Star Sled is a Playdate space game where you control a spaceship and attempt to encircle all the targets while avoiding obstacles. I'm beginning to realize that the Playdate games I enjoy the most are the ones with discrete levels and an obtainable objective, rather than just arcade style. Star Sled is a good example of this, featuring 30 or so levels where your ship steadily gains new abilities as the game progresses. It has a very clear and well done art style, and is simple to pick up and understand. My one criticism is the controls. This game uses the crank to steer the ship, with two optional settings -- "absolute" mode where the ship always points in the same direction as the crank, or "relative" mode, where the ship turns as a multiple of how much the crank has been turned. Having this option is nice, but neither one really jelled well for me. Since the goal of the game is to constantly encircle things, the turning radius never felt as precise as I would like, but I think that's less a criticism of the game and more a criticism of using a crank as a control scheme. Still, even with somewhat loose controls I quite enjoyed this game and think it's one of the stronger Playdate titles to date.
'Endless' games don't always gel with me so I was pleased when this turned out to be mission focused. I think they could have been slightly longer but it was nice having mechanics chop and change continuously to keep things interesting. Most levels felt pretty fair as well, even if you have to occasionally deal with enemies suddenly spawning just off-screen directly in front of you, giving you very little time to react due to the screen size.
The crank here steers your ship in a similar way to Hyper Meteor (direction dependent on the exact crank position), but there's also an option to change this to be relative to the ship's position on screen.
The crank here steers your ship in a similar way to Hyper Meteor (direction dependent on the exact crank position), but there's also an option to change this to be relative to the ship's position on screen.
Star Sled tem uma proposta bem legal de jogo de navinha usando a manivela, que também funciona bem! Acho que as fases tem um pico de dificuldade meio chato, e acabou ficando uma experiência meio frustrante que me fez deixar o Playdate de lado uns dias porque tinha cansado de tentar mais. Um dia eu volto pra ele.
Challenging but addicting, really exactly what a Playdate game should be.
Star Sled is a neat game, definitely worth playing. I feel like it reasonably could've been double the length, each sector toys around with new mechanics but it doesn't feel like they're ever stretched far enough. Each Thion Ship / Boss Level shows a flash of brilliance as you neatly glide around bends and navigate the tight corners. It suffers from minor performance issues when too many objects enter the screen. The most unfortunate thing is that Star Sled is the lesser of the two "PlayDate Season 1 Spaceship Games", going so far as to mime the controls of Hyper Meteor for a better play experience. It's not just my bias speaking when I say this could benefit from a form of endless mode. Regardless, Star Sled remains ripe for a sequel that I'll look forward to!
I think this is the strongest title I've played on playdate so far. It's simple, but makes great use of the crank and offers a compelling arcade experience that when paired with the right(as in 'poor') lighting, you can have a nostalgic glimpse into the past where you're playing Kirby tilt and tumble on the original game boy in between street lights at 9pm. It felt as intuitive as that and with that enjoyable of a mechanic, and i think that was better than the game alone could have been. The inconvenience for something you love, while spinning your goofy crank, tilting your body in an awkward way to catch light.
Star Sled feels quite competent. It didn't ever really click with me, but I'm hesitant to blame the game - it may just be a bad fit for me. I didn't find the controls satisfying to use, they were quite floaty and imprecise in a frustrating way.
The mechanics seemingly change every few minutes, and they drop in and out depending on the mission so I found it quite difficult to get into a groove.. as one minute I am boosting with B, then next the B button is for warping back to my path, then it's for hitting enemies. The aiming felt quite fiddly considering how quickly you have to react at times.
I did manage to finish all the main missions, and one of the "hidden" ones I'd unlocked, but I didn't find compelled to go back and find the rest.
The mechanics seemingly change every few minutes, and they drop in and out depending on the mission so I found it quite difficult to get into a groove.. as one minute I am boosting with B, then next the B button is for warping back to my path, then it's for hitting enemies. The aiming felt quite fiddly considering how quickly you have to react at times.
I did manage to finish all the main missions, and one of the "hidden" ones I'd unlocked, but I didn't find compelled to go back and find the rest.
A pretty fun mechanic of catching sparks, with a bit of mechanical progress and interesting level design. However, it does feel like there's some untapped potential, especially in terms of different narratives and aesthetics.
Star Sled es, como Hyper Meteor antes que él, un juego que se inspira en Asteroid para tratar de crear un experiencia particular a Playdate. En este caso, la importancia de apuntar se ha sustituido por la importancia de saber dibujar círculos concéntricos en torno a objetos al tiempo que esquivamos a nuestros enemigos. Teniendo en cuenta que estos juegos son poco más que una versión ligeramente distinta de un concepto muy visto en el medio, éste es posiblemente uno de los más dinámicos, y la tensión que surge de tener que cerrar los círculos mientras evitas que las naves entren en ellos no se agota a lo largo de los niveles.
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Much like Hyper Meteor, Star Sled is a game that builds itself out of a twist made to the gameplay of Asteroid, and suited for the Playdate ethos. In this case, the importance of aiming has been replaced with the drawing concentric circles around objects while dodging enemies. Considering that these games are just a slightly different take on a very trite and safe concept within the medium, this is arguably one of the most better ones. And the tension that arises from having to close circles around the starts while preventing the ships from getting into them never gets old or stale.
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Much like Hyper Meteor, Star Sled is a game that builds itself out of a twist made to the gameplay of Asteroid, and suited for the Playdate ethos. In this case, the importance of aiming has been replaced with the drawing concentric circles around objects while dodging enemies. Considering that these games are just a slightly different take on a very trite and safe concept within the medium, this is arguably one of the most better ones. And the tension that arises from having to close circles around the starts while preventing the ships from getting into them never gets old or stale.