Capsule Review: Super Stardust Delta
A twin-stick shooter played on the surface of a sphere. The core gameplay is Asteroids-like with large rocks that break down into smaller ones and occasional enemies, but with a few sources of added variety.
This game takes the same great formula as its predecessor, but makes some tweaks. Most notably, there are now only two weapon and asteroid types, with the least interesting one of the original three being dropped. The core gameplay - with the frustration-free spherical arena and the large competence zone conferred by the panic buttons - is just as much of a blast as ever. While there are a ton of game modes, since the game is a Vita launch title a lot of new gameplay and features rely on the Vita’s gimmicks (touch screen, rear touch panel, gyroscope) in ways that don’t always work well. As a result, there’s less here for the returning player, but it’s still portable twin-stick Stardust and that’s a good thing.
I Stopped Playing When: Having largely gotten my fill on the PS3 version and not enjoying most of the new Vita-centric stuff, this was mostly just something I played sometimes on the train.
Three Stars: Good. I liked the game enough to finish it (or just play it a bunch, for games that don't end). I recommend it to most genre fans.