For around $5 you can experience an interesting Danmku game that is retro inspired but lacks replayability and features unless you want to constantly try and beat your own high score. With an online leaderboard I would have had more motivation to play long term, but you’ll even attain all the achievements in just a handful of runs.
"Project Starship"
Reviewed By: Carless Yen
Developer: Panda Indie Studio
Publisher: eastasiasoft
Release Date: 2/12/2020
Price: 4.99
Platform: XBOX One X
Project Starship is a bullet hell like no other I've played before. I was just pulled in from the very start and I haven't been able to put it down. I streamed it for a good 40 minutes, but have invested a lot more time into it since then as well. It is just really unique in it's art style. Everything looks hand drawn. I love all the different enemies and bosses. They are all unique and have different attack patterns you must really master to master this game. Some times it feels nearly impossible to dodge things, but it is fair and the controls are spot on and precise. You will have to learn to maneuver all around the screen to put together a really nice score on this. The hardest Achievement you will face will be scoring 100,000 but I was able to do it after only thirty minutes of play time. So all you Achievement hunters out there here is another under 5 dollar easy completion title to add to your collection. East Asia Soft has been delivering these to us almost as frequent as Ratalaika has. It's good to see these affordable little Indie titles popping up every week. I love reviewing them as much as I enjoy playing them.
You can play as Male or Female something I appreciate. Garret or Gwen two pilots who must stop a ancient evil. You will see demons, monsters, and even Cthulhu. They all are really awesome the first time you see them. As I unlocked new areas, or just had one randomly appear it just felt so awesome and fresh. That is another thing Project Starship does perfectly is give you a fresh feeling game every time. No play will feel the same. New bosses, and enemies will fill your screen and make you learn their patterns. You will also get really cool power-ups that make it easier. Like missiles, turrets, shields, and even screen clearing special attacks. It is just a whole lot of fun and a really great challenge I know all fans of bullet hell games will enjoy. I really recommend grabbing this one up if it's your genre, or even if your just a fan of padding your gamer score.
Pros:
Awesome looking Enemies and Bosses
Random level generation always feels fresh
A real challenge
Affordable
Easy Achievements
Enjoyable Music
Can be Male or Female
Smooth Accurate Controls
Cons:
May be to tough for some, even on easy
Overall: 7.8
One of my favorite Bullet Hell releases in some time. I loved the challenge, the art style, and ability to choose genders. If you love a good space shooter loaded with action and adorable enemies, or just enjoy easy 1,000 points added to your Gamer Score "Project Starship" is for you.
The game is a kaleidoscopic colorful bullethell romp through space all packaged in a vertical sh'mup. the game has some really nice touches like choosing male or female pilots. Each play-through is different due to random generation. Overall a really fun game worth playing especially for the price. (PS4 version played)
Project Starship was fun the first couple times but got boring very quickly. If you’re looking for a game that you can install quickly and 1000g then this is one for you, but I can’t imagine it’s going to capture the attention of anyone for long. Dodging bullets is fun, but you will just find yourself constantly shooting and hoping.
The good:
Hilarious Shoot'em Up (Shump) with rouge-like mechanics (each attempt is random with different prizes, enemies, power ups and bosses). This game is almost always on discount and in various bundles to buy with other games. Less than 500Kb of space and a lot of fun. Very replayable. Cosmic horror with cartoon overtones and the matter is not taken seriouslyThe achievements* cumulative and relatively easy to play* You can get the 3000G in easy mode* 15-20 minutes and what follows
The bad:
The randomness of the game can complicate random mad events (Mad Encounters). If you don't like little ship games or the bullet hell genre, it's not for you. It is not on Xbox Game Pass. Minimalist graphics. Frame rates and scratches. If you have photosensitivity it is not for you
Meh!:
I hadn't seen that I had this game in the library and I had to farm, although I do like small ship and bullet hell games so they were the most fun 3000G to get and the jokes they make with the ads, items or the situations you get they will bring out more than one smile
Project Starship is a 2D 8-bit Bullet-Hell Vertically Scrolling Shmup. Play as your choice of Garret, or Gwen (whether you want to fly in a red or blue Ship) on a mission to save the galaxy from an ancient evil. Ok, I want to first note, your ship is NOT your hitbox! There is an orb in the middle of the ship and THAT is your hitbox. The size of everything on the screen was intimidating at first, not knowing this, as some of the bullets are as big, if not larger than your ship, and damned close together. Every time you play, the game generates the stage randomly, so there is NO memorizing the order of enemies. The challenges vary vastly from enemy to enemy, and with random minibosses tossed about it can get quite hectic. The bosses are huge and also vary greatly in what's going on the screen, keeping you on your toes. If you're decent at Shmups, you can get quite powerful, quite fast, and it can all be taken away just as fast. Like most games of this genre, killing some enemies gives you item drops, some of these drops can actually hinder you. an example of this is The TV Doesn't Work, which makes your screen static covered for a few seconds. I feel the game is too short, but with the randomization of challenges, the replayability is a fantastic contrast to the length. You have three difficulties, two you can choose from, and one you can acquire as a pickup at the start of a run, tho I'm not sure what I did that made it start dropping. There is Easy and Hard after choosing a pilot. I didn't feel that much of a difference, but at some point, it started dropping an H at the start of a run that activated Hardcore Mode, which removed all my shields, and I don't recall any dropping after that either. Overall, Project Starship is a fun little shmup that is never the same twice, a big win for the small price tag.
SummaryAssume the role of Garret or Gwen, pilots charged with saving their world from an ancient evil. Evade, adapt and survive randomly generated challenges that are never the same twice. Take down gods and demons alike in unpredictable bullet hell shoot ’em up action, and dive deeper to confront the hidden eye that watches over all.