Stargunner

X_X

Take it as a mixed review. I wanted to try a quick nostalgia trip to see how well it aged - no loss, as it’s been free for two decades now. While far from bad, it’s not that good either, due to fairly repetitive levels. Ironically, the shareware episode is the one offering the most variety, as it was specifically designed to showcase the “biomes” of the full game, changing every two levels. In the longer campaigns, you’ve already seen all the graphical assets of each environment quite early on. Early 3D modeling was all the rage at the time, and it honestly looks better than many other games from the same years, but the ship is very goofy. There’s still some fun to be had, as levels are full of hidden bonuses, power-ups, and extra lives that pop out when the ship passes over them, encouraging you to explore every nook and cranny even if the ship doesn’t always handle as precisely as I’d like. It’s a product of a time when PC players didn’t have many alternatives, and even then, there was already [b]Tyrian[/b] (though that’s on GOG, unfortunately with no Steam version).