Novastrike is a top-down arcade shooter based on very simple, yet flawed game mechanics, and poor quality assets, making it a title that just doesn’t live up to what one expects from a PlayStation Network title.

Graphics – 40%
It’s a small world after all!  Playing on my 46-inch 1080p television at a distance of approximately nine feet, the objects in the game were just too damn small.  I would hate to see what those with a smaller TV and larger rooms would be forced to endure.  Imagine a 27-inch standard tube at 12 feet!  At one point I held a quarter (approximately 1 inch in diameter) up to the screen, and found it was the same size as the Scythe, the ship piloted by the player.

The game utilizes red arrow heads to distinguish enemy bombers.  If the graphics had been made a bit larger, these ships would be easily distinguishable, and the pointers could have been done away with.  Instead, you are forced to stare at these large, red indicators, which are nearly the size of the ship they highlight.

In addition to their extremely small size, the graphics, particularly land based structures, look muddled.  They appear blurry and messy, which is just unacceptable for a current generation game – even a downloadable title. 

Lastly, and this may seem a little petty, but the shadows cast by flying objects that run across the water or terrain below seem to be completely out of position with regard to the placement of the casting ship.  It was often confusing (although sometimes helpful as leading shadows would give away the position of ships before they were visible), and should have been corrected before release.

Sound – 60%
The audio isn’t bad, but it’s nothing special.  The sound effects are acceptable - they are the conventional sounds I would expect from this sort of game, but far too often explosions completely drown out all else, including the soundtrack.  Considering much of the music is bland and often drones on endlessly, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

I would have also liked to hear some voice-over work, instead of being forced to read captions at the bottom of the screen.  After all, taking your eyes off the Scythe is dangerous, as your peripheral vision will barely notice visible indicators of an incoming attack while you’re busy reading.

Controls/Interface – 40%
The control scheme is quite simple and easy to learn.  The problem comes in when you actually try to use those controls.

First, the control scheme is an odd choice.  Instead of steering your ship in a particular direction (i.e. left or right), one simply flicks the stick in the direction you would like to travel.  For example, to execute a 180-degree turn, instead of pushing the stick right or left to execute the turn, just pull down on the left stick.  While this seems straightforward, this control scheme coupled with years of playing “steerable-games” may just wreak havoc on your gameplay.

But the controls can be learned; it just takes a little patience.  The real problem lies in the game’s inaccurate steering, which works in an almost digital way.  It seems as though the ship has a very limited number of directions in which it can travel.  You could almost see your ship “click” into the next clockwise position as it turns to the next heading.  Although this quirk is negligible in air combat due to constant changes of direction, ground attacks were a different story.  Trying to line up a bombing run is difficult, as you struggle to get the aim close enough, so that ground fire flies toward and strikes the target.  You could see the game attempt to compensate for small degrees of error, with bombs suddenly changing direction and flying to a target.  But anything larger than just a minute error, and your attack misses the target completely.  This happens quite often and is infuriating at best.  If steering was truly analog, this would not have been an issue, as a precise course could have been set.

The interface is simple and intuitive, but I discovered a problem.  Last night, my cousin, a top-down-shooter enthusiast, stopped by to try out Novastrike.  Less than a minute into play, he asked me where his “health meter” was; he was looking for some indication of the ship’s current status.  I pointed to the bright green ship in the lower right corner of the screen and explained that it would turn red as the Scythe took damage.  He then reminded me that he, along with 8% of the Caucasian male population, has red-green color blindness.  Therefore, this portion of the interface was useless to him until he calibrated himself to the difference in shades.  While I did not factor this into this section’s score, it is something developers may want to consider when designing a HUD.

Gameplay – 35%
Novastrike’s gameplay requires patience, but the poor controls and monotonous missions do little to make this game fun.  Achieving each objective is very difficult, even on “Recruit” level.  Any objective that involves protecting friendly structures is nearly impossible, as droves of fighter ships and bombers shower your base with munitions.  Collectively, this makes for a game that would be fun for an hour or so if only the controls worked a little better.

Aside from this, there is the “Great Pink Barrier Reef”, or more aptly, “The Great Pink Wall: At World’s End”.  While exploring the map, my cousin happened upon this atmospheric phenomenon, which appears like a wall of pink clouds at the edge of the map.  Although you may fly into it, you most likely will not fly out as the cloud will destroy you moments later.  I would have liked to see the map wrap around like that of nearly any planetary body, instead of implementing this shortcut.

Novastrike boasts an elaborate storyline, which you can read between stages.  It’s sad the developer didn’t include some short cut scenes to tell the story.  It would have really added to the game, and possibly immersed the user further in this story.

Summary – 44%
Novastrike is Tiki Games’ first title, and although this score is low, I see potential in their work.  I would be interested in seeing their next project, but as for this title, I have to pass.  There are other, better, top-down shooters already available for the PS3; you would be better served by picking up Super Stardust HD and skipping this one.

Novastrike is available for PC and PlayStation 3 via the PlayStation Network.  This review is based on the PS3 version.

Did you enjoy this article? Please bookmark it onto: