LogFAQs > #978886714

Currently Playing: Star Sled

What Is It? Strangely enough, it isn't just a collection of a handful of clock types. Apparently, such magic is possible.

Gameplay Overview: So you're this little star thing and you leave this little line behind you wherever you go. You want to use this to make a circle around these other little start things. Each level has something like five to twenty of those star things, and you need to circle them all to finish the level. Things get more complicated the further you go on (you can circle multiple at once, certain enemies attack you if you accidentally circle them, you gain the ability to teleport, etc) but the basic goal is always the same.

Here's The Game Page! https://play.date/games/star-sled/

Here's Some Pictures!
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1ed0519d.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a6df92ff.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/0f6bdc51.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/61bcfb44.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/85f7e343.png

Thoughts:
-Time for Star Sled. Another Season 1 game! Which is usually a good sign so aw yeah.
-This actually has instructions which is bizarre since I got the feeling developers for this system were in agreement to never put those in their game for some reason.
-The gist is that I need to encircle each spark in a level to complete it. I can earn more points if I go back and play but I dont know what that is for other than bragging rights.
-I change difficulty to HARDER. I am no chump.
-Oh this has a story?
-Since the DAWN OF THE GALAXY sparks are the primary energy source. The dreaded Thion Empire has flooded space with sentries to gather these sparks for their battle stations. I need to capture sparks and destroy battle stations. Got it. The no good Thion Empire doesnt stand a chance!
-Ok so the intro missions are pretty easy, You just move your ship around and make a circle around the sparks to capture them. Dont crash into the sparks though, I found out the hard way.
-You get extra points for making tight circles instead of going all crazy big with things.
-The third stage adds enemies which uh are entirely stationary and dont hurt you as long as you dont crash into them. Ah yes, my dreaded enemy: corporeal objects.
-Mission B is a little harder in that it adds enemies that actually move. Truly a devious strategy: not staying perfectly still.
-You also get a boost in this mission group, which makes things a bit more interesting.
-I forgot to mention you get score based on how quickly you finish a level too, so there is incentive to speed up as much as possible.
-Well incentive. I still dont know if score does anything.
-The boss of this area is a battlestation which is again perfectly still. I just need to be careful not to run into any of the lightning gates.
-Things do pick up a bit here. I get through blocks A thorugh E without too much trouble but it definitely gets more complex than sitting enemies glare at you and beg you to crash into them.
-You have enemies that track you, and then if you close an enemy in a loop it teleports to you and kills you instantly. And you have certain levels where you can catch multiple sparks at once for bonus points, and then other levels where if you capture more than one you die. You have sparks that move and lightning gates, and eventually you can even teleport to another part of your loop if youre aiming at it. Theres stuff here.
-Lightning gates might not have been the best idea because the visual indication of oh hey these are lighting up in a second is almost imperceptible on the Playdate screen.
-Well two more mission packs left. I was going to take a break but might as well power through!
-Oh, wait. Theres more to this game! There are hidden anomalies. I didnt notice them because I wasnt sitting direction under three suns all at once, but if you look carefully in some spots you see the screen wavering. Loop around these anomalies to open up a warp hole, which takes you to a secret level.
-The game is nice enough to tell you what levels have hidden anomalies you missed, which helps because I was looking back through old levels and noticed that notification. Otherwise I wouldve had no clue they were even here.
-The second hidden level is Sparks everywhere and BOY ARE THEY RIGHT
-Theres like a dozen moving around randomly with enemies also floating around and I fail something like 57 times because Im an idiot and keep going for the meaningless extra point bonus for making a small circle.
-I will say though I do like the little bit of challenge here. I like how you have to completely restart the level if you fail and you get one life to pull it off.
-In one of the levels I missed a hidden anomaly, I literally flew right over to where it was because theres this weird branching path for no reason in a battlestation. I just couldnt see it because of the bad lighting. CURSE YOU PLAYDATE AND YOUR NO BACKLIT SCREEN!
-Haha level ???-3, the one right after the last one, is one of the easiest levels in the game and there arent even any moving enemies. Hey, difficulty curve, whered you go?
-Something that wouldve been fun here is to give some sort of point total you need to surpass to beat the level. It would make things a bit more fun if you actually had to get these bonus points or SUFFER.
-?-4 is fun again, and you have a stationary sentry in the middle of all these stationary sparks, and you need to make these big loops you teleport through while avoiding accidentally capturing the sentry in the middle.
-Ooh final upgrade is a warp smash that lets me smash and destroy sentries if Im pointed at them. TAKE THAT, STATOINARY OBJECTS THAT WERENT BOTHERING ME
-Aw man the smash doesnt work on those enemy ships that chase me. I do accidentally discover that if you loop them they get stunned temporarily. So I got that going for me.
-The penultimate stage has these SUPER FAST jerk ships and Im constantly having to juke them. -My smash attack does NOTHING. Some attack.
-Final stage has a little boss thing which is really just a stationary collection of stars I need to lasso. Nothing too crazy.
-Another game done in a single evening. At least this one wasnt too bad!
-This is another one of the Season 1 games where my overall opinion is almost good but doesnt feel like they finished it.
-Like I am a dumb person who cant make games. If Im playing your game and I go wow they really shouldve added a level like this or made more that built off of this, theres a problem. If I can think of something specific your game couldve added, it is obvious.

Time Played: I think it was in the 60 minute range. So brief, but not as brief as the really insubstantial Playdate games.
High Score: They do keep track of your score each level, but I didn't see any sort of "total" high score. I'm too lazy to add them all up so I'll just say a billion.
Beaten? All levels beaten, including the secret extra ones the game forgets to tell you about.
Grade: A solid 5. Not great. Not bad. I played it and it was fine but I'll forget about it by next week.
Favorite Part So Far: There are a couple of boss levels where you have this quick chase segment at the end where you need to make it out of these winding tunnels. I thought those were fun.