Starlightriders Hyperjump (PS4|5 - XB1 - Series X|S - NS1|2 - PC)

[Sturmvogel Prime]

TRASHSTORM (EPISODE LXXI)
OUT OF PLACE HYPERJUMP




TRASHSTORM IS NOT A REAL STORY.
IS NOT EVEN GOOD FICTION.
IS TRASH GAME REVIEWS.
ALL OF THE GAMES FEATURED WOULD CAUSE A PERSON DISAPPOINTMENT,
ANGER, FRUSTRATION, DEPRESSION, MONEY LOSS INCLUDED.
TO PUT IT ANOTHER WAY: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME.



LIST OF PESTILENCE - THE TRASHSTORM SO FAR...

HALL OF INFAMY: THE WORST GAMES EVER Vol. I

Spoiler

I: EXIT TRASHFALL, WELCOME TRASHSTORM (POWER-DEAD BY BREAKTHROUGH GAMING) - (Nik & Kit's Math Quiz)
II: UNINSPIRED SPACE SHOOTOUTS - (X-Force Genesis)
III: NIGHTMARE DRIVING ON THE TRASH GAME ROAD - (Driverio)
IV: AGE OF DEVELOPER STUPIDITY - (Game Achievements "Stroke The Pet" Series)
V: TAKE THE TROPHIES, I DON'T WANT THEM! - (Rocketio)
VI: SUPERDISASTROUS SPACE SHOOTER SQUAD - (Super Rebellion)
VII: MYRON SAID "CRAPPY HOLIDAYS" - (Breakthrough Gaming: The Continents)
VIII: BREAK-TURD GAMING...AGAIN - (Project: Summer Ice - Pinball)
IX: DEEP SPACE ATROCITY - (Deep Space Anomaly)
X: ZAKYM'S DISASTROUS RETURN - (Rocketio 2 and 3)
XI: CRAPPER BOWL AND THE END OF BREAKTHROUGH GAMING - (Breakthrough Gaming's Football 2)
XII: ALPHA MORON - (Alpha Warrior by S-Mobile)
XIII: THE DEEP FREEZE - (SoulFrost by Xitilon)
XIV: WEBNETIC'S FIRST SHOOTER - (Space Defend by Webnetic)
XV: ONE BUTTON CATASTROPHE - (B Cannon by Xitilon)
XVI: CLASH FORCE? MORE LIKE TRASH FORCE! - (Clash Force)
XVII: TAURIAN MANURE - (Taurian Defense)
XVIII: INHUMAN ROAD: STINKING TURD LIGHTNING - (Thunder by Xitilon)
XIX: MORE XITILON TRASH - (S Lanes by Xitilon)
XX: TRASH-O-WEEN PRESENTS: CRAPPER-5 - (Hyper-5)
XXI: RED-CRAP-TOR - (RedRaptor)
XXII: FROM MEDIOCRE TO "X-CREMENT" - (X-Force Under Attack)
XXIII: CONSEQUENCE OF STUPIDITY - (Danjigoku)
XXIV: IF IT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH, IT'S EXTINCT - (Arcade Archives: Dinorex)
XXV: NEPHENTHEOSIC EUTHANASIA - (Nephenthesys)
XXVI: MESSED UP SHMOUPPING - (Shmoup by Phoenix Reborn Games)
XXVII: WAR AGAINST BLOCKS. AS STUPID AS IT SOUNDS - (Shooting Blocks by Webnetic)
XXVIII: (UN)HOLY WEEK SPECIAL - (Galactic Invasion by Pix Arts)
XXIX: DISADVENTURE IN VENARIS - (Flightpath: Adventures in Venaris)
XXX: THE OBSCENE LEVEL OF STUPIDITY - (Aabs Animals)

HALL OF INFAMY: THE WORST GAMES EVER Vol. II

Spoiler

XXXI: FECAL RAIDERS - (Space Raiders by Alexander Carparelli)
XXXII: STUPIDITY HAS NO LIMITS - (Hoodie Survivor by The Voices Games)
XXXIII: LEARN HOW (NOT) TO BE STUPID - (Learn to Play Vol. 2 - A Simple Shooter)
XXXIV: INVASION OF STUPIDITY - (Soraja Invaders)
XXXV: PAC-DISASTER - (Paku Paku)
XXXVI: THE GREAT STUPID RACE - (Learn to Play Vol. 4 - Happy Racer)
XXXVII: SEE-LA, CILLA! - (Cilla)
XXXVIII: DUMPED MIRAGE - (Cosmic Mirage)
XXXIX: TINY STARFIGHTERS, GREAT DISGRACES - (Tiny Starfighters)
XL: A BAD FRENZY (TRASH-O-WEEN SPECIAL 2024 - PART I) - (Tank Frenzy)
XLI: SHOT OUT AND WASTED (TRASH-O-WEEN SPECIAL 2024 - PART II) - (Anime Girls: Wasteland Shootout)
XLII: YOUR AVERAGE TRASH-O-WEEN REVIEW (TRASH-O-WEEN SPECIAL 2024 - PART III) - (Your Average Old School Shmup)
XLIII: A GLITCHED AND BLASTED TRASH-GIVING SPECIAL - (Glitch Blaster's Waifu)
XLIV: A NOT SO FUNNY TRASHMAS SPECIAL - (Y-Type by Y-ZO)
XLV: WHO YOU GONNA CALL...? - (Wave Buxters by Playstige Interactive)
XLVI: HOW BREAKTHROUGH GAMING STOLE CHRISTMAS... AND BLEW IT UP - (Santa Claus - Breakthrough Gaming Arcade)
XLVII: XITILON'S FIRST RUN N' GUN - (EX-802 by Xitilon)
XLVIII: CHARMLESS CRAPPED BLAST - (Pixicharm - Starry Blast)
XLIX: UNHOLY WEEK 2025: NINJA FAILURE, BUT THERE'S GOOD MUSIC - (Tiny Pixels Vol. 1 - Ninpo Blast)
L: SURVIVING THE UNSPEAKABLE FATHOMS OF GAMING - (Marine Survivors)
LI: HORROR IN NEON LIGHTS - (Space KaBaam Neon)
LII: SYSTEM: (CYBER) MISSION FAILED - (Cyber Mission)
LIII: WHEN "DO THE GRADIUS" FAILS - (Akinakes)
LIV: INFINITY IS A LONG NUMBER COMING - (Space War Infinity)
LV: YOUR WORST 2 MINUTES IN SHOOTING - (N6 Secret Mission by Xitilon)
LVI: YET YOU STILL HAVE LEARNED NOTHING - (Space KaBaam Neon II)
LVII: CALAMITY FOR A BUCK - (Astball by Xitilon)
LVIII: XITILON DOES THE "PUSH'EM UP" AND FAILS - (Bacrush by Xitilon)
LIX: SMASHED IN SPACE - (Space Smash)
LX: UNDODGEABLE STUPIDITY - (Dodge These Asteroids)

HALL OF INFAMY: THE WORST GAMES EVER Vol. III

Spoiler

LXI: HALLOWEEN SPECIAL 2025 TRASH DESCENT I: FAILED CHARM - (Pixicharm - Spartunex)
LXII: HALLOWEEN SPECIAL 2025 TRASH DESCENT II: BLASTED OUT OF ORBIT - (Pixicharm - Blaster Orbit)
LXIII: HALLOWEEN SPECIAL 2025 TRASH DESCENT III: CHROMATIC CRAP - (Pixicharm - Chroma Astroanut)
LXIV: HALLOWEEN SPECIAL 2025 TRASH DESCENT IV: 0HxN0xY0UxARExDEAD - (0xDEADRUN by Xitilon)
LXV: HALLOWEEN SPECIAL 2025 TRASH DESCENT V: AIRBORNE (IN)JUSTICE - (Airborne Justice)
LXVI: TRASHGIVING SPECIAL 2025: THE SONIC REUNION THAT CRASHED - (Sonic Wings Reunion)
LXVII: SILENT NIGHT, TRASH GAME NIGHT: THE ORUNEX CHAPTER - (Pixicharm - Orunex)
LXVIII: ROCKET RIDE TO HELL - (Twin Rockets by Xitilon)
LXIX: WHAT THE 'FUTT? - (Fischfutter by Entwickler X)
LXX: TRASH GAMING IS A LOOP - (Dodge These Asteroids 2)

Wordsaltogether Asasingletitle
¿Was too difficult to write "Starlight Riders: Hyper Jump"?

EastAsiaSoft is back at it again. I know they sometimes release good games like Exo-Calibre and Takotan, but also, crap. From mediocre shooters to puzzle and mahjong games made with leftovers/recycled assets from NSFW games.
This time is the shmup mediocrity which I've been dodging from a while. So, it is time to review LunarCitySeven's Starlightriders Hyperjump.




Clear the game with no effort.

Before you start playing, you can select any, and I mean ANY of the 5 levels right out of the box. Clearly, LunarCitySeven gives no fucks for the game. I mean, if you are giving the option of selecting stages, you give that to the player once the playthrough is complete, after the player cleared all the levels or unlocked the second level after being killed there. So this isn't a failure, it's a videogame fuck up as we know it.




Another trip to "Indie-shmup Lane".

The gameplay of Starightriders Hyperjump is a vertical scroller that evokes Cave's bullet hell shmups, mostly from DonPachi and DoDonPachi, where killing an enemy adds 1 combo point and you're given two weapon types: Bullets or Laser fire. In Starlightriders, the weapon system is the same; Your ship has a Shot and a Laser weapon, but unlike DoDonPachi, you don't have to hold the fire button for the Laser as it has its button assigned. Any Cave fan will remember that the Laser shot is the easiest way to rack a constant combo increase. Well, in this game it is the regular shot which acts as the multiplying factor as each hit from your spread fire counts as a multiplier in the Combo Counter regardless if the shots kill an enemy or boss. You are also granted a Warp capability that allows to teleport you to a desired position like a "More controlled" version of the Zero Teleport from Alien Soldier, minus the phoenix attack effect. But keep in mind, the Warp needs energy to use it. You also have bombs but these ones have a ranged blast radius rather than being screen clearing blasts.




You're gonna need all the power you can get this time.

To obtain energy you have to pick the cubes dropped by the defeated enemies. The cube not just fill the red bar of the Warp, but also a much larger one. That's the Hyper gauge. That's the "Super Beam" of the game and it works like this: You have to fill large portions of it by picking several cubes and it will take quite a bit of them to fill a third of the gauge, so burning a Hyper shot is not just for the sake of bombing things anymore, its now a total matter of life or death, win or lose.




Afterschool Evaluation
(Next Stage Countdown included)

The bar is divided in 3 as each third acts not just as the gauge, it also acts as a score multiplier. This will be reflected on the scores after clearing a stage where hitting the beginning of the third gauge means getting the highest score out there, so you have to be not just strategic, but also wise on making the decision of burn it for survival or taking a potentially unnecessary risk for the sake of high-scoring.




Odds are against you.
Hope you have what it takes to survive.

However, despite having a good basic weaponry at your disposal, the "zako" takes a lot of hits before going down and that becomes kinda annoying since there's instances where you'll be facing mid-sized enemies and your enemies aren't down yet and you'll be facing this problem quite often. The concept of this game is that as you keep increasing the power bar, the amount of enemies and projectiles will increase drastically. So this is both multiplier and difficulty setting at the same time. Using the Hyper consumes the gauge and resets the difficulty. Speaking of difficulty, the damage received is very awkward. You have 8 Hit Points (2 Green, 3 Orange and 3 Red), but the first hit will drop 2, while the second and third will drain 3 each. ¿What's the point of having 8 Hit Points if the game will make the life points act like if they were three? Fortunately, your HP is refilled on the next stage.




Look mom! I'm skipping the fight without continuing!

This is just ridiculous. You can skip the stage and its obstacles by dying and not continuing until you reach the boss, nuking the challenge of the game on its entirety. Speaking of continues, you are only given like 2 continues or so. Lose them all and it's Game Over and you have to start all over. But with the game giving you the option to pick whatever stage you want, you can do this trick and complete the game with no effort. By the way, you can destroy the obstacle generators with the Hyper if your gauge is full enough to use it.




The usual sore-loser premise.

After killing the final boss in stage 5, you'll get the typical "I'll be back" cliché and then the results screen will arrive.
With the boss done and gone-to-lose-another-day, you expect something from this game, right?




Heroes don't get rewarded.

Right? For fuck's sake. I've went through crappy bullet hell and that's what I've got? That's right. Your efforts are mediocrely rewarded with being kicked back to the title screen with no glory. Also, you will notice how much LunarCitySeven appreciates their staff: Not giving a fuck for them. That's right, not even a staff roll, not even on the Options menu.

Aside from the achievements and trophies for those who had the slight disgrace of picking it for the XBOX, PlayStation or PC, there's no more reasons to justify this game to stay on your consoles and PCs. I feel sorry for those who bought it on Switch, because this game is like Count said on Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown.

So Wiseman died for nothing.

It's entirely effortless, proving how much LunarCitySeven gives a fuck for your time, effort and most important money. Is there any "value" for this game?, Just the trophies and like most shovelware, it requires very simple objectives: Get 10,000,000 points on each stage (Hunter) and clear the levels (Protector). Do that and you'll be getting the trophies and the PlayStation exclusive Platinum.

But you know what's the most saddest, pathetic, bullshit aspect of this game? Its fucking ad blurb.

StarLightRiders: HyperJump is a fast paced and frantic 80's inspired multiplayer arcade shoot em up.

Like I said at the beginning, it tries to be more like DonPachi, which is a 90's game than anything from the 80's where bullet hell was an unthinkable idea. Also, if you're looking for 80's arcade style shmups, try Truxton or Twin Cobra.




Tonight's Fight: Unnamed Girl VS Robot

The graphic department screams "Homemade" with the pixel art quality. This is notorious in the varying quality in the sprite work and the erratic size proportions resulting in enemies more overpixelated than others. The same can be said for the background and your HUD. I mean, if the proportion issues in Redraptor were bad, Starlightriders Hyperjump is far worse. The sprite rotation also goes against the retro-style since it utilizes a "cutout" effect, which means rotate the sprite as if it was a paper cut figure rather than the pixels made the rotation effect (think Namco System II's Assault). As an optional feature you can make the screen shake with the enemy explosions if you want it or not.




Afterschool Aces.

Following a traditional and quite common anime trend, your pilots are schoolgirls. This reminds me a lot of Freams/section S' Rayging Blue doujin shmup series. In fact, the Player 1 pilot is basically a kawaii-esque Aoi Sorano lookalike. Speaking of characters, the girls don't have names of their own. They're just simply called "Hero" by the whatever-whoever that cyclops robot is.




"East-AI-siaSoft" welcomes AI crap.
(Click the image for larger size)

Looks like Indie gaming got infected with the same thing as DeviantArt and Pixiv: AI Art, and I'm not talking the few good AI art ('cos there is around the 'net), I'm talking AI Art done by the cheapest, low quality AI Art generators out there.
At first it might look like a pretty illustration, for the naive players this could be a nice official artwork, but you don't need to be a Photoshop genius or a DA aficionado to notice the art imperfections proper of AI art: Irregular lines on the clothes and uneven designs on the characters which are VERY different from what we saw in the game. ¿What kind of fucked up artificial intelligence confuses school uniforms with armor-like suits? My best guess is the DUMBEST of all known AI's out there. At least it doesn't have 6 fingers per hand, merged fingers or worse.

The music is perhaps the best part of the game, since it is kinda reminiscent of Megaman X in the style of the fast, 90's styled pace. This is notorious in Stage 1 which feels like the theme that would fit on the prologue stage of any of the SNES Megaman X games.


FUNFACTRIDERS TRIVIAJUMP



He is ... last... of the doctor's creations...
Arrrrrggggghhhhh....

- The boss phrase "Every step brings you closer to your doom" is similar to Sigma's "and serves to bring you closer to your ultimate doom" from Megaman X2.




In the end, Starlightriders Hyperjump is a mediocre attempt to be a DonPachi clone with weird results despite the few good ideas they had, where only the music and the achievements/trophies are the best part of the game because the artwork is just the blurred, if not non-existant line between human work and AI art and sadly, this is the world we're heading for. Junk Art for Junk Games.

4 R-9's out of 10:



Even Eda knows playing shmups can hurt.