After 30 years in a "nearly done" pile at Mindware, the Mega Drive Version of Star Mobile sees the light of day through the Mega Drive Mini 2. And you can kind of see why it was never released.
Don't get me wrong, it's cool. There's something inherently neat around a long-abandoned game finally getting finished off after so long, and compared to it's other versions, (star mobile was actually released on PCE CD and the X68K), it's easily the best looking and sounding. There's a lovely ambience to the whole thing, with relaxing music and graphics depicting various constellations in the background - there's a big vibe of the sorta PC game your dad would be really addicted to in 2002, and to an extent the sort of phone game Gen X-ers like nowadays. Very comfy, easy to understand, with just enough of a puzzle hook to keep it engaging.
And the puzzle gameplay is fun. Ish. It is almost entirely down to balancing scales with 5 different types of weight. Now, that is really simple on it's own as you can almost universally just put the heaviest weight on the lighter scale to not get a game over. Almost by definition, the game needs something else to actually constitute puzzles, and it's there, but also not really. Essentially, if you sandwich any weights between two of the same type, they all get deleted and added to your total weights target, but also their weight removed. This feature can both be used tactically, and also serves as a risk - if you accidetnally cause a sandwich you can easily flip the whole scales - which can cost most of your health in one fell swoop. It's good
There are a few other things, but they are sadly almost entirely score focused - having the scales perfectly balanced at end round and sticking weights of the same type. And that score focus doesn't really work in a game that is so much about endurance, having seemingly endless levels - because the score pretty much comes down to how far you end up going more than how good you are at making it perfect, and making it perfect is a lot harder and far more liable to tip the scales.
But y'know, it's cute. As an MD mini bonus addition, it's a nice little thing that has great presentation and music, and again, finishing off an old abandoned product is cool. But this shit would have absolutely bombed as a full priced cartridge in the early 90s - surely would have tanked. The only document i can find regarding the cost of the PCE CD version's price puts it at 6600 yen, and the MD version would have likely cost more due to being a cartridge.
Yeah i can see why this didnt take off. You can easily make an argument that this game's real home would be in the preinstalled software of a turn of the milennium PC.
But it's nice yknow. And when the game costs effectively $2 in a bundle of 60 games, its far easier to swallow. A lovely slice of unearthed MD history from one of it's most best devs (Mindware also worked on streets of rage 2 and 3, and Slap Fight MD). And that's just nice.
Don't get me wrong, it's cool. There's something inherently neat around a long-abandoned game finally getting finished off after so long, and compared to it's other versions, (star mobile was actually released on PCE CD and the X68K), it's easily the best looking and sounding. There's a lovely ambience to the whole thing, with relaxing music and graphics depicting various constellations in the background - there's a big vibe of the sorta PC game your dad would be really addicted to in 2002, and to an extent the sort of phone game Gen X-ers like nowadays. Very comfy, easy to understand, with just enough of a puzzle hook to keep it engaging.
And the puzzle gameplay is fun. Ish. It is almost entirely down to balancing scales with 5 different types of weight. Now, that is really simple on it's own as you can almost universally just put the heaviest weight on the lighter scale to not get a game over. Almost by definition, the game needs something else to actually constitute puzzles, and it's there, but also not really. Essentially, if you sandwich any weights between two of the same type, they all get deleted and added to your total weights target, but also their weight removed. This feature can both be used tactically, and also serves as a risk - if you accidetnally cause a sandwich you can easily flip the whole scales - which can cost most of your health in one fell swoop. It's good
There are a few other things, but they are sadly almost entirely score focused - having the scales perfectly balanced at end round and sticking weights of the same type. And that score focus doesn't really work in a game that is so much about endurance, having seemingly endless levels - because the score pretty much comes down to how far you end up going more than how good you are at making it perfect, and making it perfect is a lot harder and far more liable to tip the scales.
But y'know, it's cute. As an MD mini bonus addition, it's a nice little thing that has great presentation and music, and again, finishing off an old abandoned product is cool. But this shit would have absolutely bombed as a full priced cartridge in the early 90s - surely would have tanked. The only document i can find regarding the cost of the PCE CD version's price puts it at 6600 yen, and the MD version would have likely cost more due to being a cartridge.
Yeah i can see why this didnt take off. You can easily make an argument that this game's real home would be in the preinstalled software of a turn of the milennium PC.
But it's nice yknow. And when the game costs effectively $2 in a bundle of 60 games, its far easier to swallow. A lovely slice of unearthed MD history from one of it's most best devs (Mindware also worked on streets of rage 2 and 3, and Slap Fight MD). And that's just nice.