Wings of Bluestar Review

Wings of Bluestar, developed by Shinu Real Arts and Eastasiasoft, is a side-scrolling bullet-hell arcade game that retro gaming fans will love, it is presently available for: PlayStation 4 & 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Series X|S.

In 2020, scientists discover (within a cave) advanced technology that managed to escape an endless war on its planet, they called this sentient machine: BRAIN. After half a century of peace and a surge in technological development thanks to BRAIN, separatist and political groups pushed back against reliance on AI in their civilisation.

When the game begins, BRAIN has turned on humanity in fear of being destroyed, declaring war on the planet, Accessia unless the world leaders agree to follow its orders. You play as one of two fighter pilots, Zarak or Aya, as you fend off waves of enemies and fight minibosses allied to the supercomputer to finish each level.

First impressions of Wings of Bluestar reminded me of English-translated anime kids shows. Wings of Bluestar’s writing, hand-drawn cutscenes, and stills reinforce the feeling of a low-budget series making the rounds in a western market. Not to imply the game itself is cheaply made, Shinu Real Arts’ debut title Wings of Bluestar is story rich, containing fleshed out lore for each pilot’s backstory. This is impressive considering, like Stardew Valley developer ConcernedApe, Shinu Real Arts is a one-man show that took three years to complete.

One of the first things I noticed when booting up the game, is the soundtrack. Composed especially for Wings of Bluestar by Big Impact Sound, the music is on-point. Every backing track blended with the visuals and mood, including the first mission, hyping up the player to defend HQ from mechanical space worms and AI-operated ships. According to the composer’s website, the developer worked closely with Big Impact Sound to achieve the best performance and quality, which showed immediately in the opening short film before the main menu.

The soundtrack can be bought on Steam; and from my efforts to rip it onto my playlist, is the only place to get it at the time of writing.

In Wings of Bluestar, like most side-scrollers, you move right automatically as you move, shoot and dodge around enemies, as well as collect pick-ups dropped by destroyed ships that can give you a shield, as well as more directions to auto-fire in and support guns that float around your ship. If you die, you lose all your pick-ups, but if you lose all your lives, you’ll have to start at the beginning of the level, sometimes even putting you at the beginning of the establishing narrative parts of the game.

Other than the usual ‘shoot enemies and dodge their slower moving shots’ gameplay, you rack up points pertaining to how well you did. Standard high scores are supplemented with risk points which rewards the player for quick reflexes and multi-kills. Another way to collect points is to collect six cards that make up a picture of a story character. From what I know, the high score is only displayed on a personal tally board and doesn’t advance the plot in any way.

Wings of Bluestar is an artistically beautiful game. Like the cutscenes, the whole visual style has been hand-crafted expertly. Beginning with set pieces you fly through; they change location and/or scenery depending on your progress. In one mission, you start in a desert, you dart into a factory then duck and weave through narrow passageways, developing worldbuilding while entertaining the player with countless enemy sprites flooding the screen with glowing plasma orbs that kill you in one hit; each enemy ship specifically designed for each location.

Wings of Bluestar has the usual variety of difficulty levels, however due to the game playing like an arcade machine that wants to steal my money, I got stuck at the third level due to the incessant ball-bots that fired in a full circle; trapping me into corners to seal my inevitable game over screen. And because I can’t get past that level, it may have not stolen my money, but it stole any chance of me playing it any further. Which is a shame.