Alien Stars Review

Written by: David Laprad Published: Sept. 6, 2007 You know an arcade space shooter for the PC is good when you reach into your pocket for a quarter before playing. Back in the day, I plunked more than a few tokens into Space Invaders and Galaga, and any game that can take me back to that nascent time is doing something right. Alien Stars from Awem Studio is one such game. In Alien Stars, you're the pilot of a small spaceship that carries a primary weapon you can upgrade ten times. Your job is to stop 11 massive waves of aliens that swoop down at you from the top of the screen and attack. When you destroy one of the extraterrestrial pests, they might drop one of several bonuses or a pack of missiles, the latter of which you can grab and launch using your secondary attack. The best thing about Alien Stars is its simplicity. Using your mouse, you can move your ship anywhere on the screen, collect goodies and fire your weapons. When you take a critical hit, you lose a life and your primary weapon drops one level. If things get too rough for you, you can lower the difficulty level. The graphics in Alien Stars are also worth mentioning. The basic enemies look great, but they pale in comparison to the huge, detailed bosses and weird biomass backdrops that scroll downward as you battle to save mankind. Trust me; you'll see the bosses when you close your eyes to sleep at night. Download Alien Stars and find out for yourself. Scoring (out of five stars): Graphics: Ease of use: Gameplay: Challenge: Sound effects: Music: Final analysis: Click here to download the free trial version of Alien Stars.