Super Stardust HD Solo Update

[Rainbow Man]

It makes me a sad bnny nobody's started a discussion on this subject yet. This game's constantly being overlooked so I take it upon myself to fix that.

NO MoRE!

For those who haven't checked it out yet this update raises the bar yet again on visuals and pure crazyness in this pretty sdamn crazy title. There's remixed music and an alternative (and unfortunately annoying I have to say) second set of soundtracks included in the update.

Then there's several new singe player game modes including the extrely hectic Endless mode which totally rocks. There's a Time ATtack mode and Bomber mode one where you can only smartbomb stuff to death (and it's hard) as well as Survival which spawns thousands of spheres which can't be destroyed with normal weapons.

Plus the standard Arcade mode now has an easy settign, which really is quite easy. Asteroids, ships and enemy shots move muh slower so surviving is a breeze in comparison. I made it to the 3rd planet without dying on my first and sofar only attempt. Only reason I did die was I got greedy and careless trying to keep my ice splitter constantly on overdrive and rammed an asteroid in an attempt to grab another blue powerup.

Th REAL fun is in the Endless mode.

It's CRAZY.

I've never seen so many objects on a screen ever. RThe game drops in so much junk on the screen I can barely comprehend what's going on much less how the PS3 copes with it all. But..it does. Somehow.

The people who coded this game mst be magicians or something because these visuals are simply insane. There's no other word for it. It's also FUN.

I got a litlte over 18 million as my personal best. Yesterday that was good enough for 35 on the ranking. Last I checked I had dropped to 79. Still pretty good for a gaming geezer methinks,..

Any other people enjoying Endless?

And can't any of the staffers do some kind of interview with Housemarque? This ame rocks but it gets almost no exposure anywhere..
Peace.

 

[patsu]

This and PixelJunk Monster are on my must-get list. I don't have too much play time lately. Will wait until June or even July to get them.

 

[macabre]

Stardust is still my number one game to play while I download stuff from the store.
I agree that the update is awesome, and yes it`s pretty hardcore. The stuff they throw at you in the new level is insane.
I will take a few pics or vids after I stand up later today.

 

[Jugix]

I couldn't agree more with Rainbow man. This solo expansion pack is like rebirth of my favourite gametitle. Actually this is second rebirth, and first rebirth was release in PSN. I played Stardust on Amiga500 A LOT!

I was also awed by the sheer number of objects presented on screen. Time after another when I thought this game couldnt handle any more objects and BAM it doubles it! Silky smooth ?60?fps constantly. Even when largest meteorshower is due which covers the whole planet! But I think this lighthouse thingy which releases massive pressurewave when destroyed takes the cake! :b...

However, there are few minor annoyances present. Solo Expansion resets all stats. I had 40hours of active playtime before expansion and now all is reset. Too bad but I live. Also why can't I play retro and original soundtrack titles in random mode? Third annoyance is it interrupts my social life... again!

 

[Arwin]

I was planning to make a topic if necessary to say exactly the same thing!

The update makes the game just perfect! The new modes are incredible, and the amount of stuff that flies around now is just mind boggling. The Retro music is very, very cool, my favorite even over custom music that is now also supported. And this game is one of the best tech demos for its crazy amount of objects on screen that also interact with each other. In Bomb mode, which is also great fun, there are these incredible chains of metal objects thrown down in interesting patterns, and then rocks flying around push these aside somewhat, mines also blow up the bomb carrier, and so on, all sorts of amazing stuff like that. There should be more of these kinds of small but highly innovative games around, its just awesome. I also like that the new Solo modes offer so many different types of experiences including ones that are really very short. That makes it an awesome inbetween game. Like the survival challenge, where my highscore is not even two minutes.

This game is incredible.

/gush

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I've played Stardust a bit. I loved the Amiga version. This is too chaotic IMO. When stuff gets dropped absolutely everywhere, and you can't see where to go as there's so many particles splatted on the screen, and when you use the bombs or boosts stuff drops on your new position, I personally feel it's overkill. And looking at other download titles on both platforms, excessive particles is a common issue I have.

 

[Arwin]

You can play this with two views, one nearer, one further. How chaotic this game gets is highly dependent on which mode you play. And the weapons really come into play here as well. When things are chaotic up-close, the fire weapon is a great way to deal with issues. But you can also use the ice weapon to carve out a path, or keep things clean altogether - this weapon can destroy things at a great distance (shoot all the way to the other side of the planet) and that can keep the whole planet fairly clean, but at the expense of points. Quickly changing through weapons to destroy the different type of rocks and such with the appropriate weapon can also help a lot. I feel the game offers a lot of depth this way, but it really comes into play now with the update much better - before I felt that the fire weapon was by far the best weapon in most circumstances, but now I find myself wanting to shift between the different weapons much more. In the new and more chaotic modes, bombs become much more important, and if you play right, there are a lot of those available to you.

In your case, I think you should be fine handling the first three planets? They're not that chaotic, imho, fairly easy to get through for me and I'm not that great at these games.

Also the Bomb variant in the new Solo missions is much more a thinking man's game and has a much more leisurly pace, so you might like that.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

You can play this with two views

You can?!
Edit : Pah! A choice of 'distant' and 'more distant' isn't what i was expecting!

In your case, I think you should be fine handling the first three planets? They're not that chaotic, imho, fairly easy to get through for me and I'm not that great at these games.

I've got as far as the first boss. I haven't played much, and a lot is coop play which adds an extra element of confusion. Still, I always was pretty good at these games. I completed R-Type through twice and was well on my way through the third run when I just gave up having spent so much time, and the original Stardust wasn't too much bother. Maybe I'm just getting old and my poor brain can't cope with the new gen of high-intensity gaming.

I guess I need go over to Wii for the simple life

 

[rabidrabbit]

The "Easy" difficulty was a welcome addition for my skills, now I actually might be able to get to planet 3.
With practice the normal difficulty might have been manageable, but I just don't have the preservance any more to invest that much time in that many games.
A 92" screen viewed from 3 m might also be a bit too big for a game like Super StarDust because you don't see at a glance what's happening.

 

[Jugix]

Short SSHD expansion video at youtube. It is short thanks to my 32MB memorycard, but it gives some impressions.

 

[-tkf-]

Is it possible to buy an addon from the US store when you originally bought the game in the European store?

 

[Arwin]

Short SSHD expansion video at youtube. It is short thanks to my 32MB memorycard, but it gives some impressions.

From your video, you get to quite a lot of good videos detailing the various mode.

Here's the bomber mode that I recommend to Shifty. It's quite different from the usual pace.

And here's a good chunck/example of the endless mode, which is totally insane! (and not yet recommended to Shifty ... ). It looks great, I love just watching it despite the low quality of the youtube capture. Highlights for me are stuff like from 3:19, 5:15 and at the end. The amount of objects are just mad!

 

[Rainbow Man]

Waht's people's fav strategises for Endless?

From my experience, goldmelter all the way to 100% as quickly as possible - naturally not to the point of dying just to grab a pickup when it's red, but trying to grab as much red as I can.

This because the other weapons more or less SUCK at less than 100%; both green and blue have several very awkward "humps" while leveling them when they simply fire too slowly to be viable.. especially in the uber hectic Endless mode.

After that, I just grab bonuses as they come, trying to NOT get too much red, and preferably as much blue as I can.

As firing rate is king in SSHD the most effective weapon you can possibly have is the overcharged ice crusher, so that's the weapon I aim for if at all possible, and then try to ubercharge it as often as I can and sweep it in large fast arcs. Overcharged blue's massive firing rate and superior range quickly clears the screeen of any tpye of enemy or dbris except masses of gun tutrrets which need concentrated fire.

When the game spawns meteor storm after meteor storm without any asteroids to break for overcharge bonuses or lays down walls and spawns massive swarms of SSHD's version of the blue jacks - the red pyramids - I switch to rock crusher and sweep in smaller arcs to try to create a dense screen of shots to protect myself while I constantly travel in a single direction. For meteors I shoot in the direction I travel. For red pyramids I generally have to shoot in the opposite direction to the one I travle except if I need t punch a hole through a wall.

White snakes - smartbomb to clear em out. They'e FAST and deadly and eat a lot of shots before they die and grow to be huge and easily kamikaze into you when close up unless you can pick em off at range with blue gun.

Dodging flying saucers - blue gun. Blue shots are too fast for the saucers to dodge plus you can waste em before they have a chance to get close and kamikaze you or shoot you with theior purple shots. Refd beam is almost useless on these. The saucers will dodge outside its range most of the time and can survive quite a bit of "tail-end" fire from the beam. Smartbomb if neccessary as they'll try to get close and ram you if you let em. They're faster and more aggressiove than in standard Arcade mode so kill em while you still have range.

Red sawblade saucers - red beam. If they're under heavt fire they're "stunned" meaning red is most effective gun for these; they become unable to advance. Constant stun em until they die. Overcharged resd beam sort these guys out quite easily.

Ice cube ships: blue gun or green; try to avoid red if at all possible for samereasons as blue saucer. They dodge out of range and eat quite a bit of tail damage, though their speed and dodge ability is much weaker than blue saucer's. They can be "herded" with clever use of movement and the gun into a killzone and then mass-slaughtered. Not TOO dangerous, due to their cowardlyness if you fire anywhere near their direction.

Blue homing mines: if you don't have blue overcharge pick green gun and wiggle it about to create a protective barrage between you and the mine. Blue gun's shot salvo is quite narroew and the mine is small and VERY fast so it's easy to miss without overcharge, plus they tend to spawn in singles spread out here and there, reducing blue's effectiveness. Note the mine absorbs sevwerla green rounds so try not to head directly in the incoming mine's path - you might hit it head on and splode!

Always - if at all in dobut - boost or smartbomb. Or boost, THEN smartbomb! Especially once things start to become hectic. If game drops two meteor showers on top of you an dboost is already on cooldown you will have no choice but to smaertbomb your way out of the 2nd drop.

Like an IRL friend f mine aalways says: never die while you still got ammo. This adage - whjich is something he realized back in the old WQolf3D/Doom days - works well in SSHD - what use is 12 smartbobms in your inventory if you're a cloud of debris anf game over?

If you die the multiplier is lost whicl means your chance at a highscore is also either lost or in serious jeopardy. Better to blow a bomb prematurely and be SURE to live than to get squished by a stray incoming object.

Eating a shield while you still have a shield causes a smartbomb to go off. A nice trick to use if possible.

DON'T save your lighthouse for what seems lik ea more convenient time unless the screen's really empty. Blowing up the lighthouse and xlearing the screen means massive point influx if there's a bunch of crap floating around. I've had my multiplier jump several steps by doing this early on. You'll get new lighthouse slater anyway but not if your current one is still hanging around! Blow it and use the temporary reprive to collect goodies and re-postion your thumbs on the sticks - mine tend to slip.

PS3 sticks really should have been concave like 360 pad and ridged like Wii/GC.. Meh.

Peace.

 

[macabre]

Here`s one of my runs in endless mode - it get`s nasty around the 5 minute mark...

 

[xmu]

Damn you Arwin, just when I thought I beat your 10min time in Lave Time Attack, you'd gone and clocked 3 minutes! (Yes, I suck at the game )

But anyways the new modes are GREAT - my fave is the time attack, gives this different kind of hectic feeling to the whole thing. Survival's fun too, the amount of crap on screen is just staggering.

 

[Jugix]

God daumn, that endless mode is addicting! Every time I die I think:"One more... this has gotta be the last one!" And I am doing it all over again. Made a new high-score: 25.2M.. still only half way to the top-1.

Survival is pretty badass too. I managed to survive 3min 20s once but now I can't even get 2min anymore. Noobieluck I suppose!

 

[satriales]

This expansion is briiliant! All of the new modes are great fun but Bomber is my favourite, I'm 5th on the leaderboard

 

[Rainbow Man]

I got my hands on a Dual Shock 3 pad today and hooked it up to my PS3 with the included USB cord for charging, then immediately fired up SSHD.

...And, WOW.

It's friggin gawesomer! The rumble in this pad is great and the use of rumble in the game is moderate, yet effective. There's a small rumble when a powerup is released from an asteroid and another when eating the powerup. Firing weapons or destroying asteroids does not cause rumbling, but killing enemies does.

Slmall enemies cuase another small rumble but larger enemies can make the pasd buzz pretty good! Of course smartbombing and killing bsoses cause the same phemomenon to manigfest itself.

I was lucky to be able to snag thi spad. The DS3 isn't scheduled for relese for another couple weeks over here I think and I boughti t cheaper than what it will sell for in my games store. I found it in a PC hardware store while shoopping for mice; I picked up the G9 mouse and it's actually quite good. Much gbetter tracking than the new-ish microsoft sidewinder mouse. But thats' a subject for adifferent threasd.

Peace.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

I didn't even know there was an update. Woohoo, something to look forward to!

 

[zed]

i have to say of all the games on the consoles GT,GTA4,mass effect,uncharted,smash bros etc
this is the number one i want to play