Super Stardust Delta is a twin-stick multidirectional shooter video game for the PlayStation Vita handheld console. It is part of the Stardust series of games developed by the Finnish company Housemarque.[1]
| Super Stardust Delta | |
|---|---|
 PlayStation Store icon | |
| Developer(s) | Housemarque |
| Publisher(s) | Sony Interactive Entertainment |
| Director(s) | Harri Tikkanen |
| Producer(s) | Mark O'Connor |
| Designer(s) | Amar Djouad Henri Mustonen |
| Programmer(s) | Jere "XMunkki" Sanisalo Markku Velinen |
| Composer(s) | Ari Pulkkinen |
| Series | Stardust |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation Vita |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Multidirectional shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Gameplay
Using the PlayStation Vita's dual analog sticks, players control a starship orbiting a generic planet. The planet's orbit acts as the playfield, filled with asteroids lasers and enemies for the player to destroy or avoid. In the main arcade mode there are 5 planets, consisting of 5 phases each one. At the end of each planet the player encounters a boss like a traditional platform or adventure game.
The ship is equipped with a wide variety of weapons, smart bombs, a temporary shield, and a speed booster system to defend or attack. The ship has two projectile weapons of opposite polarities (Ice and Fire) that can be switched between on-the-fly. While one is effective against a certain type of enemy, it can be almost useless against another so players must quickly adapt to situations, constantly choosing which weapon to use against what. Each weapon can be powered up over the course of the game by collecting tokens as in "space invaders" (dropped onto orbit from destroyed enemy craft/asteroids). The ship is also able to collect and deploy smart bombs, which usually clear most of the playfield. When deploying a smart bomb players can choose the desired effect: Black Hole, Missile Strike, or EMP bomb. The PlayStation Vita's touch-screen controls Missile Strike, rear touch opens Black Hole, and motion control (shaking) deploys the EMP Bomb.
Other unique features of Super Stardust Delta are that the view can be tilted to see around the planet, and the ship's speed boost system has a slow-motion feature that enables players to navigate the ship with more precision while boosting. Super Stardust Delta also has more game modes than any of the preceding titles in the series - 11 unique modes all in all, each with its own unique challenges and scenarios. The different game modes are "Arcade", "Planets", "Endless", "Bomber", "Impact", "Twin-Gun", "Crush!", "Disc Slide", "Orbit Bomber", "Rock & Roll", and "Trucker". The main game modes have three difficulty levels to choose from; "Casual", "Normal", or "Hardcore". Many of the game modes let players choose whether to play the game with the "Delta" or "Pure" control configuration. The "Delta" configuration allows gameplay with new features, with players using the touchscreen, motion controls, as well as button controls to play the game, enabling the Black Hole and Missile Strike smart bombs, as well as the speed boost getting the slow-motion feature. The "Pure" configuration features simple button controls only, doing away with the Black Hole, Missile Strike and the speed boost's slow-motion feature.
Super Stardust Delta has global leaderboards via PlayStation Network.
Downloadable content
The "Blast Pack" was available on launch day on the PlayStation Network. It gives players four new game modes. "Endless" provides ever-increasing waves of enemies and asteroids. "Bomber" tests how long players can survive when armed only with bombs. "Impact" tests how long players can keep their boost up; boosting through objects increases the boost meter. In "Twin-Gun" mode the player's ship two cannons which can be controlled simultaneously using the control sticks while motion controls are used for steering.
Development
This section contains promotional content. (June 2020) |
Housemarque encountered two problems while Super Stardust Delta was in development: poor rendering performance on GPU and simulation on CPU. Managing these two problems would allow the game to run steadily at a goal of 60 fps. To deal with the rendering issues, Housemarque altered the shaders to be as light as possible and to optimise efficiency, made specific design choices such as rendering the game's Black Hole effect by embedding it in the same pixel shader as the rendering for the "game grid" (planet orbit/playfield).
To solve the CPU challenge, Housemarque created a custom gameplay architecture where all gameplay code was made to run multithreaded, utilizing a fibre-based system that switched the active simulation tasks, with an aim of making sure that all cores were fully utilized. The separation of gameplay and rendering in Super Stardust Delta allowed most CPU cores to calculate the collisions/frame updates for the whole frame duration.[2]
Soundtrack
The game has four soundtracks. Three of the soundtracks are made by Ari Pulkkinen, who also provided the soundtracks for Super Stardust HD and Super Stardust Portable. The soundtracks are: "Delta" (the new PlayStation Vita soundtrack), "Arcade" (original Super Stardust HD soundtrack), "Orchestral" (a DLC soundtrack for Super Stardust HD), and "Retro" (old retro music from Stardust games of the 90's - composed by Risto Vuori). For the Arcade and Orchestral soundtrack, new tracks are unlocked each time the game is started. The Retro soundtrack required the Near app and is no longer unlockable after its closure in 2017.
Reception
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (May 2013) |
GameSpot gave a review.
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | 82/100[3] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Destructoid | 7.5/10[4] |
| Edge | 8/10[5] |
| Eurogamer | 8/10[6] |
| Game Informer | 8/10[7] |
| GameRevolution |   [8] |
| GameSpot | 7/10[9] |
| GameZone | 8.5/10[10] |
| Giant Bomb | [11] |
| IGN | 9.5/10[12] |
| PlayStation: The Official Magazine | 8/10[13] |
| Digital Spy | [14] |
| Metro | 7/10[15] |
The game was reviewed on Metacritic.[3]
References
- ^ Square, Push (2012-03-11). "Review: Super Stardust Delta (PlayStation Vita)". Push Square. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
- ^ Chubin, Nathalia (6 March 2012). "Super Stardust Delta Q&A". PlayStation Blog Europe. Sony Interactive Entertainment.
- ^ a b "Super Stardust Delta for PlayStation Vita Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
- ^ Sterling, Jim (13 February 2012). "Review: Super Stardust Delta". Destructoid. Enthusiast Gaming.
- ^ Edge staff (5 March 2012). "Super Stardust Delta review". Edge. Future plc. Archived from the original on 7 March 2012. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
- ^ Matulef, Jeffrey (29 February 2012). "Super Stardust Delta Review". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
- ^ Cork, Jeff (13 February 2012). "Super Stardust Delta". Game Informer. GameStop.
- ^ Severino, Anthony (22 February 2012). "Super StarDust Delta Review". Game Revolution. CraveOnline. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
- ^ Petit, Carolyn (17 February 2012). "Super Stardust Delta Review". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
- ^ Workman, Robert (16 February 2012). "super Stardust Delta Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on 29 March 2012. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
- ^ Gerstmann, Jeff (13 February 2012). "Super Stardust Delta Review". Giant Bomb. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
- ^ Moriarty, Colin (13 February 2012). "Super Stardust Delta Review". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
- ^ "Review: Super Stardust Delta". PlayStation: The Official Magazine. No. 58. Future plc. May 2012. p. 81.
- ^ Langshaw, Mark (24 February 2012). "'Super Stardust Delta' review (Vita)". Digital Spy. Hearst Communications. Archived from the original on February 26, 2012. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
- ^ Hargreaves, Roger (28 February 2012). "Super Stardust Delta review - asteroid collision". Metro. DMG Media. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
External links
- Super Stardust Delta at the Housemarque website
- Super Stardust Delta at MobyGames