Project Starship (PS4)

For five dollars you are getting what you paid for with Panda Indie Studio's, "Project Starship". It's nothing large scale, or new-gen, but in it's flashy simplicity it harbors a surprisingly impressive replay value if you look beyond the lack of an online leaderboard. Said replay value coming in the form of high score opportunities that can be streamed for record sake. That and some easy to earn PSN trophies. With the noteworthy replay value you will also find randomized rogue-like features which will alter the experience in each of the given playthroughs making no playthrough exactly alike.

At base level Project Starship is a top-down upward auto-scrolling shmup of chunky proportions set in an Lovecraftian universe with rogue-like elements at play. A very flashy display of nonstop action filled with amateurish hand drawn art put into lightly animated pixel form. All accented by an oddly digitized voice inclusive chiptune soundtrack. It features two playable protagonists in the form of Garret, and Gwen who are each made available from the start alongside two distinct difficulty settings. These male and female astronauts who fly in their own blue and red colored spacecraft of the same build face the cosmic horrors before them as you guide them along through the lit up abyss.

Being a more traditional bullet hell style shmup you will find within the easy, and hard modes that are listed beyond Garret's and Gwen's crudely drawn portraits a retro wave based challenge complete with boss fights, and mad effect challenge intermissions that will throw gameplay altering problems in your pathway to try and stop you in your trek. To deal with the enemy, and boss threats in your way you have a basic shot that can be fired by pressing/holding (X, R1, or L1) as well as a slowdown mechanic tied to (L2, R2, or CIRCLE) for weaving in and out of bullet hell spray. That along with the ability to activate weapon/defensive power-ups you pick up with (SQUARE) will allow you to not only maneuver more carefree around the screen covering bullets, but also destroy the many cosmic space horrors before you. Both Garret and Gwen start off with five shields total indicated by battery icons that act as their life, and a base shot that can be enhanced to shoot different projectile types. That, and the ability to add-on different defense mechanisms via gathered power-ups.

The waves you'll face in each playthrough all start off with lesser enemy types leading into boss battles with large health meters that must be depleted to continue onward. Eventually leading further into "Mad Effect" challenge sequences that will make progress to the next set of waves a trial and tribulation. The "Mad Effect" sequences which come shortly after the words of the event are flashed onscreen will randomly alter the playing field in a variety of different ways. Either making you dodge large asteroids, or carefully dodge crowded bullet hell with your slowdown mechanic among other things. There's even a randomized Mad Effect that will reverse your movements while trying to toast you with randomly spawning dark energy beams. Needless to say the further you make it into your playthrough the greater the threats before you will become. One trick you should always keep in mind is that the center dot inside each of the ships is your hitbox. Bullets can hit any other part of your ship except for that dot. Knowing this means the difference between a high score, and a GAME OVER!

The Verdict ...

As I initially said this game earns it's budget price. It's nothing big, but it is unusually fun. The infinite replay value, simplistic mechanics, and the overall presentation come together in such a way as to be inviting. I particularly liked the Lovecraftian theme, and the interesting voice cues that would happen along the way to add a little spice to things. Those features, and the odd assortment of power-ups that can both hinder your gameplay experience or help tremendously in an OP way really make things exciting. That having been said I do think it would have all been better with an online leaderboard included, but there's a way around that if you upload your playthroughs, and search for other players' top scores on the various streaming services. Beyond that I don't think there's much else to say. Project Starship is simple shmup fun of the flashy sort. Do be warned though that this is not a game for anyone who has a history or family history of seizures.