The articlegameplay, story, development, reception
Gameplay
In Super Stardust HD, the player controls a space fighter craft that can move in any direction on a spherical shield surrounding a planet, while simultaneously firing in any direction independent of its movement. The primary threats against the player are three types of asteroids and various enemy spacecraft, which appear on the playfield at certain time intervals. The ship is equipped with three upgradeable weapons, a limited arsenal of bombs, and a boost capability that grants temporary invincibility and recharges after use. Each weapon is more effective against certain types of asteroid and enemies than others. Items are dropped onto the planet at certain time intervals, these items include weapon upgrades and a shield that absorbs one fatal hit against the player's ship.
Super Stardust HD provides several modes of play, each with their own online leaderboards. The default game mode, Arcade, takes the player through a series of five planets, each consisting of five main phases, the last of which is a boss battle. Planet Mode allows the player to play any one of five planets in the same way, ending the game after the planet is complete. Both of these modes support both single-player and two-player cooperative play.
Reception
The HD edition of Super Stardust received "favorable" reviews, while the Portable, Ultra, and its VR version received "average" reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. In Japan, where the Ultra version was ported for release on March 12, 2015, Famitsu gave it a score of one eight, one seven, one nine, and one eight for a total of 32 out of 40.
In 2013, the game entered IGN's "Top 25 PlayStation Network Games" list in the 4th position.
Legacy
Super Stardust HD was one of the games given for free by Sony as part of their 'Welcome Back' package due to the PlayStation Network outage in 2011.
A remake, Super Stardust Ultra (known in Asia as Star Strike Ultra), was released in North America and the PAL region in February 2015 for the PlayStation 4. It adds an exclusive mode called Interactive Streaming, which is an endless mode where the game is streamed live over the Internet, and viewers are allowed to help or hinder the player. A port of Super Stardust Ultra titled Super Stardust Ultra VR, offering a unique perspective from within the cockpit, was released as a launch title for the PlayStation VR. The title was developed by UK based company D3T.
