Super Stardust HD

Finally, an HD remake of an Amiga game.

Source // PlayStation

This must be the 'spherical worlds' section of the 1001 list, as Super Stardust HD comes in hot on the trail of Super Mario Galaxy to show you that you don't just have to guide a plumber around to have a good time. That didn't sound good. My point is that if plumbers aren't your thing, you could always pilot spaceships instead in space shooter Super Stardust HD.

Yeah. Well, let's get going then.

Source // PlayStation

Frustrations

I keep spreadsheets. That's what I do. I've got one for this 1001 list to remind me what I've done and where games exist within my library. Apparently, I don't own Super Stardust HD, and to check, I went to another spreadsheet of my PlayStation downloads to see whether that was indeed the case. No Super Stardust HD in sight. Not even as part of a PlayStation Plus subscription.

I guess I'll have to go to the PlayStation Store and have a look at the PS3 gam- oh, yeah, right, of course. That no longer exists on the Internet. I've got to go through the store on the PS3 itself now. What fun.

So, slowly working my way through the alphabet in the search box I find some entries for Super Stardust HD. I could buy it, £6.50 or thereabout, but even that's a pricey decision to make in 2020. No demos, sadly, but there are some trailers which I decide to watch.

Wait. I've got to download the .mp4 to my PS3 hard drive to watch it? And downloading in the background makes the PlayStation Store app slow to a crawl? And Sony think this is for the best? Seriously?

So I watch a trailer and see a shooter in the vein of everything from Asteroids to Geometry Wars - you know, pretty to look at but you know what you're going to get, and I decide that I won't be spending any money on Super Stardust HD. But there is a VR version, I learn. Wonder if my eyes could survive that...

Fun Times

The closest I could come to the HD game was Super Stardust Portable for the PlayStation Portable. Do you want to know how a twin-stick shooter plays on a console with only one stick? Not as well as on a console with two sticks, that's for sure, but surprisingly not too bad.

You pilot a ship to avoid asteroids and other threats, firing one of several weapons in one of many directions to destroy asteroids and other threats. Hoover up the points and the power-ups, make it through the waves of threats to clear the planet and advance to the next, drop a screen-clearing bomb if you're stuck in a tight spot.

There was nothing for me to get excited about with this Portable version. Even the spherical nature of the planets is diluted, and it's obviously not as flashy a spectacle as it is on the PS3 or, now I guess on the PS4.

The only highlight I did have was cycling through the weapons I had available to this golden fire thing, which at first looks a little useless until you press all the face buttons down (or rotate the stick, if you've got one lying around) to watch it whip all around you in a circle of fiery death.

Again, nowhere near as flashy on the PSP, but a slight bit of fun, until you learn that different weapons are effective against different things, and alien bugs seem to be fairly resilient to the fire whip thing.

My three lives got me through a couple of phases or waves or levels or something before a game over, and I had no interest in carrying on for another attempt.

Final Word

Would I have had a better time playing Super Stardust HD and not a watered-down Portable release? Perhaps. But how many times can you fly a ship around shooting everything in sight, desperately dodging incoming threats to eke out a solid high score before getting bored and moving on?

Personally, not many times at all. I agree the graphics are nice. Yup, the gameplay is straightforward, the objectives clear. Sure, the more skilled you are, the better your game will be. But what do I get when I end up that skilled? A high score? Satisfaction?

Is there some kind of rush you get from a clutching victory from the jaws of defeat? Well, yeah, there is, and I know that the buzz you get when you're in the flow of a good game can be great, I just don't see myself playing Super Stardust HD to get it.

It doesn't do anything for me. It doesn't stand out. It doesn't command my attention. It exists and serves up a good time for many, a great time for some, but maybe a waste of time for someone who has likely already played something like it more than enough in their video gaming past.

Fun Facts

Want the first trophy on the PlayStation 3? Get yourself one of the 17 that were patched into Super Stardust HD in mind-2008.

Super Stardust HD, developed by Housemarque, first released in 2007.

Version played: Super Stardust Portable, PlayStation Portable, 2008, via emulation.