Shining Stars: Super Starcade Review

Kiddie games aren’t usually thought of as being robust. Kids certainly wouldn’t use that word to describe their favorite virtual plaything. But that word is somewhat fitting to Shining Stars: Super Starcade, a kid-targeted mini-game collection for Nintendo DS. It looks like a Build-a-Bear knock-off (or Care Bears, if you’re old enough to remember them), is based on some doll license I’ve never heard of, and could be written off as another one of “those” games. But while it features all the flaws you’d expect (it’s a knock-off of other products, the mini-games are super repetitive, etc.), Shining Stars is slightly better than the average mini-game menagerie.

Duck Shoot

Collections, Collections

Shining Stars features a carnival setting where players can buy new attractions (mini-games) and place them in their blank carnival space. Attractions are purchased with credits, which are earned by playing each mini-game. Let’s dissect those attractions individually:

Balloons: Dogs love popping balloons. Kids love holding them until they slip through their fingers and fly several feet into the air. But if you’d like to pop them, Balloons will give you the chance to do so with your stylus – and in more challenging ways than you’d ever anticipate. As the balloons soar through the air, the view is constantly moving down, as if you were skydiving. When clouds cover a balloon, it can’t be popped. This makes the game a bit more exciting than a typical DS balloon popper (believe it or not there have been others) since you now have an obstacle to work around.

Water Fight: Using your in-game character (chosen from a list of various cartoon animals) to grab and throw water balloons, Water Fight is a virtual version of the classic summer activity.

Springboard: When a guy can’t stop jumping on a trampoline, it’s your job to draw lines underneath him, forming new springboards that will boost him high into the air and on top of the goal platform.

Star Race: While controlling a spaceship in this side-scrolling race, touch the right side of the screen to accelerate and drag the stylus to steer. Double tap the screen to use a temporary, auto-rejuvenating speed boost.

Hidden Stars: Scratch the screen to unearth stars hidden in the sand. Tornados fly by and kick up sand, covering the stars, requiring extra seconds of scratching before they’re fully unearthed.

Duck Shoot: Shoot the ducks as they scroll by. Like the balloon-popping game but easier.

Matching Stars: Remember the card game Memory? A Mario-themed version appeared in Mario 3. A toy-based version (cards with balls, keys, plastic cars, etc.) appears here as well.

Air Hockey

Air Hockey: Exactly what you’d expect. Amusing, but the fun is limited to any amount you’d expect to have with a virtual air hockey table. You can’t push the paddle past the middle line – that’s fair, but you can’t push it up to the middle line either, restricting player movement.

Bumper Cars: A top-down skirmish between pint-sized bumper cars. Ram yours into your opponent using the stylus.

Match the Dots: Just like the connect-the-dots books you had as a kid, only here there’s a time limit and the dots disappear.

Drawing Stars: The same as Match the Dots but without the disappearing dots.

Donut Dash: Try to decorate a donut with the same delicious toppings as the one shown on screen. Unfortunately, the ingredient icons are unclear and are without a text description, making it impossible to make the right donut without several minutes of trial and error (and memorization).

Feed the Clown: In a word – huh!? This catapult-launching game challenges you to throw balls in the mouth of a mechanical clown. But it doesn’t work very well. After numerous attempts, it had to be assumed that the clown just wasn’t hungry. No matter what, he wouldn’t take the balls.

The Stars Say: It’s Simon Says…with stars.

Constellation: Match the Dots pictures are used, but instead of matching the dots, you drag colored stars to various points on the picture. Not too exciting, but it beats the Simon Says game.

Mega Mall: This mini-game – presumably the last – is unlocked with 100,000 credits. If you can get to that point, you’re either a kid with incredible endurance or a parent trying to unlock it for your kid. Because the average mini-game awards a minimum of 300 credits and a maximum just under 800, it’ll take what feels like a lifetime to unlock this game. And if you want to unlock the other mini-games first, your earnings will be spent on those instead, delaying the acquisition of this “mega” mall. Is it worth it? I couldn’t tell you – I’m not a kid or a parent.

Springboard

The wide variety of mini-game types doesn’t make up for each game’s individual flaws. But if you’ve got a young kid to buy for (someone aged 4 to 7; certainly no kid older than that), there are worse ways to spend $20.

Review Scoring Details for Shining Stars: Super Starcade

Gameplay: 6.0
One of the better – but far from groundbreaking or long-lasting – mini-game collections made specifically for kids. The mini-game variety and decent execution, most notably with the Balloon game, are where Shining Stars succeeds. But the repetitive nature of each mini-game and the fact that each one is a knock-off of something else is where it fails.

Graphics: 4.0
Bright, Web-based graphics that work well for the game but don’t utilize the hardware at hand.

Sound: 2.0
Horrifying. So repetitive and annoying, it’s scary!

Difficulty: Easy
This is nothing like the arcades I remember. I guess that’s why they call it a Starcade. Every game is easy – no tokens required.

Concept: 3.0
Recent reports indicate that the government will allow cloned meat to be sold in the United States. But the game industry is way ahead of them – they’ve been cloning each other’s products for over two decades.

Multiplayer: 5.5
You can’t go wrong with single-card play. But this isn’t the best game to take advantage of that feature.

Overall: 6.0
Four words: for young kids only. They’ll like the mini-games, appreciate the variety, and should enjoy the bright colors and cutesy characters. But if you have to question it – if you think that your kid may be too old for this game – he or she most certainly is.