Starlight X-2: Space Sudoku

[b]starlight x-2[/b] didn't really catch my attention around release, I acknowledged its existence and that was that. then I decided to try the demo anyway, and after only 5 very short levels, before even finishing the tutorial, I clicked the [i]add to cart[/i] button, as it made a wonderful first impression. in a nutshell, it's a [b]sudoku-like in space[/b] with the core elements of planets, stars, light beams emitted by the stars, and asteroids. planets have to be illuminated, but only from certain directions, stars can help with that, while asteroids block light beams. the rule is: [b]there can be only one asteroid and star in any given row or column[/b]. so yeah, sudoku. and no guessing, of course. 11 level packs, each with 50 levels, so [b]550 regular levels, all available from the start[/b], but it's best to follow some sort of order for a smoother difficulty curve. there are also [b]daily packs of 50 levels[/b] for endless entertainment, and there's a bit of an archive, [b]14 daily packs at a time[/b], no need to check in every day if you don't want to miss anything. [b]level states are saved[/b], so progress isn't lost if you quit without solving one. grids start out at 3x3 for the first tutorial level, the rest is [b]between 4x4 and 13x13[/b] (non-dailies only go up to 9x9), and they vary between easy, medium and hard. it's a very considerate and polite game, [b]no time limit or punishment for misclicks, because there's no immediate error-checking[/b], just like in any decent nonogram or other deductive game. during the tutorial you're kindly reminded that that there situation ain't gonna work, but later it's just a discreet color change in numbers if you place too many of something. [b]once the correct amount of objects is placed, you might get an 'error detected' message[/b], but I have no issue with that. go over your solution, find the mistake, fix it, done. [b]undo is available[/b], which I didn't find necessary, as you can place and remove things easily. there's further optional assistance in your quest to infinity and beyond. use the [b]error checker and hints[/b] at your own discretion, as well as the ability to [b]mark cells as 'no star', 'no asteroid' or 'neither'[/b]. markers can be hidden individually and you can drag the mouse to select a line faster without overwriting placed objects. the game is [b]completely mouse-driven[/b], mouse wheel scrolls between placable items, but 1-5 also selects what you want to place without tiring out the mouse. [b]fun fact:[/b] there are fun facts about various space stuff after every level, so there's a bonus [b]educational value[/b], plus you're slowly unveiling pictures of celestial bodies (planets and such, not pretty ladies you perv). while the graphics might not qualify as eyecandy, they're functional, the ui is clean and elegant, the music and sound effects are good too. separate volume settings, windowed mode with a resizable window, many languages, metric or imperial measurements, how to play section, a toggle for animations (called graphics, full means animations are on), and some gameplay stats are all available, also while playing. [b]not much to criticize[/b], I could only think of a few small quality of life improvements. will edit the list if some get implemented: [olist] [*]undo, hint, and error check icons don't have tooltips, while the others do. [*]the restart button should be part of the ui, not just the menu. [*]a longer delay before the eye/hint message would be nice (and a toggle to turn it off, after 10 levels I'm fully aware). [*][strike]mouse wheel could also be used to switch between the 5 things to place.[/strike] [*]the cursor over the grid could show what you're currently holding, a little mouseover effect. it's visible on the left, but still. [*]clicking somewhere on the border could mark an entire line with whatever marker is currently selected. [*][strike]clicking on a planet, then the back arrow should go back to where you were before, not the top of planet selection.[/strike] [*]with such an elegant ui, in-game representation of achievements and leaderboards would look better than bringing up the steam overlay. [/olist] I really dislike sudoku (partly because of all the numbers and it's not even a math game), but [b]starlight x-2 is excellent and great value for money[/b], can't wait to see what the developer comes up with next. by all means, [b]try the demo[/b], see if it's something worthy of your time and money (progress carries over to the full game).

[quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]Follow our curator page: [b]IndieGems[/b] if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/url][/quote] [i]Starlight X-2: Galactic Puzzles[/i] is an underrated and underplayed puzzle game here on Steam. I have been getting into it for the past 3 days and I have been sinking way more time into it than I originally thought I would. To put simply, it's addictive and super fun. Essentially, this game boils down the concept of Sudoku and does away with the numbers, but also takes away the large number of elements to keep track of. Here, you only have preplaced planets, with indicated sides that require some sunshine. And it's your job to place stars and asteroids where necessary to achieve that while making sure that each row and column has exactly one star and one asteroid. The instructions are very simple, as you can see from my screenshot of the "How to Play" screen: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2562344879 The game starts off easy, with a single 3x3 in the tutorial, followed by 11 classic level packs of 50 levels each that are accessible completely in whichever order you wish to play them. The levels are labeled as Easy, Medium, or Hard, so you have a general idea before heading in. Aside from these 550 levels, you have access to daily puzzle packs of 50 levels each, and the game saves the daily levels from the last 2 weeks, so you basically have access to another 700 daily levels at any time. These do roll out of accessibility though, but that's okay. After completing the individual levels in the classic level packs, you progressively reveal pictures of the respective planets/moons in our solar system and you also see some random quick trivia info about astronomy. Overall, it's pretty child friendly in every way and also caters to the astronomy enthusiast who may want to play some puzzles. The actual mechanics of playing this game is easy. You just move the mouse cursor and click to place or remove any of your stars or asteroids. The planets are preset, you just need to make sure that the rules are followed and you place all of your stars and asteroids while still illuminating just the sides of the planets that have the proper indicator. The levels range from 4x4 (only a small handful of levels at this size) up to 9x9 in the classic level packs. In the daily level packs, I see some up to 13x13. The biggest level I have done as of writing is 11x11, and I remember it was an easy level but still took a rather significant amount of time. Fortunately the game automatically saves your progress if you need to quit and resume later. In addition, you can also play until you are stuck on a puzzle and go to the menu to save that particular state of the puzzle, to do some trial and error stuff, and then go back to that state if so desired. You can also ask the computer for some hints and do an error check if you have been playing for a while and are stuck, perhaps you just missed a clue or overlooked something and didn't want to restart a puzzle. Otherwise, the game just lets you make your mistakes until you think you have finished, then it casually suggests for you to look a little closer to your own proposed answer. Just like in Sudoku games, where you can do pencil markings, this game lets you mark up the grid with particular indicators that give yourself a visual cue about where you have concluded that there should be no stars, asteroids, or both to be placed in that square. [h1]Controls[/h1] Mouse only, so anyone who can move around a mouse and click on recognition can learn to play this game. [h1]Graphics[/h1] Nothing out of the ordinary from what you would expect to see. But it looks pretty enough with some simple animations. [h1]Music & Sounds[/h1] Soundtrack works fine, but it gets a bit repetitive after a while. I turned it off in favor of some of my preferred playlists on YouTube. The sound effects are nothing special, but they work in the setting as well. I still don't understand why there's an explosion every time you finish a level. [h1]Audience[/h1] People who enjoy Sudoku or puzzle games in general will likely find this game rather addictive and fun. People who play games going after 100% achievements may want to think twice, since there's an achievement for completing 5000 puzzles, and unless you want to dedicate the time to it, you will have a hard time getting to 100%. Nevertheless, it's an accessible game that is very easy to learn. With its basic Sudoku theory and then removing of the numbers and reducing the number of elements, it's a great game to introduce to kids as well. [h1]Pricing[/h1] For $6.99 on Steam or $6 on itch, you can enjoy this game containing realistically as many puzzles as you would want to play. Immediate access in any order to the 550 classic puzzles plus 700 daily puzzles, with 50 new puzzles coming into the daily section replacing same number of older puzzles after 2 weeks. It's totally worth the price. It's also playable on mobile, both Android and iOS, though I not sure how the pricing structures work for those. [h1]My First Look Video[/h1] https://youtu.be/1-T0CNAZOUc [h1]Conclusion[/h1] [i]Starlight X-2: Galactic Puzzles[/i] is addictive and fun, and totally worth your time and the asking price. I am probably going to be playing a few puzzles here and there for a long time, especially since I really enjoy the basic concept and what the developer has done with it. 8/10 [quote]I received the product for free. I did not receive any compensation to write this review. The opinions represented here are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way.[/quote]

I've decided to update my review having earned all of the achievements for Starlight X-2. This is a superb game for people who enjoy Sudoku style puzzles, and in my opinion, the game is drastically underrated. I played this game consistently for a couple of years, totalling over 190 hours to "complete" all of the achievements. Starlight X-2 has endless levels of varying difficulties, with fifty new puzzles released every day. It is well worth buying and playing!!

I enjoyed playing this on my Android. I'm happy to see it's now available on Steam. It features an infinite constellation of logic puzzles. Innovative cerebral entertainment for your coffee break. With a jolt of caffeine for your brain. Try the free demo.

[h1]Sonnenschein und Felsenwand [/h1] Ich habe „Starlight X-2: Galatic Puzzles“ über das Kuratorenprogramm [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Drakeschool] meiner Steamgruppe[/url] erhalten und wenn ich ein Spiel schon annehme, dann reviewe ich es in der Regel auch. Beeinflusst wird mein Review dadurch jedoch nicht. [b]Gameplay[/b] Das Prinzip von “Starlight X-2: Galactic Puzzles“ ist sehr einfach und erinnert mich an Sudoku. In jedem Level platzieren wir in kleinen Rastern Sonnen und Asteroiden. Mit den Sonnen müssen wir die festen Planeten von der richtigen Seite anstrahlen, wobei jede Sonne in alle vier Himmelsrichtungen strahlt. Da kann es durchaus mal vorkommen, dass wir mit derselben Sonne einen anderen Planeten an der falschen Stelle anstrahlen, wofür die Asteroiden da sind, welche Lichtstrahlen blocken. Der Clou an der Sache: In jeder Zeile/Spalte darf es nur jeweils einen Asteroiden und eine Sonne geben, während die Planeten perfekt beleuchtet werden müssen. Sudoku eben! Mit der Zeit spielt man auf immer größeren Rastern, womit der Schwierigkeitsgrad deutlich ansteigt. Für genug Futter ist auch gesorgt und es kann durch zufällig erstellte Level nahezu unbegrenzt gerätselt werden. [b]Story[/b] Das Spiel hat keine Story, aber man kriegt bei jedem Level ein paar schöne Informationen über unser Sonnensystem mitgeteilt. Wusstest du, dass die der Jupiter eine Neigung von 2,5 Grad hat? Ich auch nicht! [b]Grafik/Sound[/b] Die Grafik ist sehr simpel und farbenfroh. Der Soundtrack hilft wiederum gut beim Entspannen und lässt einen den Kosmos fast schon greifen. [b]Fazit[/b] „Starlight X-2: Galactic Puzzles“ ist genau das, was es sein möchte: Ein einfaches Rätselspiel mit überzeugender Mechanik. Dazu gibt es ein bisschen Ambiente. Kostenlos fand ich das Prinzip ganz nett und schnell zugänglich. Den Vollpreis würde ich aber nicht für das Spiel zahlen.

This is more a mixed review than a negative one. I like the concept of working with two different sets of logic (stars and asteroids) to unravel puzzles, but typically the initial array of planets gives you so much upfront information that you can immediately fill in most of the grid with rote, simple deductions. Sometimes in medium difficulty puzzles and [i]rarely[/i] in easy puzzles I wound up with a 50/50 on a single pair of stars but even then that was easily resolved by then filling in all the rote asteroid information. In the larger-size hard puzzles I found myself switching between star and asteroid logic more often, and sometimes I had more than just a single 50/50 to resolve at the end, both of which I appreciated, but ultimately it still felt like filling in most of the grid did not require much [i]insight[/i], which was disappointing. In larger grids it was also easier to overlook something obvious, especially with all of the light beams filling up rows and columns, but this is a minor complaint. I don't know whether the logic system is simply incapable of producing truly challenging puzzles or whether the (procedurally generated?) puzzle selection fails to draw out the system's potential, but either way, I didn't feel motivated to progress beyond a sampling of difficulties and sizes ranging from easy to hard and from 4*4 to 9*9, totaling 100 puzzles.

Starlight X-2 is one of the most relaxing puzzle games I've played in a while. I didn't realise when I fired it up, but it's sudoku. Stars shine light, asteroids block, and there's a bunch of rules around where things can and can't be placed. Simple but fun - and endless. Starlight X-2 is essentially Sudoku, but with stars and asteroids instead of numbers. Would loved to have seen new mechanics introduced. Best feature is the limitless number of puzzles included. For more niche curation, follow me at: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/27440015-CSH-Picone/

惑星の規定の面が正しく照らされるように恒星と小惑星を置くゲーム。 恒星と小惑星は同じ行・列に1つずつしか存在してはいけません。 「tents and trees」と同じ開発元、というと結構納得感のある人もいるのでは。 ペンシルパズルが中級者程度である自分にとっても、全体的な難易度はさほど高いとは感じられませんでした。 2023年にデイリーパズルが60ステージ／日となったので、ステージ数は充実しています。 細部のUI、日本語訳等粗はありますが、個人的にはとても楽しんでプレイしています。

A solid, sudoku-descended deductive puzzler with tons of levels of varying sizes and difficulties. Runs great on Linux.

This is a decent paper-puzzle-ish game with a solid UI and an initially atrocious title. It was eventually renamed to "Starlight X-2: Space Sudoku", which is a bit better. Gameplay This is essentially a paper-puzzle-like experience with a neat presentation. There are 550 levels, plus infinitely more levels, albeit all auto-generated. That means they're all interchangeable, which makes the idea of completing any level set more daunting and less appealing. Unfortunately, that's the main motivation one has in such games, so that made it harder to stay interested. In addition, I didn't find difficult puzzles particularly interesting to solve. Similar to randomly generated Sudoku puzzles, you just follow a rote algorithm step by step, irrespective of level size. The core puzzle idea is decent for paper puzzles. I don't mean that as criticism; I like lots of paper puzzles, like Slither Link. But when I see 550 levels and know that there won't be any new mechanics, I wonder why this was sold as a video game. Visuals: In bigger levels, the screen gets cluttered very quickly, at which point it becomes unreadable (similar to solving Sudoku puzzles and writing number clues into every single tile). The devs noticed this and... instead of making the visuals less busy, instead added buttons to hide specific icons like all no-asteroids icons O_o. In addition, the iconography for no-asteroid is a negative image of an asteroid; same for the sun. This is a very unfortunate choice, for the same reason that "don't think of a pink elephant" is a thing. That said, I did get used to this eventually. UI: The UI is decent, but I wish there were hotkeys. The game requires so much clicking because it doesn't even support a second action via the right mouse button. Things would've been so much easier if e.g. the right click did the opposite of the left click (e.g. place sun and place no-sun). (EDIT: Apparently this feature was actually added eventually. Hooray!) That said, at least the mouse wheel cycles between placable symbols, and clicking & dragging is supported to draw lots of "no X" hints at once. Finally, the hint system is amazing and even tells you if you've made a mistake, but only if you ask. This is something all paper-puzzle-ish games should copy. Other than that, I found some of the achievements bizarre and yucky. Stuff like "Addicted for 10 days" or "24h playtime", ew. Overall, I enjoyed this game for a while.