Wings Of Bluestar is a beautiful hand drawn R-Type-esque side scrolling shoot ‘em up with anime styled cutscenes, OTT weaponry and challenging arcade gameplay that rewards risk-taking.
In Wings Of Bluestar you take on the role of either Aya or Zarack – two young pilots who are helping the United Earth Defense fight back against an invading alien artificial intelligence. The full game will feature a story mode with Anime styled narrative sections with dialogue choices, but the current build features a single level and drops you straight into the action.
Wings Of Bluestar plays a little like R-Type, with fast paced (non-bullet hell) side scrolling arcade action. The waves of enemies are pre-determined but the power-ups that they drop are random. There are four main power-ups to collect – Add-Ons, Shields, Weapon Power-ups and Risk Stars.
Add-On power-ups add turrets either side of your ship which you can aim with the LT and RT buttons. The Shield power-up is an R-Type-esque pod that attaches to the front of your ship. It protects you from incoming forward fire and you can jettison it for a powerful attack (this destroys the shield pod but it usually doesn’t take long to pick another one up again). Weapon Power-Ups upgrade your firepower and Risk Stars float around in risky areas of the screen, granting you risk points if you manage to collect them.
Some of the sound design could do with a little work (the explosions and weapon-fire are a little muted), but other than that Wings Of Bluestar is excellent. The hand drawn visuals are superb, the gameplay offers a real challenge and firepower of your ship is awesome when fully powered-up (the aimable turrets are a particularly nice touch). Show that alien AI who’s boss in this slick and stylish slice of old school shoot ‘em up arcade action!
Note: Make sure you install the game to a different folder than the installer .exe file is in or it will try an install over the installer.
Check Out a Gameplay Video Here
Check Out the Kickstarter & Download The Kickstarter Demo Here (Windows)