Super Star Path Review: Star Struck

As someone who writes daily for a mobile games website, I sometimes have nightmares that I’m being consumed alive in a quicksand-like trap full of match-three-blocks. The more I clear out, the further I fall into the endless pit. More and more colored cubes keep piling up…matching them is soon useless, the sun vanishes behind colored cubes and I wake up with a racing heart, cursing unoriginal game publishers for continuing to pump out games with the same mechanics.

Clearly I’m tired of match-three games.

Taking something that’s already popular, and simply re-branding it isn’t enough for me anymore. I don’t care if you are using grumpy birds, candy, or voodoo people, I can see right through the marketing tricks, and I’m tired of it. Give me something original, give me something fun, give me something like Super Star Path. Pretty please, with sugar on top.

Super Star Path features match-three mechanics, but instead of having to simply swipe or click the colors together, I get to shoot the colored aliens and make them explode in chain reactions. I get to shoot them and make them explode with my space ship. I get, to shoot, a space ship. If you’re still grasping at the fact that I like to shoot things from space ships: I like to shoot at things from space ships. It’s fun. Pew Pew Pew.

I found Super Star Path to be very refreshing. Sure at it’s core it’s a match-three game, but I get to blow the colored aliens up, and then at the end I get to partake in a challenging boss fight, which is wayyy more rewarding than what I usually get in most match-three games: sparkles, stars, and happy things being thrown at me like a trophy at the end of little league season.

It’s kind of funny because the two genres that Super Star Path combine have never been that appealing to me. I’ve never been a fan of Space Invaders-type games, and clearly I’m not a fan of match-three games, so who knew that the resulting combination of the two could be so much fun. Super Star Path defeats the monotony of the typical match-three game by letting me control a space ship and blow up aliens, and on the other hand it’s not as intense as most arcade shooters since I’m not dodging enemy fire 100% of the time. The game has just struck the perfect balance between the two genres.

The icing on the cake is that DYA Games crafted the experience in a fun, arcadelike package.

From the look of Super Star Path to the sounds of the game, everything feels like a throwback to 1980s arcade games, and I totally dig that. I wasn’t even born then, so it’s not a matter of feeling nostalgic, but it’s simply that I appreciate the cohesive feel of the game, and how the simple gameplay mechanics are enhanced by it’s arcade-quality feel.

Best of all, it’s ONLY TWO DOLLARS. You can’t even get a “good” meal at McDonalds for that, yet here’s a great little game that you can sink an hour or two into for two. freaking. bucks.

DYA Games provided Epic Brew with a review copy of Super Star Path.