#star ghost

The game is very easy to control since all you have to worry about is pressing the A button to thrust upwards. Letting go of the A button will send your ship flying towards the bottom of the screen, so you need to find the proper rhythm needed for you to be able to defeat as many enemies as possible in each sector while keeping your ship in tip-top shape. Weapons autofire, and you can press the left stick up or down to change the angle of your aim. Pushing the left analog stick to the left will activate the traction field, thus allowing you to bring pickups closer to your ship. There are several picks ups such as a shield, one to increase your fire rate, one to bump up your traction field, one to activate a spread shot, and a final one that rewards you with credits you can use for purchasing upgrades or regenerating your ship.

Speaking of that, you’ll be able to purchase upgrades or regenerate at the end of each sector, so you better aim at collecting a lot of credits so that you can purchase the right power-ups for the job so that you can have longer runs as you progress through each system. The better you do, the higher your score multiplier, so be sure to avoid being hit by enemies as this will instantly reset your multiplier, and you definitely don’t want that! The maximum multiplier you can reach is five, and it makes a big difference on how much you’re able to score while it is active, making it possible for you to eventually grab a spot on the game’s leaderboards if you can keep the multiplier going long enough!

Each of the stages is procedurally generated, so you’ll always be playing something new here and there for every run you do. The difficulty will ramp up as you go, so you’ll never feel cheated by Star Ghost’s AI. You’ll also soon need to worry about avoiding pickups that are bad for you (they will be easy to spot), and this might break your flow if you’re not careful since you might end up having to rise/drop at the last second, thus risking not getting a perfect run because you couldn’t grab all pickups or destroy all enemies.

There’s definitely a rhythm to every sector in the game, and you’ll surely find it a few seconds in. Sometimes the enemies will mark the beat for you, and sometimes there might be an undulating line of credits to show you the way. You also need to keep an eye on each of your power-up gauges (located at the bottom of the screen) or else you might end up running out of a very handy power-up at the worst of times. Nothing hurts more than losing your spread or missiles when you most need them!

The music for Star Ghost is very dynamic and definitely fits the game’s theme. It was created by David Wise, who you probably remember from one of the many games he’s worked on such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Snake Rattle 'n' Roll, Battletoads, Donkey Kong Country, Tengami, and the upcoming Yooka-Laylee, to name a few.