Review #603: 64 Memories - Starshot - Space Circus Fever

 Come one, come all, our next attraction: a bad, baaaaaaad game.

Part 1: The Flashback.
 I had read about Starshot in a few numbers of a Spanish Nintendo 64 magazine called.... 64 Magazine(I'm not kidding) and boy did it capture my interest. That issue featured a few screenshots of the game alongside Banjo Kazooie and Gex, two games I liked, so it instantly won my approval.
 Fast forward a few month(maybe a year?) later, it was at night-time, inside a Shopping Center where I came upon the game inside a Computer Tech Store. And somehow I got my parents to purchase it for me right then and there.

 I loved Starshot. I remember how marveled I was at how far you could zoom-out the camera. The diverse worlds you could explore, the ability to fly, move around your shots and the cast of characters... I don't exactly remember how much I loved the game, but whether I did or not, I found it one of the most memorable games of my childhood. This was probably helped by its terrible cliffhanger ending, I just couldn't believe it, maybe I missed a few collectibles? But I hadn't. The game ends just like that. Worst Ending in a videogame ever. I still remembered it fondly, yes, even the part about its disappointing ending, which years later I would learn was the only ending.

Part 2: The Review
 It suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. Among every single disappointment I had with replaying Nintendo 64 games this one is the one that hurt the most. Let's start with the biggest culprit, our well known friend 'Camera issues'. It's incredible how many N64 games have camera issues, but this one is one of the worst offenders. Sometimes it can get stuck behind walls, and while you can manually move the camera around, zoom in and out, it seems like the camera slowly returns to its default position, which is terrible since it's too zoomed in and hardly a good fit for platforming and exploring.

 I got far ahead of myself, let me set up the game: You play as Starshot the Star Juggler, a member of the Space Circus. While trying to perform in the planet Tensuns, Virtua Circus arrives first to stop you. Hijinx ensues, and now you have to travel four different planets in order to find attractions for your circus: A machine that always malfunctions(Push it forwards and it moves backwards!), a Ghost dog, a bird that lays eggs that hatch into anything and, finally, the last surviving earthling. If you couldn't tell by now, humor is a large part of the game, and easily the element that has aged the best. Games that try to be funny tend to end up as either unfunny or lame, but Space Circus is honestly funny. The diverse characters and enemies that populate the different planets are fairly amusing to behold, I always looked forwards to what came next because of it.

 While most of the game is spent trying to awkwardly jump from platform to platform, thank god for infinite lives, Starshot can shoot stars to defend himself. If you tap the B button your shots will fly in a straight line, but if you hold down the B button... you can actually move your shot around, a few puzzles in the game make use of this feature. This is Starshot's only means of defense, and if you run out of ammo, incredibly easy since your reserves cap out at 50. That said, whenever you respawn on a checkpoint you are restored 25 shots, so, sometimes, it's a good idea to just kill yourself when you reach a checkpoint and thus restock your ammo. That said, flying around spends rocket energy, which caps at 40, and if you die lose all your flying energy stock. Starshot has a three-tiered Jump, like Mario, but instead of needing to time your jumps you can just hold down the A button and Starshot will automatically jump higher, up to three times, and then keep jumping at full height as long as you hold down A. You can also fly around by collecting Rocket Energy, these pickups tend to be pretty scarce, but if you manage to hold on to your flying energy you can fly pretty much anywhere at any time.

 Blue stars restock your ammo, Yellow rockets fill your flying energy stock, green Starshot heads restore your hit points and then there are the... red triangles, or Mega Fuel. The game tells you to find them and collect them, but they are very easy to find, and you only need 100 to finish the game. They are so plentiful that I had the 100 mega fuel I needed by world 3, Primitron, and went on collecting Mega Fuel just for kicks. You don't need more than 100, there are not alternate endings, so don't bother. That said, you can travel back to any planet you've already visited, if you want to search for more or just play around.

 The wonky camera and poor framerate may make the platforming terrible, but what really brings down the game is poor level design. The creatures and enemies are interesting, the humor is great, and the planets have personality... but they are poorly designed. Just to name a few, planet 2: Killer Expo features a mazelike part of the level in which missiles are constantly following you. The only way to get rid of them? Throw yourself into the water...which has the potential of taking you back to the first part of the maze It's ridiculous. Might as well just let it kill you and respawn on a checkpoint nearby. Planet 3, Primitron(Actually, the last four levels can be played in any order), you have to guide tiny robots into fixing trees, which is incredibly annoying since they seem to want to run anywhere but towards the tree while avoiding incoming air-traffic that you can't even see coming. The last part of the level has a section in which you must bend trees and use them as catapults(Hey, it's a funny, creative game!) but the last tree is VERY particular as to where you have to stand on to avoid being thrown into the lava, which instantly kills you. I actually went online to find a video since I didn't know how to proceed, and found out that what I was doing was the right path, I just needed to stand in a very specific part of the tree. Lame.

 Levels are a bit too large for their own good too. Planet Earth is a decimated wasteland, which sounds great on paper, but the level is too large for no good reason. There are no hidden worthwhile collectibles, so there's no need to explore so there's no need for it to be so large. Holding Z and pressing Starts brings up your objective and where to find it, so if you ever get lost on the big planets, just  bring out the map. Ultima Crash, a planet filled with ghosts from people that crashed their ships there, and TechnoMummy, a planet that houses a Museum of old technology are fantastic concepts for levels, but large parts of these levels are a confusing mess of stretch walkways over empty space. These concepts hold so much potential, but in their attempt at making a large level they forgot to make exploration fun.

 Writing about Starshot Space Circus Fever hurt, because I know that I enjoyed the game when I was younger. What's more, I could find a ton of great, original ideas in the game, just poorly implemented. It almost hurts to play it too, since you can see what they wanted, you can practically envision what it could've been. If you really want to play Starshot, I recommend the PC version, better graphics and framerate, but I also saw a few fixes, the trees in Primitron are much more forgiving(They made the landing zones in the jungle larger) so it seems like the best version of the game.
 3.0 out of 10