Something went wrong with the multiverse and humanity was destroyed, although it’s hard to know what got broken for sure. Multiverses are always a bad idea and lead to nothing but confusion, but a pair of surviving AIs were able to pin down a possible solution to the end of everything. Stella and Wonderful were able to create one last human, Copiasu, to salvage the universe by, apparently, shooting down everything that moves across a series of strange levels. Chess pieces and rocking horses, stuffed pandas and robots, a huge number of fighter ships plus a lot more weirdness spawns from the multiverse in a constant barrage, but if the starnaut can launch all ten rockets on each stage, the memories stored within may be enough to regenerate the Earth.
A little starnaut alone against the swarm
There’s no question thatStarnautis a strange one, quite possibly the most bizarre Survivors-type auto-shooter to show up yet, but there’s a logic underneath it that keeps all its parts working together. You play as a little adventurer wearing a spacesuit, walking slowly across the levels while surviving constant attacks from an ever-growing horde of enemies. Each level starts off with a choice of one helmet, each with different stat options, plus one of any of the weapons you’ve unlocked so far, and the goal is to launch one rocket after another until the final tenth one takes you out of the arena with it. Every launched rocket triggers new enemy patterns, though, so there are a good number of decisions to make between powering up and progressing.
Each destroyed enemy drops a coin, most leaving small ones worth one credit, but the larger ones are worth fifty. Walking around and shooting may be free, but everything else costs money, whether that be stat upgrades, new weapons, weapon upgrades or launching the rocket. Following you around the arena is a robot with an old CRT monitor for a head, and this Shopnaut can be accessed any time so long as it’s not in a dense cloud of enemies. The fun thing about Shopnaut’s economy, though, is that everything costs the same, whether it be a new weapon or a stat increase, but each new purchase means the next one will be a bit more expensive. If you’re able to afford something it can be any upgrade at all, and it doesn’t take too long to figure out a general pattern of progression.
New weapons are nice, and locking in the loadout for a run early can make it feel properly organized, but one powerful gun can be a lot more effective than a pile of weak ones. Additionally, luck is a stat that’s going to pay off nicely with extra health and coin-vacuum drops, but the big one is the Nitro Gauge. While the starnaut is relatively slow before being upgraded and not all that fast even after a few purchases of speed, the nitro gauge is a huge boost that can be either used as a dash or super-jump. Initially starting each run with only one nitro that slowly recharges after use, it can be upgraded twice for three boosts total, which is more than enough to get almost anywhere on the map in a few high speed bursts plus act as a handy “get out of death free” card if you remember to use it in time.Starnautseems slow at first before the nitro comes into its own, but once you realize it’s there to be used (but not in excess), the game speeds up immensely. It’s worth noting, though, that the nitro is more for traversal and escape than combat, seeing as it quickly covers a lot of ground and the enemies don’t.
Review: Bore Blasters
Bore Blasters may have one rough edge in terms of its time limit, but the rest of the game is a solid blaster.
Big enemies, big guns
The enemies also don’t shoot back, which is probably for the best seeing as they make up for it in both numbers and toughness. Most of them drift lazily towards the starnaut, with only a few moving more quickly, and as is standard for the Survivors-type of game the object is crowd control. The arsenal isn’t overly huge, coming in at just over twenty weapons and tools in the current version, but each one has its role to play in thinning the herd or making it more survivable. Multiple types of homing lasers, varying explosives and area defense all come into play, as do a small handful of support items, but the most you can carry is eight. Even so, the support items are strong enough that they hold their place in the lineup and easily make up for the weapon they’re replacing, to the point it seems likely they’ll get nerfed later on. Or maybe not, because the hard versions of the levels that have been added sinceStarnaut’s launch have a serious interest in making the player very and most thoroughly dead. The cuteness of most of the enemies shouldn’t be mistaken for easiness.
As an Early Access game,Starnauthas already had a few updates since its launch to knock off rough edges and add new content. At the moment there are nine maps total, although one is a simple tutorial area, and bonus harder versions are unlocked after a couple of successful runs. There’s currently space on the level select screen for two more sets of five to six levels apiece, and with the playful design of the current arenas plus the new levels having been added since Early Access showing a willingness to play with the basic level-progression formula, it should be a lot of fun to see how things develop.
One of the thingsStarnautgets right that a lot of Survivors-style games miss is the playfulness of the run, letting things get out of hand in terms of difficulty while also giving the player tools to not just overcome but dominate, if they can just put together the right upgrades. Granted, that’s easy to do at the moment thanks to the relatively small weapon pool making it likely you’ll get your favorites in there at some point, but with the speed updates coming out to add new content and a one-year minimum plan for Early Access, new weapons should be along at some point. The major focus at the moment is bug fixes and balance, and there’s no ignoring the occasional bit of weirdness like rare enemies that insta-kill the player, butStarnautis so completely overloaded with charm and its own unique style that it’s easy to forgive its growing pains. The Survivors-style genre (which really needs a proper name) is still growing and changing, and wonderful little oddities likeStarnautare exactly what it needs to mature into whatever it becomes.
