Wings of Bluestar | PS4 Review

Using a blend of hand drawn Western anime art, and pixel graphics EastAsiaSoft's, "Wings of Bluestar" comes at you hot and heavy. Loaded to the brim with contents including a handful of modes, extras, and a cautionary tale starring two elite pilots caught up in an ongoing war against a sentient AI known as the "Brain". The story begins with a discovery on the planet Accessia. Through an archaeological dig an advanced AI was unearthed. In turn telling of a planet's struggle with global war, and it's destruction at the hands of humans. As a result this AI unit was sent out into space to serve as a warning for any other civilizations that might be headed down the same path. 

Having finally been awakened on Accessia 100,000 years after crash landing there this AI called "Brain" ultimately fast tracks the planet's evolution, and brings it to a state of futuristic sustainability. A short lived time of peace and prosperity as the AI's intentions begin to delve into questionable transhumanist goals for the population. Melding humans with implants, and replacement parts while looking to eventually have all humans preserved in fully synthetic bodies. Something Accessia's ethics department does not agree with. Seeing this as a threat against the agenda, the Brain starts a war with Accessia's people. And that is where Aya, and Zarak come into play ...

Being the inspired side-scrolling shmup that it is "Wings of Bluestar" doesn't deviate too far from the beaten creative path. As shmup that borrows, and builds upon ideas from other developers it still sets itself apart visually by incorporating hand drawn art that is incorporated into actual gameplay. While it does have it's own style it is still beholden to a lot of familiar mechanics and features from older shmups. Something I'll get into shortly. Mode-wise the game features a hearty helping of single-player and co-op options. You'll find a simple hands-on training mode that teaches you the mechanics through text, and demonstration. Beyond this is a Story mode featuring pilots Aya, and Zarak. With their respective defensive, and offensive ships that operate in somewhat similar fashions. Aya being the transhumanist female, and Zarak being an awakened amnesiac pilot who comes to during the war. The story of course is told through art panels, and character to character dialogue with stage playthroughs breaking up the plot points.

Similarly Arcade mode plays out in a stage by stage manner complete with it's own separate animated intro, but no storytelling. With the ships starting in their base state, and the stages themselves connected in story order, but without the story elements. The end goal being to survive without losing all lives or continue credits which are a limited and set commodity. In a spin-off to that mode of play there is also a Two Player single screen co-op mode in which two players can connect locally to enjoy what amounts to an Arcade playthrough. Mechanics and scoring methods carrying over in kind.

Whatever mode you play though the mechanics remain the same. You collect shield power-ups, and up to 2 turret power-ups to blast your way through the Brain's robotic army with. These power-ups act as an extension to the base ship offering up extra bullet fire that can be rotated in all directions to help fight off anything that is not forward facing. They even help to negate fatal damage that could lead to lost lives stock via the shield. 

Also in your arsenal is a powerful special beam weapon that can be launched once a meter is built up by killing enemies. This effectively plays into the gem scoring system, and will turn bullet hell patterns into pink gems that are worth 200 points each. In tandem with that scoring comes Risk Stars that act as a currency to unlock items in the Bonus mode. These sometimes drop from enemies, and will be rewarded for use when you either complete a playthrough or hit a GAME OVER. Other than that each stage contains an anime Patema puzzle photo with pieces that will drop randomly in a given stage. If all pieces are collected for a stage a 1000 Risk Star bonus is granted. Anything less than complete will net you 500 points or lower depending upon how many pieces you've collected. 

In regards to Bonus mode it is where you can spend all your Risk Stars to unlock boss mode, a sound test, an art gallery, and extra credits. Boss mode is as it sounds. A purely boss focused playthrough where defeating each stage's boss without pause, or dying is the end goal. The sound test, on the other hand, comes fully unlocked with the game's music tracks intact complete with the title. On the flipside the art gallery must first be unlocked, and then each piece in each category within the gallery unlocked separately. Making the grind for Risk Stars necessary for full completion. For all you highscore hounds you'll find that the game does have online leaderboard listings, and that your score will be credited in them. Score, as it were, incorporates the shooting of enemies, the collection of extra power-ups, the collection of blue and pink gems, and combo counts. Combos are a thing in this game, and act as you'd expect a combo system to with each kill counted until you take a hit.

The Verdict ...

This game is broken. It's busted. In story mode the Zarak story will freeze up at the start not letting you play. In any mode the framerate slowdown is severe until you get to a certain point, and for no reason it speeds up a little too fast. The combo counter also does not seem to reset. These are some of the things I personally noticed during my playthrough. It needs a patch really bad, and in it's current state feels like a rushed effort. It's currently not worth buying or recommending.