The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

Sin and Punishment: Star Successor is not near as fun as the BDSM romp it could have been. Instead, it’s a crazy shooter based on an N64 game that never came to America! Isn’t that fantastic?

Star Successor is a Treasure game, so I knew what I was getting into: balls to the walls shooter action that was way, way too difficult for me. This is why I gamefly’d it, of course. I can’t enjoy these sorts of games for a long period of time, but I figured it would be a good afternoon of fun. So I set it to easy, and picked the girl who automagically locks on to people, and went for it.

First off, I have to applaud this game for giving me the option of using my Classic Controller Pro. It’s pretty clearly the sub-optimal control vector, as being able to flip my cursor around the screen faster would have been to my advantage in most situations. However, I hate pointing the wiimote at the screen SO, SO MUCH that I really appreciated being able to control it like the old game.
I also appreciated the Easy mode and the auto-lock girl. It made the game much more accessible. With those settings, with practice, I probably could have beaten the thing. Of course, I don’t want to practice, but it’s the thought that counts. The auto lock was nice, as once you started firing on something, you no longer had to aim until you destroyed it. Granted, this could get you into trouble at times, where you want to kill a few little dudes in the middle of killing a big dude, but overall made the game easier. I’m sure hardcore players, who this game is made for, will never, ever use the girl. But I appreciated it.

Seriously, though, this game is insane. It looks very pretty, though very anime, and the huge bosses in this game are just mind-blowing. Early on, you face this screen-filling giant turtle for no real reason, and it really is a fantastic fight. I later fought some magician dude who had like 6 forms, each more crazy than the last. (Okay, the last was, like, a dolphin. So that wasn’t too crazy. The others were, though!) It seems like it’s delivering on exactly what a Treasure fan would want, and I appreciate it for that.

However, this game is fantastically, amazingly niche. People just don’t do shmups anymore, except the super-hardcore. Thinking back to how Nintendo was marketing this as “No, really, we care about the hardcore!” it’s really kind of sad. It doesn’t do what Nintendo was wanting. However, it’s not hiding what it is. If you think you’d like Star Successor, you probably will. It’s well done. It’s just a kind of arcade, completely hardcore game that I just can’t play for long periods of time anymore.