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4 May 2021

REVIEW: Stellatum on Xbox One

Review by Jon Donnis
Stellatum is a classic scrolling shooter from Satur Entertainment, you control a battleship, and you have to kill all of the enemies to progress to the next level.
Now we have seen thousands of scrolling shooters, some great, some not so great, so where does Stellatum fit in what is already a very crowded market?

Quickly the basic story, you are part of an alien race, ready to conquer the galaxy. Nice and simple.

The first thing that makes this game a little different is the ability to upgrade your ship. As you progress through levels you collect various components and when you have enough, between levels, you can craft upgrades and attach them to your ship, I was pleasantly surprised with this, as there is some depth to the upgrades, not just better weapons, but even the way your ship moves, is affected with the various upgrades. The weapons are also quite varied, and it is more than the usual upgrades of just more firepower, there is differences, rocket barrages, burning lazers, and so on.


There are 80 levels, or missions to complete, each separated into little constellations, each constellation has a different look, and different enemies and bosses to beat.

The graphics are fine, nothing ground breaking, but exactly what you would expect in a scrolling shooter. As with many games like this, it sometimes can be confusing knowing what is trying to kill your, what can be destroyed and what you need to collect, but you will figure things out quickly, and then it no longer becomes a problem.



Although things can get very busy on screen, it is never over the top, and while you may sometimes find yourself concentrating on your ship, and firing blindly while trying to avoid enemy bullets etc, this doesn't happen too often, so is a perfectly fine part of the game.

The Good
As scrolling shooters go, the gameplay is good, the upgrades to the ship as you play are very good and really do make a difference.

The Bad
The soundtrack is uninspiring, and the general sound effects aren't great, very generic sounds. Personally, in any game like this, I want to hear a fast, aggressive soundtrack that gets the blood pumping, and sound effects that almost make me want to duck. Sadly, this game is lacking in this area.
I also do not like the name "Stellatum", every time I say it, I hear Skeleton.

Overall
I am a fan of scrolling shooters, I have been for over 3 decades, so this game is right down my street.
I enjoyed playing it, and the good far outweighs any of the bad.

I score this game a strong 7/10

Review By Jon Donnis

Stellatum is out now on

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