Feeling that Monday morning slump? Well, brace yourself, because while your real-world woes might be tough, they probably can’t compare to the sheer frustration (and addictive fun) packed into “Today’s Star Is,” a brand new free 2D spaceship labyrinth game from Toby Alden, the mastermind behind the critically acclaimed melancholy platformer, Love Eternal“>Love Eternal.
A Daily Dose of Cosmic Challenge
Love Eternal“>Love Eternal is apparently very good, and which we did not review. Some inside baseball: when a games journalist dies, we are judged at St Peter’s gate not for the Biblical sins we have committed, but for the obviously deserving games we have skipped. If the tally grows too monstrous, we are cast down into the fires of Valnet Tophet, there to spend the aeons power-ranking Marvel mid-credit sequences. My list of oversights is so long it reaches around the world, like the coils of Jörmungandr. I am hellbound. But I accept my fate with good heart, because Valnet Tophet cannot possibly be worse than the Space Invader area in Today’s Star Is.
In “Today’s Star Is,” you pilot a tiny, unarmed spaceship with delightfully skittish, Lunar Lander“>Lunar Lander-style ‘spin and thrust’ controls. Your mission? Navigate treacherous labyrinths filled with spiked surfaces to collect a star. Bouncing off regular walls is fine, but hitting a spike results in instant death. The spikiness of the walls intensifies as you progress through the labyrinth.
Adding another layer of complexity is the “Space Invader” (not actually a Space Invader, Taito, please don’t sue!). This relentless creature lurks within hunting grounds marked by dashed lines. Entering these zones triggers an unmerciful pursuit; the creature phases through walls and delivers instant death on contact.
Then there’s the star itself. It sulks in a crevice, a SEGA prop with a hangover. This Monday incarnate must be collected using a short-range tractor beam and carefully transported back through the labyrinth. The star has physics, meaning it swings like a wrecking ball, gets stuck in corners, and generally sabotages your maneuvers. Accidentally skimming it into a dead end is almost inevitable. And yes, touching the star results in instant death.
Now imagine all of this – the treacherous levels, the relentless Space Invader – combined with infinite lives and reasonably frequent checkpoints (thankfully, these don’t cause the star to respawn far away). Completing a level earns you a spot on the leaderboard, before your accumulated hatred of astral phenomena causes you to lose consciousness.
Beyond the clever design, which maximizes fun from minimal elements, “Today’s Star Is” boasts an engaging presentation. While seemingly barebones visually, the game features captivating sound design. Your rocket emissions echo cavernously, your ship dinks off surfaces like a pickaxe hitting stone, and the Space Invader’s awakening noise is mildly harrowing.
You can play “Today’s Star Is” in your browser or download it for Windows and Mac. Find it on Itch.io“>Itch.io. As the title suggests, Alden plans to release a new level every day, so prepare yourself – Toby, what have you done?
Source: Rock Paper Shotgun
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