I just got a review copy of the game Star*burst, which is a good thing – because the PR did give the impression this would be a cool game (check my post on it here)!
Now, it’s not the latest thing in first-person shooters set in a galaxy, far, far, away – but it IS a very solid puzzle game, which draws elements from many of the games we know and love. I noticed styling cues from some classic board games, plus a stack of the block-based stacking games that we’ve seen on handheld consoles over the last few years…
That said, Star*burst does bring a unique enough combination of these to make it fun and engaging. You have a paddle, at the bottom of the conveyor belt, that works like a builders’ hod carrier – that is, you can 3, 4, or 5 blocks a time on your paddle as they come off the belt, then flick them back at the top of the screen. The blocks are different colours, and need to be arrange in lines in order for them to disappear.
Key in this game was going to be control – there’s another famous block-based stacking game (you know the one) that has suffered from some really bad implementations on certain devices, where the controls were crippled – and when you get to advanced stages, you have to know you can move things about at pace, and the control will definitely respond. No worries here – thanks to the iPhones superior capacitive sensing, and good coding in the game, you can play this game hard! And that’s probably another key point – this game is easy to pick up, but hard to master – and that’s exactly what you want in a good ‘casual puzzle game’!
I could go on and mention the nice whizzy graphics in the background, but you’re better off looking at the images below. I could also talk about the Facebook scores integration, but personally for me, these sorts of games are a challenge to myself in those short periods of downtime I have. On that basis, my summary would be that this game is VERY good, and well worth the cash!
Verdict: highly recommended!
Star*Burst / $1.99 [iTunes link]