cost: $7.99
There comes a euphoric moment during the lifespan of any console where you're having such a righteously awesome experience that the purchase is instantly justified. Most of the time, that moment comes in the form of an epic RPG, an innovative first-person shooter, or a game that sets a new standard for immersive gameplay. But every so often, it comes in the form of an eight dollar downloadable shoot-'em-up.
At first glance, Super Stardust HD is little more than a Geometry Wars clone infused with a touch of the arcade classic, Asteroids, but it's so much more. The premise is simple, blast asteroids and enemies as efficiently as you can in order to accrue the highest possible score. The game is divided into five distinct worlds, each with five phases including one boss battle and is played on a spheric, three-dimensional map, rather than the flat, two-dimensional surface found its predecessors.
SSHD is a fast paced, twin-stick shooter that employs a unique Ikaruga-style approach to battling enemies. Your in-game arsenal consists of three weapons: the Rock Crusher, Gold Melter, and Ice Splitter. Each weapon serves a specific purpose in that it is exceptionally powerful against certain types of enemies. SSHD follows a comfortable learning curve and does a fantastic job of easing green-thumbs into the game while keeping elite players on their toes. Despite its pedestrian beginnings, the game becomes ridiculously frantic and demanding as you progress through the levels.
Owners of upper-echelon high-definition sets will be pleased to hear that this game does indeed run flawlessly at 1080p. Even during the latter levels when your ship is hardly discernible amidst the relentless swarms of frenzied enemies, the game doesn't skip a beat. SSHD is accompanied by a vibrant techno soundtrack that as a stand-alone album would be pretty niche, but seems to fit the mood of the game wonderfully. It's important to note that this is the kind of game where you find yourself so sucked into the gameplay that you hardly notice the anything going on around you, let alone the soundtrack.
Naturally, the game supports worldwide leaderboards for both Arcade mode and each individual planet. Furthermore, the inclusion of a friends leaderboard is a nice perk that has been inexplicably missing from other PSN titles. While the game does support two player local co-op, it's hard not to feel a little blue-balled by the potential that this game had for network multiplayer, though because the game is so processor-intensive, tracking several hundred rock fragments, enemies, and bullets at once, any amount of lag would cripple the experience.
The biggest challenge facing any PSN or XBLA game in this day in age is whether or not it will be able to stand the test of time. Super Stardust HD one-ups Geometry Wars on every front, and as such, should be a game that keeps players coming back for a long time. Seven months after the PS3's launch, it sounds silly to say that one of the best games for the system only costs eight dollars, but it might be true.
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November 20, 2009
