Hellstar Squadron - Trouble in Paradise

Demonic Bullet Hell in Paradise

Hellstar Squadron is an 8 bit retro themed shmup that delves deep into religious themes with some exposition laden dialogue between characters to keep the story moving from one bossfight to the next. Mankind has already colonized the stars and has a sprawling empire named Paradise. The emperor of mankind, not the 40k one, possesses a handful of religious artifacts that somehow help maintain the empire's peace, probably the reason that there's a demon uprising threatening all of Paradise. It'll take a trio of ace pilots to put the banish the eight  demons and save the empire, the pilots that form Hellstar Squadron! 

As you'd expect, the three pilots of the Hellstar Squadron are all playable. I chose Azure because his blue hair reminds me of Sonic the Hedgehog, but I Doubt that there's a wrong choice when it comes to the pilots. Each has a beam attack that slows player's movement, perfect for navigating between the volleys of demonic bullets that this game spews towards the player. Hellstar Squadron is of the bullet-hell variety, so those bossfights are a little intense, though the ship's hitbox is pretty forgiving and even if you lose, the game saves progress between stages, that makes a huge difference when trying to tackle a game like this. Before and after beating each boss is a level of banter that feels more suited to an old-school JRPG. I can't complain that the plot was confusing, because I skipped almost most of it. Dialogue or not, Hellstar Squadron took about an hour to beat, typical of the genre.

The 8 bit theme and restricted color pallet can't go unmentioned there. Where some would find this style choice nostalgic or charming, it just didn't work for me. Possible it's before my time, but the colors were absolute eye-torture without the "retro Crt Shader" turned on, something that I learned after the fact, though I don't remember if it's defaulted on or off, so I'll give the devs the benefit of the doubt. What can't be smoothed out are the chippy, low bit sfx that grind and chirp like a pre-soundcard pc. Once again, I think that this game will only appeal to the most old-school gamers and not newcomers. It's not like Hellstar Squadron is going to set anybody back with it's price though, so I'll leave it up to you to decide whether it's worth the small investment, Comrades.