PlayStation Vita - Super Stardust Delta Impressions
I’m a huge fan of twin stick shooters and Super Stardust HD was one of my favorites. The game took the Asteroids formula to the modern day and combined it with slick visuals. The strategy and difficulty of the game comes from avoiding the rocks you destroy with different elemental weapons while shooting enemies and trying to maximize point pickups.
Super Stardust Delta is mostly the same game, though somewhat simpliefied. Instead of three weapons you only choose from two, ice and fire. You use the same element weapon against the same rock type to do the maximum amount of damage and points. As you destroy the green cores of the rocks you can pick up weapon damage increase, points, or special items like shields or specials. The specials in delta are two fold - it’s either an EMP blast or a black hole which is activated by tapping on the rear touch panel.
The core game offers a few basic modes like Arcade, Planets, and Endless. Additional modes like Bomber, Impact, and Twin Gun are also available. The latter come as part of DLC which focus on utilizing different aspects of the Vita for controls. For instance twin guns uses both analog sticks for aiming and the gyroscope for controlling the ship. Impact has you “pinching” the front and back screens to destroy asteroids instead of shooting them. They are interesting diversions, but definitely not as fun as the core game mode.
For the most part, Super Stardust Delta is a solid portable version of the game, though the smaller screen does make it difficult to see things at times - especially with so many particles happening. Despite all the objects and lighting, the game never slows down and the fast pace action is kept through out.
Overall I think Super Stardust Delta does an excellent job of bringing the PSN game to a portable platform with a lot of the mini games while keeping a console like experience for the campaign itself. While the smaller size of the screen makes it a bit difficult at times to see incoming damage, it’s something you get used to rather quickly. This one should be a buy for any Vita owner that’s a twin-stick shooter fan.
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