Stargoose Warrior

aka: Star Goose!
Moby ID: 836
Amiga Specs
Included in

Description

Star Goose a top-down space shooter in which you move through a semi-3D environment shooting rounds and missiles at your enemies. Occasionally, the player can enter a tunnel and collect upgrades (ammo, shield or fuel) by climbing the walls of the tunnel to run into powerups.

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Amiga version)

4 People

Composer
Programmer
Graphics
Cover Artwork by
Documentation by

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 62% (based on 11 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.3 out of 5 (based on 19 ratings with 4 reviews)

A bit of a bore, this

The Good
Star Goose! is one of the final shoot-em-up games from Logotron, a company who changed its name to Millennium in the early Nineties. You control a ship called “Scouser-Gitt”, which has given the task of skimming an alien planet in search of six jewels; and collecting these is made difficult by enemy installations that are on the lookout for any intruders. Contact with these will result in either your shield being depleted, or a loss in life. There are eight “wrap-around” levels; and each level doesn't end until you get all six jewels.

The game opens with a beautiful introduction showing a spacecraft appearing and the Goose beaming down onto the surface. There are two things unique to this game: 1) you don't have to press the fire button to start, it's straight into the game; and 2) the landscape you are about to see has hills. This means that some of the enemies are not on the same level, and you need to get close to them for your weapons to be effective against them.

The Goose has two weapons at its disposal: the standard lasers, as well as heat-seeking missiles. When you launch a missile, it will wipe out anything that is in its path. More missiles can be collected by going through a set of gates. You can skim the landscape at full speed or just take it easy. If you choose to go full speed not only will you deplete your fuel supply immediately, but you also increase your chases at getting shot by enemies. There are gaps in the landscape that you also need to avoid falling through.

There are three tunnels that you come across, and each individual one allows you to replenish your fuel, ammo, and shields. The tunnels are viewed in 3D, and there are eyes coming toward you. If you go fast enough in the tunnel, you can actually perform a loop-de-loop one or more times, possibly getting most of the eyes. The tunnels eventually complete their run; but if the Goose leaves them upside-down, it will just crash and a life is lost.

The game is best remembered for its music. It shares a similar soundtrack to the ones used in those space-themed comedy movies that I used to watch as a kid.

The Bad
As I said, there are eight wrap-around levels, and each one of them feature the same repetitive landscape, but with the gaps located somewhere else.

You encounter the same three enemies, including the mine and gun, and these enemies look unimpressive. Besides the missiles, there are no power-ups that will upgrade your ship.

There is no level number in the status bar, so I had no idea whether I just entered another level or are repeating the same level again; and even if you complete all eight levels, there is no true ending – the game just restarts at level one.

Finally, even though the music is well composed, you listen to the same one through the game. No new tunes are introduced.

The Bottom Line
In conclusion, Star Goose has a number of features that weren't present in other shooter at its time, including 3-D views and hilly landscape. Unfortunately, besides the superb introduction sequence most of the game is repetitive. If you are looking for a good shoot-em-up, especially one with power-ups, forget this game.

Amiga · by Katakis | ă‚«ă‚żă‚­ă‚ą (43092) · 2011

Amazing tile graphics for an early overhead shooter.

The Good
The screenshots for Star Goose show how amazing the tile graphics were for this overhead shooter; they provide a 3-D look for a 2-D game. The player's ship helps with this illusion not only by moving slowly up rises and down grades, but also by showing a "tilting" player sprite while doing so. It's a clever implementation.

The Bad
Some of the levels provide dead-ends and surprise enemies that you can only get past through memorization of the level (so that you know not to go down those paths in the future). This makes the game very frustrating for beginning players.

The Bottom Line
Star Goose is a capable shooter that has great graphics and good gameplay.

DOS · by Trixter (8952) · 2000

Don't really like this one.

The Good
Well, it's well rounded and I have to appreciate the fact that it was very popular, at least where I live; the graphics are reasonably good and the controls are decent. The semi-3D design is nice too.

The Bad
Bad level design and lame sound effects and music make this one a true bore; a ridiculously low amount of enemies (some of which simply have a tendency to kill you without you being able to respond) does not add much.

The Bottom Line
A pretty mediocre game which simply does not interest me.

DOS · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 2000

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Legal status leilei (343) Feb 21, 2013

Trivia

Character

The character you control is called Officer 'Scouser-Gitt', who is drunk when the game's events begin. A 'Scouser' is a colloquial term for a person from Liverpool, a city whose inhabitants have often been stereotyped as lazy, thieving and heavy drinking.

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  • MobyGames ID: 836
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Tomer Gabel.

Atari ST, Amiga added by seymour butz.

Additional contributors: Corn Popper, Martin Smith.

Game added February 7, 2000. Last modified January 23, 2024.