Sophstar Free Download GAMESPACK.NET

Sophstar Free Download GAMESPACK.NET Following the excellent Star Hunter DX, Raging Blasters, and Crimzon Clover – World EXplosion from Steam to the Switch eShop is Banana Bytes’ Sophstar, a vertically oriented bullet hell shoot-em-up with clearly delineated sprites set against simplistic rolling backgrounds. There are a whopping nine ships to choose from, all with different behaviours, pros, and cons, meaning it takes time and effort to figure out what works for you. Some have disappointing spread shots but killer secondary weapons, while others have access to a teleport that’s like playing Russian Roulette. Each ship’s base features are fairly eccentric, too. You have several different speeds, moderated by two different firing modes and the ‘L’ and ‘ZL’ triggers, which slow you down to a crawl if desired. Teleports work on a quick recharge basis and can be used to get out of clinches, but you need a moment to prep it before you can use it, and this timing requires expert precision and knowledge in later stages. All said and done, the effort involved in finding your comfort zone will either be alluring or excessive, depending on your sensibilities. TOP/BEST ADULT VIDEO GAMES IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (USA)

Sophstar Free Download GAMESPACK.NET

The scoring system in Sophstar has been implemented with a good amount of care and knowledge, where diminishing point icons left behind by destroyed craft can be swept up early for greater returns. This requires a strategy known as ‘point-blanking’, where you spend much of your time in a risk-reward scenario in the top half of the screen. The initial stage looks mundane and feels uninspired, but halfway through stage two things start to simmer. Depending on your chosen craft’s base speed, you may need to start hitting one of those slow-down buttons to effectively needle through — and not accidentally crash into — the fire coming your way. This, of course, depends on the player’s skill level and play style, but the feature works if you can exploit it properly. There are plenty of bosses and mid-bosses, too, and some are more interesting than others. While things don’t start to feel bullet hell-proper until around halfway through, stages six through eight present a legitimate test. For score hunters, the game is deep; for survivalists, you can accrue continues and gain plenty of life extenders. Unique to Sophstar, the Cadet School mode is fantastic.

8 Stages on Arcade/Story mode.

This mode comprises of a series of 60 mini-missions where not firing for a prolonged period or racking up scores within a time limit can net higher ranks. Each mission is well-designed, great fun, and doubles as training for teleportation and speed control. The music, sadly, isn’t quite there though. While inoffensive, the unaggressive ditties are altogether body-slammed by the likes of Andro Dunos 2 and Raging Blasters. And, despite its many original ideas, it’s an experience that never feels wholly captivating. It can be confusing initially to know what to do with all the buttons, and for at least half of the game, you don’t really need to use them much, especially if you’re all-in for the score. Stage six’s tunnel boss and stage seven’s Radiant Silvergun-styled chicanes require pragmatic use of the brakes and teleportation features, but it would have been nice to have seen such inventive implementation early on. Sophstar is a vertically-scrolling shoot ’em up in the classic ’90s style and it was put together by Brazilian studio Banana Bytes. Aeterna Noctis Switch NSP

Sophstar Free Download GAMESPACK.NET

It’s kind of old school, as evidenced by the 2D sprites and simple backdrops but comes with a lot of options and ways to play that give it maybe not a modern feel but certainly a ‘complete’ one. In terms of what type of shoot ’em up this game is, it’s closer to the Toaplan style of shoot ’em up rather than the Cave style. That is to say that while bullets are an ever-present problem for you during the game, they don’t come in massive screen-filling patterns (at least not very often). That’s not to say that the game isn’t very challenging though. The game offers you plenty of choices up front. Aside from various visual filters (everything from your basic scanlines to a ZX Spectrum colour palette), a wide range of difficulty settings to cater for all levels of player and different game modes, the main choice to worry about is which of the nine playable characters to pick. Each pilot has their own unique ship with various levels of spread or focus to their primary weapon as well as different sub-weapons and teleport mechanics. The variety is welcome and while certain ships just seem to be easier to use, there are no stinkers in the roster so it’s fun to try them all out.

6 Difficulty levels.

The main game itself is set across eight reasonably short levels. We like that. There’s nothing worse than a shoot ’em up that drags on for an hour. Instead this game is one of those shoot ’em ups that lets you focus on survival just to get that 1CC or offers up some risk vs. reward mechanics if you want bigger scores. In Sophstar the best way to a high score is to kill enemies at close range to pick up the tokens they drop. These drop in value rapidly so you really want to be face to face if you want the most points. You can tell that Sophstar has been put together by people with a real love of the genre. As we said at the start, it feels complete. It’s a solid arcade style shooter with attention paid to scoring, challenge and variety. It feels satisfying to play and the combat here feels exciting and dynamic with shots having a visual effect on enemies rather than giving you bullet sponges to shoot and little more than a peashooter to do it with. Unlike Sonic Wings, for example, where every special makes the player invulnerable for a few seconds, in SophStar only a few ships will give this advantage. Ghost Song Switch NSP

Sophstar Free Download GAMESPACK.NET

Teleportation, another very well developed system for the game, brings different movements to each ship. There are those that can teleport quickly to escape missiles, and reloading to teleport again is faster, while other ships, more powerful in shots and specials, will teleport randomly. My favorite, the Z-2, has a sword on its forehead, from which, every time you teleport vertically or horizontally, it destroys enemies in its path. Special shots are not all attack shots, and those that are are also different. By filling the bar in the lower right corner, you can utilize this special shot. In the case of ships Leo and Arobe D, for example, they are in a defense mode, creating immunity against shots that hit the ship. Common shots have differentiations as well. There are ships with wide but weak shots, others with narrow and extremely strong shots. Some shoot backwards, a ship has a guided shot and others have shots that change direction all the time, but which is accompanied by an energy that when hitting the target, creates a propeller in the place, hitting the other enemies while containing the damage to the ship hit.

60 Stages on Cadet School mode.

I wanted to explain all of this to make it clear that SophStar is much more than a vertical Shmup with ships that have similar powers with different advantages. Think of it like a fighting game: each ship has something different to offer, bringing 9 approaches to finishing the 8 stages of the game (actually 7, since the last one is just the battle against the last boss). Is this game a masterpiece? You never know if a shmup is good from looking at screenshots or game footage, until you actually play it. This one IS good. Really good. Your ship moves fast and shoots even faster, the enemies are plenty but don’t overwhelm you right from the start, exactly what you need to get in the flow. You can teleport, which helps you to escape some tight situations (and allows for some nice tricks since an undestructible clone of your ship continues to shoot from your old position for a short time). Your ship can also slow down, which helps aiming and to get through some tight spots. Each of the eight stages is guarded by a boss, nothing spectacular but not bad either, since they all have very different attack modes.

Nothing matters if the gameplay is bad, but since the gameplay is really good, it is nice that Sophstar also offers lots of options, multiple game modes, a bunch of ships (with rather different weapon systems) to play, unlockables, online high-scores, a very short tutorial (and a longer Cadet School gamemode full of challenges), 6 difficulty settings, a background story developing between the stages, great gamepad support and a catchy soundtrack. A masterpiece for fans of the genre, only a 2-player mode is missing. Sophstar produces in the player the feeling of being both an old acquaintance and an innovative game, with its twists and gimmicks. The teleport mechanics and great ship roster are a great touch for those who want a ton of replayability, not to mention all the easter eggs, hidden things and secrets. This game is far better than a lot of releases from big companies who think they understand what shmup players want. Congratulations to Banana Bytes, because Sophstar is proof that they do understand! When I first played the Sophstar demo in 2020, I was curious to see how Banana Bytes would do. Little did I expect to find a game that far surpassed my expectations for a first release of an unknown indie developer.

Sophstar Free Download GAMESPACK.NET

The golks at Banana Bytes know shmups from inside and out, and Sophstar is a worthy spiritual successor to Toaplan and Compile games of the 90s, with a modern touch that few developers can pull off. The game steers away from bullet hell games, and proposes a very different challenge, with very fast bullets and patterns that require faster reflexes – hence my comparison to Toaplan games. Of course the bullet patterns have been refined, as the hardware now allows things that Toaplan and Compile couldn’t even dream of in the 90s. Gameplay wise, Sophstar has a diverse array of ships (nine in total), all with very different features and it doesn’t feel like the devs were trying to make just cosmetic/minor changes to come up with another ship. All of them play and feel different, and require a proper strategy to play with. There’s one for each taste and it’s a good idea to test all of them. The arcade mode is a tough as nails challenge in the Intermediate difficulty, but it’s a fair mode: do your homework and you’re likely to succeed. For those wanting to simply enjoy the game and are not into shmups, the Child mode will provide a good mode to allow people to ease into the genre. Dire Vengeance Switch NSP

ADD ONS/PATCHES AND DLC’S: Sophstar