StarShine 2 is the sequel to last year's celestial puzzler, and is the latest in a line of jewel-like games from Hero Interactive. The game reminds me of Kerouac when he professed his love for "the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing but burn, burn, burn like fabulous roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue center light pop and everybody goes 'Awww'". It has that kind of effect.
You control a shooting star, positioning it somewhere on the circumference of a circle surrounding the play field with the mouse, and firing with the left mouse button. Aiming is easy, your star slides around the circular track, as it does you'll see arrows appear around whatever star you have lined up with. When you hit a star other stars can fire off, the adjacent arrows show where the subsequent star splatter will go. Your goal is to set-up a chain reaction that hits and lights up every star. Easier said than done, because this sequel unleashes a greater variety of stars than ever before. All kinds of ricochets, splits, refractions and orders come to greet you as you successfully put on fireworks displays. If you get stuck, don't be afraid to click the "Hint" button.
Analysis: StarShine 2 provides some solid refinements and content expansions from the original. I believe the Hero Interactive folks are very talented and would like to see more diversity in designs from them, but the first one was pretty popular and this title is a testament to devotion in craft. The hint system walks you through all the way down to the precise position you need to fire on the first star. The system is willing to hold your hand more than a public school, but in this case I think that's alright. The game respects your time enough to let you skip any pernicious challenges. Finding the right combination yourself gives a powerfully cathartic pay-off as you witness the resulting cascade; perhaps it deserves even larger adjectives to impart the scope of awe involved.
Like Otto in the Simpsons, in the episode with the meteor shower, you don't need good gaming skills to appreciate this experience, only to enhance it!
Too much of an element of chance. I got really bored really quickly.
@darkside
i disagree it has a good point of logic to it
The addition of black holes adds non-linearity to the puzzle, so beating later levels becomes simply trial-and-error.
I'm stuck. Some levels seem too hard.
@animalbrad game attacker: It does have a bit to do with chance, but logic does play a factor. It does take some pixel hunting some time and sometimes you just get lucky in hitting the right target.
Hey Everyone, just a few things...
First off, the game is not a game of just chance. Sure, you can sit there slowly moving around the circle till you find the solution. But every puzzle in the standard game can be solved simply by working your way through it. Eric and I both made levels and we make the other person solve it without using hints. If they can't solve it within 10 tries or they take 10 minutes to solve it, we scratch it. All of them have been solved and tested without hints.
One of the biggest features of StarShine 2 is the ability to make your own puzzles! We need to make it more prominent, because I think it's getting overlooked, but through the menu you can find the puzzle creator. You can make your own puzzles and then upload them to our server for others to play instantly. This is by far my favorite feature.
About that feature though... right now we're having issues with our web hosting getting a little bogged down, so we're scrambling to get the server a little more responsive.
Thanks for the feedback everyone! As always, the JIG community offers the best!
Its a beautiful game, and I'm enjoying the puzzles. Good work guys!
@Hero Interactive: My advice to making the level editor more prominent would be to put it under the "play game" menu. The lack of "visible" front page menu will mean a lot people will settle for the first star and miss the rest.
Just a thought...
Great game so far.
Thanks for the good advice Syntax, I'll look into doing that.
please help level 50
is there any way to download the background music? they are really nice.
Thank you for a lovely game. I am stuck on level 50 also. But no more time to play. :(
the hint on the combination of the rainbow star in level 50 is every rainbow star needs only one arrow
Update