NIGHTSTAR

I feel as if a review of a VR game that requires activity should include a basic description of the writer's health: I am a mildly obese 30-ish year old man. I'm not particularly fit, but I don't have any serious disabilities. Unless your fitness is extremely poor, I believe that fitness is not likely a barrier for playing this game.

Nightstar: Starfighter is a somewhat standard shmup in VR form. You have a ship, which binds to one of your controllers (left by default, more on that later). You can put up a temporary shield, which keeps you from being hurt, and you can turn on autofire. You can pick up powerups - each level of power increases your shot power, score multiplier, and the difficulty of enemies that come at you. This caps out at 20. If you get hit, you lose a lot of your power.

There's a relatively low number of different enemy types, and they all more or less shoot directly at you. This makes the bullet patterns not particularly fresh, and someone who has played a good number of shmups will have no real problem figuring out how to stream the bullets.

The color scheme is appropriate for this game - the bullets are a bright green, which makes them easy to spot on the black background. Enemies are reasonable to look at - they are neither extremely ugly or extremely detailed.

There is a slight lack of polish in the lack of options - there is no built-in way to swap which hand the ship is bound to. There is a way to work around this - by turning off the left controller before starting up your VR headset - but it shows a lack of effort on the developer's part.

The music is fine if you are playing the game for less than 20 minutes. I comment on the other case later.

As the current top of the leaderboard, I must comment on the scoring. The fact that your temporary shield is given to you generously makes it not particularly easy to get hit. Moreover, the fact that health pickups are relatively abundant (they are not *very* abundant, but they are available enough that one can pick them up reliably) means that the game is very forgiving. Last, the power cap at 20 makes score gain linear, and the difficulty does not increase past a certain point. The point at which difficulty stops increasing is somewhat low. This turns scorechasing into an endurance test, which is deeply unsatisfying for anyone who has the ability to crack the top 25. Moreover, the music starts to become boring after about 20 or 30 minutes. A lack of enemy variety also makes the game quite boring. Last, defeating the boss is deeply unsatisfying - the point value is low compared to the enemy carriers, and even though it drops 3 powerups, the powerups drop far away enough that they never reach the player. I acknowledge that this is only a problem for an extreme minority of the people who play this game, but I must point it out regardless.

For someone new-ish to the genre who has a VR headset, and who is looking for something to play for 15 or 20 minutes while they warm up, this is probably a reasonable buy at sale prices (and this game does go on sale enough for this to be a factor). The amount of calories you are likely to burn playing this game is fair. You should expect to be moving somewhat constantly while playing the game. This game is quite good for those without experience in this genre who want to play it in VR, and for them I suggest considering this game at sale prices.

For someone who is experienced at playing shmups, I strongly advise skipping this game. It will grow boring fast, and you will grow bored and sloppy.

Neat little game that doesn't require too much movement. You just move the ship around with your hand and blast what's in front of you while avoiding lasers and asteroids and whatever else comes your way.

This game is fun and engaging. But i have to give it a low score for a couple reasons: the time in and out of missions is far too long - 15-30 seconds of waiting around to start or restart a match that honestly only lasts about 2 min anyway, i spend more time waiting than playing. The other thing i dislike is that the game always wants me to play left handed, i have to unstrap and re strap the left controller to the right side in order to play comfortably. Finally there is no menu or "start button screen." If i hadn't purchased this game on sale for $2.00 in be a little put out, a little more development and this could be a highly competitive title.

the game forces you to play left handed, or right handed using the left controller... very weird. mildly unpleasant on a game that i would otheriwse like

Picked this up because I enjoy Xortex, a similar game built into the Lab. It's a similar concept - your hand is a space ship, and you blast enemy space ships around you. Very nice graphics, fast and challenging (sometimes unfair/aggravating) game play. I haven’t gotten too far, but I’ve already “warped” to another environment, and encountered several types of enemy ships, and mini-taskers like saving a freighter that is under attack. Good for short play throughs, but I’m feeling like it’s an arcade shooter where there’s not a ton of plot or progression of game play. Still, who doesn’t want to pilot a space fighter against hordes of enemies? Certainly worth a few bucks when you find it on sale!

I enjoyed this more than Xortex (in The Lab). The trick with this is that you gotta keep moving and grab the power ups. Stick and jab. It's fun.

Love this game, it reminds me of Silpheed from back in the days, but beautifully brought into the 21st century. Great graphics, great sound and very fun, arcadey gameplay. One detractor is the very sparse menu system (or lack thereof).
Otherwise, highly recommended if you like bullet-hell type games.

I played this on the Oculus Rift with Touch controllers and it works fine . Other than it has the same issue as the HTC Vive which is you have to use your left hand controller. I have to admit, it adds a level of difficulty which if you're a righty like me , makes aiming not as easy as it should be. You have to make precise movements to shoot objects at a distance, making the slightest adjustment.

I played this game for 30 minutes and never got past the first level. That had a lot to do with being right hand dominant, but also this game is challenging. Despite the frustration of being close to 100% several times, I had a lot of fun and enjoyed the challenge. However, it did seem like some run through's success was based on random powerups. Sometimes I quickly got a pair of squadron teammates to help me out, and other times I had none.

There's this one ship that one shot kills you. I didn't realize that until like the 10th time I died which one it was. I think I can definitely get past the first level, with some luck. I definitely think this one is a lot better than the Lab. It's quite the deal on sale price of $1.99 USD.

Sale Price Rating 7/10 ... quick game to pickup, fun challenge

Left handed-only game, abandoned by the developers.

This game has so much potential, but unfortunately the developers have abandoned completely. The game looks like an Early access game that was just not finished: no options, no saving progression, and relevantly: you can only play with your left hand, despite the deceiving publicity of the promotion video, where the guy plays with his right hand: that´s just a lie.
So if you are left handed, by all means, buy this game for 5 dollars. If you are right handed, as most humanity is, just skip it.

This game is a hidden gem. It's challenging but rewarding. If you like 2D shooters, this is the VR equivelant. It rocks!

At the moment this game has only positive reviews, so I'm gonna add some negatives before I apply for my refund.

- The 8 levels aren't all that different from each other
- There seems to be only one boss with two stages
- It's too easy. I got to top 50 on my third attempt. Of course my leaderboard position doesn't affect my enjoyment, but for 5-10 minutes while playing with plenty of powerups and killing the boss over and over I felt like nothing was changing and I wasn't being challenged.
- Felt like the game required me to raise my controller above my head to best avoid getting hit. This made my shoulder hurt.
- It's fairly hard to aim

In conclusion: Get it on sale and see if you like it more than I did.

I've been having a BLAST with this game. Dev has been very attentive and engaging over Reddit. So far this is one of my favorite VR games. It's pretty basic arcade gameplay. No intricate upgrade systems or any fancy attempts to add rougelike elements.

Just straight up FUN ass gameplay. For anyone who played with toy spaceships as a kid who wants to actually fly one around in space shooting bad guys, THIS is the game to pick up!

I've heard it compared to a couple other titles, but personally haven't found anything that hit the spot like this game.

It's a unique design that doesn't try too hard to be different. Great sound and music, and very satisfying imagry with plenty of explosions in space. I expected to like this game after playing the demo, but I didn't expect to enjoy it THIS much. I grew up loving everything about the space/sci-fi genera and always imagined I'd need to be flying first person, in the cockpit to get this much enjoyment out of a space shooter, but the truth is I like this better than any other space shooters in VR that I've played so far.

What's even cooler is you can download a demo to try it out for yourself before buying. I personally payed $14.99 for it durring Steams Winter sale, and I'll be completely honest I don't even regret paying more than the current price. One reason for that is that one of my motion controllers was broken for about a week and a half so having a game I could play with one controller saved me a ton of grief for those 9 days (felt like a couple months) before deciding I could just fix the thing myself.

That's all beside the point. Try the demo, if you like it even a little it's definitly worth the current price for the amount of enjoyment you'll get from it. Not to mention it's decent workout dodging all that incoming fire. Just keep your chaperone on or you'll be tempted to chase a powerup through a wall.

Yes, Yes Yes!

Imagine a development of Vortex in Valve's "The Lab."

Imagine no more, it's here in the form of a forward scrolling retro shootem up. Absolutely brilliant use of room scale too, start at the front of your play space and find yourself pressed to the very back of it, by the end of the game.

This one has great potential.

Wishlist? A few more music tracks and the option to turn off the grid effect on the roof.

If you like shoot 'em ups you're going to love Nightstar! Imagine an old school style shooter like Silpheed (yes, I really am that old) dragged into the 21 century and now in full 3d, and you've pretty much got Nightstar.

Pro's: Extremely addictive, challenging and rewarding gameplay. Awesome use of the 3d effect that makes you feel like you're flying through a miniaturised space battle.

Con's: Made my trigger finger hurt.

Yep, this is a keeper. Tried the demo, bought the full game after two plays. This is completely different than any other VR game I've played so far, in that it isn't really first person. It's more third person, with one controller being the ship. It moves wherever you move the controller, pretty much instantly. It's really easy to just stand in one spot and just wave the controller around, but this is a room scale game. Walk around to get better angles, or dodge thick packs of things that are coming from one area, etc. Awesome game, lots of replayability.

My one complaint would be how long it takes to reset after game over. I want to click through whatever scoring it's showing me and just restart immediately, but it makes me wait ~20 seconds and then brings the menu up to allow a new game.

great open ended game that rewards skill i bought this last night and liked it alot but todays huge update turned this game on its head its incredible

Someone on here was saying that this isn't a roomscale shooter or whatever. it's basically the next step after the lab's xortex. you absolutely can walk in and out of the "stream of combat" and when I thought I was slick and decided i would stand beside and blow everything up as it went by having only to dodge a few projectiles...nope before I knew it I was back right in the middle of it. I honestly can't even tell you if I just walked back in because I was having too much fun. You don't have to watch for thing coming from behind you (so you don't get wrapped up in your cord spinning circles constantly looking for stuff) and it's more like flying through space then blasting stuff in an arena. honestly in my opinion the two biggest flaws of xortex. Can't recommend enough. if you liked xortex. this is actually better enough to be worth the 15 bucks. I'm probably buying my friend a copy for his vive, that will be a first for a non multiplayer game. it's that good.

Super fun game! The feeling of traveling through space is awesome, and because of the static background and steady velocity, works well without any dizziness whatsoever. The difficulty is perfectly balanced between too easy and too hard, making it very satisfying to actually get to the next level. The intensity of the game seems to pick up as you get upgrades, so it's always a challenge to keep your ship in top shape (you lose some upgrades when you're shot). The game works well for any-heighted people (even kids!).

There are a few annoying things that will probably get cleaned up in time by the developer. For instance, there's no way to exit the game except from within the VR headset (you lose mouse control once the game goes full screen and takes over the monitor). I look forward to seeing further updates!

Excellent! Very addictive. It's more similar to Crystal Nebula minus the maze.

Initially after seeing the video, I was not too impressed. But the gameplay is much better than I thought. The enemies wave are different each time. They are randomly generated. One feature I like the most is that you can regain your health by picking up powerups.

It was confusing at first how the level and powerup works. I died often without knowing how I got shot. It is quite addictive. I just bought the game today and I played almost 2 hrs. Actually I am going back in very soon.

I bought this based off a review saying this was Xortex 2.0. That being said it is nothing like Xortex.. it is a different style of game. Nightstar is a scrolling shooter, Xortex is a room scale shooter.

That being said this is a fun arcade game that I plan on playing a lot more.

As I play more I find my ship getting hit by dimly lit objects that are very difficult to see.. Hopefully in the future this gets updated.

I give this a positive review because it is worth a play if you buy a lot of games. I rarely purchase games... If I had the chance to demo this game before buying I would have spent my money on a different game.