Sagittarius A-Star -or SA* for short- is a new DSiWare vertical shoot-em-up by LukPlus. Boasting astounding title screen music upon loading the game and just a few options (all in English): play on the upper or lower screen and remap your shoot and attack buttons with the only other options upon pressing play being to replay your highest score or training mode (play with 99 lives the levels unlocked but no chance of progressing).

It’s a rarity to being thrust straight into a game in this day and age and Sagittarius A-Star is just rife with old school fundamentals with no unnecessary storyline, no quests nor filler/padding content and just three aims: kick ass, score big and progress. Even assumed criticism doesn’t hold much validity with the lack of power-ups for once less of an issue due to the awesome Attack Attack feature which literally slices through the opposition.

With the power-up situation dismissed the other two issues I have with portable shooters are sprite size and lame bosses. Fortunately SA* has both beefy sprites (and a TON of bullets to avoid) and some of the most impressive bosses of this (well actually last!) generation. It’s a shame the game isn’t a 3DS original as the graphics are truly impressive and could work fantastically in 3D and not being the polygonic jagged messes from a lot of DS titles.

The aspects that set Sagittarius A-Star apart from other shooters is the aforementioned Attack Attack feature where your ship rotates (although fires only vertically) with the Attack button allowing you to thrust in that direction cutting through all enemies in your path enabling high-score maximisations. The training mode is also an ace addition enabling less hardcore gamers (hiya!) a chance to playthrough levels without getting their sorry asses kicked.

It’s probably human nature to glance at the review score before -or even instead of- reading the review and perhaps in support of the score (WHICH IS STILL A HIGH SCORE DAMMIT!) is that the very lack of options that help make the game as instant as it is miss the one option that would make this reviewer enjoy the game that bit more (which is of-course a lower difficulty setting) although hardcore shmup fans and fans of old-school arcade gameplay should definitely check out probably the DSiWare of the year.

7/10

Review by Bri Bri. For more information on Sagittarius A-Star go to http://www.lukplus.co.jp/sagittarius-a-star/