Game Boy :: Genesis :: NES :: Sega CD :: SNES :: TurboGrafx-16 :: Complete System Listings

Star Voyager review

Game: Star Voyager
Platform: NES
Genre: Action
Developer: ASCII
AKA: Cosmo Genesis (JP)

Reader review by Halon

January 04, 2008

Shooters created during the 8-bit era had one thing in common – they were all primitive. Hell, even overhead shooters today can be considered primitive. Although they are generally challenging and might sometimes feature innovative and/or creative ideas, they all have a very simple concept – shoot everything that moves and don’t get shot while attempting to rack up the highest score possible. Some might contain power ups and other neat additions, but you can’t get a more basic premise then that of an overhead shooter.

Star Voyager takes a shooter’s simple concept and adds strategic elements, turning it into a complex game. Instead of moving on a linear path, you have a map that you must follow. This map highlights all of the enemies, fuel stations, planets (where you can stop to power up your ship), and obstacles such as asteroid belts. You must use this map to destroy all of the enemy ships; and the game does a great job at sending you on a journey through the galaxy.

Sounds pretty cool, right?

WRONG. Star Voyager is unique but horrible; the game’s repetitiveness makes it unplayable. Despite taking place in a huge, detailed galaxy, there isn’t much to do. Every once in a while you will stumble across an enemy to attack. You might destroy it, but it might get away. If the latter happens (the situation 98% of the time) you are sent on a wild goose chase across the galaxy to catch it. When the enemy is finally defeated another enemy will appear somewhere, and that will keep on happening for what seems to be eternity. The only noticeable difference is that the enemies get faster and are more hits to take down. You are now faced with two choices.

1. Defeat the next enemy.
2. Fly through the boring galaxy and do nothing, except for re-fuelling your ship when necessary.

And that’s it.

Even with the fancy map I can’t recommend Star Voyager to anyone. There is nothing enjoyable about flying through a dull galaxy from planet to planet while fighting the occasional boring enemy along the way. Even the most diehard Star Wars or Star Trek nerds won’t find anything enjoyable from Star Voyager. Any game, regardless of the console can give you a more thrilling experience than Star Voyager will.

Rating: 1/10

More Reviews by Halon
	Poker Night at the Inventory (PC) In the end, Poker Night at the Inventory is nothing more than a promotion for Team Fortress 2 featuring a cheap poker game.
	Ikaruga (GameCube) I will admit I am not a fan of Treasure. But I have to give them some credit; they made their latest game, Ikaruga, sound not only interesting, but innov...
	Halo Zero (PC) I remember on April Fools Day 2005 when Gamespot joked about Halo 3, stating that it's rumored to be a RTS. They probably didn't fool anyone, but it wasn't long...

Feedback

If you enjoyed this Star Voyager review, you're encouraged to leave feedback and talk about it with members of the site's community. You don't even need an HonestGamers account to get involved in the discussion. Please remember to keep your comments respectful and on-topic or they may be deleted by a moderator. Thank you for your understanding!

comments powered by Disqus

© 1998-2013 HonestGamers
None of the material contained within this site may be reproduced in any conceivable fashion without permission from the author(s) of said material. This site is not sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, or any other such party. Star Voyager is a registered trademark of its copyright holder. This site makes no claim to Star Voyager, its characters, screenshots, artwork, music, or any intellectual property contained within. Opinions expressed on this site do not necessarily represent the opinion of site staff or sponsors.