Project Starship X

Genre: Bullet Hell Shmup / Roguelike

Players: 1

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Review:

Project Starship X is a Bullet Hell Shmup with Roguelike elements released on PC in 2020 and ported to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in 2021. This game is extremely fast-paced and zany, and is constantly changing the situation to make everything unpredictable.

All of this starts with the presentation, which really tries to drive home the game’s bizarre, kooky nature – the game itself is called a “tutorial”, the instructions instruct you not to read the instructions, and one of the characters on the character select screen runs head-first into the screen. The actual visuals during gameplay are decently-animated 2D visuals, but more than any one element, there’s just a lot going on on-screen at any given time, so you’re not likely to be looking closely at the details. These visuals are backed by an energetic soundtrack though, again, you’re not likely to be paying it too much attention.

While this game is all about unpredictability, it does have one central mechanic that everything here is more or less built around – a dash mechanic that temporarily makes you invincible and can also be used as an attack in some contexts.

Unfortunately, here’s where that unpredictable randomness really starts to hurt the game. You see, this game really counts on players leaning heavily on that dash ability. Often, it’s the only way to plow through enemy gunfire. Unfortunately, the game does a poor job conveying to the player how different elements interact with that dash. Some obstructions can be dashed through, others cannot, some enemies require being dashed into to defeat, but it’s not always clear when this is. Some enemies automatically draw a dashing player into them regardless of where they are in relation to the ship. Without clear visual indications which of these things is going on, it’s far too easy to make a mistake and get yourself hurt doing something you could’ve sworn you should have been able to do.

Then of course there’s all the other ways the randomness hurts the game – how it’s not always clear whether incoming enemies and/or their attacks can be shot down, whether a new part of the environment is an enemy or something helpful and unique to the level…this game will have players going through a lot of trial and error figuring this stuff out, and since it’s a Roguelike, they won’t even be able to depend on their prior runs as a guide to instruct them how best to continue.

None of this is to say that Project Starship X isn’t any fun. Quite the contrary, there’s plenty of silly fun to be had here… but it’s all so unpredictable that you’ll often feel like you’ve taken damage due to no fault of your own, or conversely wondering how the heck you didn’t take damage in a situation you thought you certainly would have. The end result is a game that’s wild and fun, but gets tiresome quick, leaving you looking for a more grounded, better Shmup to play when all’s said and done.

tl;dr – Project Starship X is a Bullet Hell Shmup with Roguelike elements, but this game’s focus on fast-paced random zany antics often means players will be left scratching their heads how various elements interact with their ship and the all-important dodge function. This game can be amusing, but it’s too volatile to provide the long-lasting experience that some of the better Shmups on the Nintendo Switch can provide.

Grade: C

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