A Retro Shooter That’s Relentlessly Hard
Leaving aside the odd spacing of the capital letters in its name, StarLightRiders: HyperJump is one of the latest from the prolific folks over at Eastasiasoft. Co-developed with LunarCitySeven, themselves obviously no stranger to a capital letter, what the game promises to bring is a fast paced arcade shooter.
Given that there is no shortage of this kind of game on the ol’ Xbox, can StarLightRiders: HyperJump bring anything new to the table?
Now, it’s a well known fact that shooters don’t generally have the best narratives on the block, and I’m sure it will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone to learn that this game carries on the proud tradition. We are tasked with defending Earth. But from whom and for what? Well, not a scooby! Basically, we have a spaceship and a swarm of aliens, and we have to bring the two into close proximity and see who is left standing. What could be simpler?
Well, the graphics of the game for one, and with a pleasing retro look they certainly tick the retro vibe box. I’m going to go off on a tangent here and wonder what the “Optimised for Series X|S” badge on these kind of games actually signifies: it certainly isn’t optimised for bleeding edge graphics, and while the game does move at a fair old pace, there’s nothing here that would make an Xbox 360 sweat, let alone the latest and greatest Microsoft offering.
The Pointless Power Curve
With that off my chest, the rest of StarLightRiders: HyperJump looks okay, it moves pretty fast, there is certainly a lot going on on screen, and while some things are poor (the difference between reactors, which are safe to pick up and make us stronger, and enemy bullets is difficult to make out a lot of the time), the layout of the screen works quite well.
It comes with that old 4:3 format down, with the spare bits of screen showing a portrait of our pilot as well as other useful information. Even given the limitations of a vertically scrolling shoot ‘em up format, StarLightRiders: HyperJump does enough to make itself attractive, which is no mean feat. Sound wise, there is the usual pew pew, bang bang explosion kind of side effects to report, and that is about all.
So, let’s move onto the main part of StarLightRiders: HyperJump – the actual shooting action itself, mostly as the setup is actually quite intriguing.
The enemies that you kill drop square blobs known as reactors, and collecting them makes your ship grow more powerful. However, this doesn’t only apply to you and as you get more powerful, so too do the enemy ships, and thus they are harder to kill. This whole cycle seems a bit pointless to me, to be honest: what is the point of our ship becoming more powerful, if the enemy evolves to match? We might as well all stay at the same level throughout the game, surely?
StarLightRiders: HyperJump doesn’t give any particular indication as to whether you are getting stronger either, as the pattern and amount of bullets you fire doesn’t seem to change at all throughout the game. The enemies appear with bubbles around them, and this is about the only way you can tell you are powering up.
Pathetic Smart Bombs
The ship we pilot has a few tricks up its sleeve, on the positive side. There are two firing modes of weaponry; either a narrow beam weapon style of shooting, or a three way spread of bullets that spread the pain over a wider area. We also have smart bombs, but the range of these is pathetic: you practically have to fly down the throat of an enemy before detonating to make any difference at all.
The waves of enemies are certainly relentless, and the sheer amount of bullets on the screen makes life exceedingly difficult. Luckily, you can rope a second player in for a bit of jolly, screen sharing cooperation, and this works very well. The issue of getting mixed up as to which ship is which is pretty real, but having twice the firepower on the screen certainly makes things a bit easier. Whether you stay friends with the unsuspecting Player 2 after half an hour is another question, as StarLightRiders: HyperJump does seem to be almost unfairly hard.
Hardcore Action, Short on Incentives
With only a few stages to go at, the longevity of the game was already in question, but honestly the steep difficulty will probably put you off before you reach the heady heights of the later levels. Luckily you can start on any level you choose right from the start of the game. And with achievements tied to each stage, there is a bit of an incentive to keep trying. I’m not sure that’s enough to see this one becoming a bit of a long term play though.
To cut a long story short, StarLightRiders: HyperJump does what it sets out to do – it is a fast paced arcade shooter, and while it is very much a case of “it does what it says on the tin”, there isn’t too much drive to keep plugging away. If you want a rock hard shooter, then have at it, but there are better entries in this genre to choose from.
Important Links
Ready to Charge Your Warp Engines in StarLightRiders: HyperJump? – https://www.thexboxhub.com/ready-to-charge-your-warp-engines-in-starlightriders-hyperjump/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/StarLightRiders-HyperJump/9P5MM0NPT4NQ
