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Tommy's Starball

Moby ID: 50438

Description

Tommy's Starball is a single player shooting game with a difference.

The player takes the role of a death star. Their star automatically fires anti particles up / down, left / right. whenever these particles hit another star in the star field that star is destroyed and points are gained.

The player can move their star using the numeric keypad. If the player elects to move, say, upwards then if there is another star directly above then the star the player controls becomes that other star. If there is no star directly above then the star the player controls moves upwards one position. By jumping around the screen in this manner the player can ensure that their star is always surrounded by stars to kill.

Aside from stars re-forming within the star field, the curved nature of space is a further complication. In this game it means that antiparticles fired off the edge of the screen in one direction can come back on the other side. The players star is, of course, vulnerable to their own fire.

The game has nine levels of difficulty and maintains a high score table for each level.

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Screenshots

Reviews

Players

Average score: 2.4 out of 5 (based on 1 ratings)

Who needs fancy graphics?

The Good
I thought this game was a little gem. It's really simple to play but its fun, addictive, and has that magic 'something' that had me hooked.
There's a lot of shooting involved and the bullets seemed to be fired randomly in the cardinal directions. That's not a problem because there's no aiming involved and no need for lightning reflexes. For me this is a good thing.
What the player does need is an awareness of position. Being in a position where there's nothing to shoot means there's no chance of building a high score and it leaves the player vulnerable to a bullet that wraps around the screen.
Zapping around the screen is therefore necessary and a good thing, except when the player does what I did and moves to a new star just in time to catch the bullet I'd fired just prior to the move.

The Bad
I'm getting soft in my old age, I really would have liked to have a second or third life and I found the numeric keypad difficult to use.

The Bottom Line
For a shooting game this requires quite a bit of thought.

DOS · by piltdown_man (236385) · 2011

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Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 50438
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Game added by piltdown_man.

Game added March 5, 2011. Last modified February 22, 2023.