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Review: Astra Superstars (alternate) |
When I first put this in my trusty Saturn, I was greeted by a high pitched japanese girl voice screaming, “ASTURA SUPAA STAS!”. Already I knew I was in for a treat.
This game put out by Sunsoft is the ’sequel’ to Waku Waku 7. It has the same look to it, camera zooming in and out, characters rebounding off of walls, and huge colorful sprites. It uses the Saturn’s 4MB RAM Cart, so you’re assured instant loading, smooth as silk animation and no slowdown in sight.
Gameplay… the first thing you’ll notice about this game is that the fighting is done completely in midair! However, you’re not completely free-flying. Think of it as being strapped to a bungie cord going horizontally across the center of the screen. You can ‘jump’ up as well as down, but you’ll always return to the center of the screen. It’s quite a neat little feature… the only game that I can think of that comes close to this would be the mediocre DBZ games in which you can do mid-air battles.
Another thing that stands out in this game is the combos. That’s all this game is about, combo your opponent into oblivion. That may sound like a bad thing, but in this game it actually works. Really, there’s something about doing 19 hit combos while you and your opponent are flying up and down and all across the screen. I love the feeling when you’re just flying around, looking for a good time to dash in, and getting in there with a 20-hit combo then going into a 15-hit super… it’s especially fun when you do it to the little girl dressed as Santa Claus (but more on that later…).
Control… This game uses all 6 buttons, but it does so very strangely. With some characters, you find that the top 3 buttons (x, y & z) do light, medium, and hard punches like you expect, and the bottom 3 buttons (a, b & c) do their respective kicks. But with other characters, the entire control scheme is completely different… the top 3 buttons may do 2 punches and an automatic special move and the bottom 3 may do 2 kicks and a strong punch (WTF?!?!). It’s quite an annoyance.
Graphics… All of the characters are very nicely drawn. They are all quite colorful and wonderfully animated. It’s all done in a really cute anime style, like WW7. But this is not where the graphics are the best…. the finest graphics make their home in the background. (Get ready for some ghey names…) From Fooly’s sprite-rendered castle with the birds flying in the background, and the trillion-level parallax masterpiece that is Cupe’s ocean level background… all of the ones you’ll see will most likely have your jaw resting on the carpet :)
Sound… There are LOTS of voice samples in this game. The best part is that they are all of very high sound quality (a rarity on the Saturn). Aren’t you glad you can now hear a high-pitched Japanese announcer scream “LETTUCE!” at you? Seriously… I truly used to masturbate to the thought of a Japanese woman screaming “lettuce” at me. Now that the fantasy has been lived out, let’s just say that some of the buttons on my controller are a bit…. sticky…
Insanity… Well you can measure the level of insanity of this game by looking at the characters. First of all, the main character’s name is Lettuce… LETTUCE. Is anyone else worried about this? I would have loved to see the meeting where they were deciding character names:
Japanese Guy #1: Alright man, I just ate a 10-strip of acid… and I have some FUCKING GREAT IDEAS.
Japanese Guy #2: Really? I’m tripping my ass off too! Lemme hear those ideas!
JG #1: Well I want the main guy to be named LETTUCE. Fucking LETTUCE, man.
JG #2: Hahahaha! Holy shit, that is a great idea! But we should have a theme like that… all the characters would be named after vegetables… what should we name the evil character?
JG #1: FOOLY! Let’s name him FOOLY!
JG #2: I was about to say that! Hey hey… let’s have a little girl dressed as Santa Claus! She can throw meteors at her opponent too!
JG #1: FUCKING A+, MAN. Quick… we need to write this in blood on a cocktail napkin!
JG #2: Why in blood?
JG #1: Because the MARTIANS will steal our SOUP RATIONS if we don’t!
JG #2: Good thinking!
I will bet you $50 that it really happened like that.
Overall… after all of the praise I gave, I need to say that this is a NICHE GAME. Everyone won’t like this game, I can assure you that. There are very nice concepts in this game that I know appeal to ME… but once again, they won’t appeal to everyone.
