Captain StarONE

Genre: Idle Game

Players: 1

.

Review:

Captain Star One (inexplicably listed on the eShop as Captain StarONE, despite nothing in the game itself reflecting this odd way of presenting the title) is a family-friendly Idle Game that has you playing as an adorable crew on a spacecraft fighting off space monsters. This game was released on mobile devices as Tap! Captain Star in 2019, and later that year on Nintendo Switch.

In terms of presentation, this game’s simple 2D visuals are appealing but not especially noteworthy, but they’re backed by a plucky soundtrack that’s pretty catchy (though somewhat repetitive). However, there is one element of the presentation that’s a little lacking – there are a lot of menus at the sides of the screen, and it makes things feel a bit cluttered.

As for the gameplay itself, this game takes the usual Idle Game style of clicker gameplay and does a few interesting things with it, such as having you position your crew in real-time to collect bonuses or take up key positions for more powerful effect, and players are also encouraged to be mindful of the crew’s relationships with one another as placing them in proximity to one another can improve those relationships. The latter feature is nice in theory, but just ended up leading to me having nearly the entire crew dogpiling on one another to ensure they all got those bonuses.

This game works fine with a gamepad, but it was clearly designed with a touchscreen in mind, and the game really shines when playing it in handheld mode, which makes moving your crew around and navigating the game’s many menus a snap.

If I’m to point to one major flaw in this game, it’s the price. Look, I’m not one to insist that free mobile games coming to the Nintendo Switch should remain free – I understand that we’re getting a version without ads, and the game needs to pay the bills somehow, and it’s gonna’ do that upfront. But $10 for an Idle Game? That just seems like far too great an ask.

If you’re wanting a decent Idle Game on Nintendo Switch and happen to catch this one on a good sale, Captain Star One is a decent entry in the genre that tries a few interesting things with character positioning. However, at its usual $10 price, this game is far too expensive for what’s on offer.

tl;dr – Captain Star One is a family-friendly Idle Game that has you playing an adorable crew fighting off space monsters. This is a decent entry in the genre and it does a few interesting things with the way it makes you manage your crew’s positions, but the $10 price tag is far too steep for a game like this.

Grade: C-

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}