by In 1990, Imagineering developed Destination Earthstar, an ambitious mix of a shmup and a first-person spaceship simulator published by Acclaim.
Here is a rundown of the premise. A group of humans were enslaved by aliens centuries ago but eventually earned their freedom and equality in this new society. You are part of a volunteer group searching for Earth so they can return home. To accomplish this goal, you’ll fly through space, dogfight other ships, and refuel, repair, and replenish ammo at various locations, while fighting enemy hideouts hidden in each sector of space. The exploration levels are first-person, while the enemy bases are side-scrolling shmup-style levels.
So, did Imagineering reach the stars, or did Destination Earthstar crash and burn? Let’s find out.
Gameplay
The shmup levels have straightforward controls, so I’ll start there. The D-Pad moves your ship, A shoots forward, and B shoots backward. Holding A or B and double-tapping up or down on the D-pad will do a barrel roll. However, you can only do this if you have a shield power-up. The Start button pauses the game.
Now for the exploration levels, and that’s where things get trickier. The D-Pad still controls your movement as you’d expect, and the A button still fires. However, unlike the shmup levels, the rest of the controls are very different now. The Start Button changes your weapon. The Select button changes your information screen. The B button modifies other buttons. When combined with the D-Pad up and down, it increases and decreases your speed, respectively. When combined with the Start button, it removes the map grid. When combined with the Select button, it changes your camera angle to different sides of your ship. Hit B and A at the same time to pause the game. If you pause the game twice rapidly, you turn off the music.
With the crazy controls out of the way, let’s move on to the gameplay. The shmup levels are pretty obnoxious. The ship controls awkwardly, the weapons aren’t great, and the enemies are annoying. Fortunately, they are short compared to the exploration levels. Unfortunately, the exploration levels aren’t the most fun either.
There are some cool ideas here. First-person dogfights in spaceships, landing on planets to resupply and repair, going into Hyperspace, etc. However, the implementation is lacking. You mostly fly through empty levels with a dogfight here and there. The weapons aren’t great either. The lasers are the only weapons worth using. The torpedoes are slow and have no reticle, making them unwieldy and not worth the hassle. It’s a shame, really. If they removed the shmup levels and polished the exploration levels, the game could have been a lot more fun.
I give the gameplay a 3.5/10.
Graphics
The graphics are ok at their best, and subpar at their worst. The exploration levels look okay. The HUD shows your fuel, ammo, speed, etc., and it does the job. The 2D wireframe versions of enemy ships and planets on your ship’s radar look neat, but that’s about it.
The shmup levels don’t look as good as the rest of the game. The weapon power-ups are just triangles, the shield power-ups are circles, and the extra lives are stars.
I give the graphics a 4/10.
Music and Sound
This game’s music isn’t the worst I’ve heard, but it’s not good. It’s the same two tracks for the entire game. Fortunately, if you don’t like the music, you can easily turn it off. The sound effects do the job, but they are nothing special.
I give the music and sound a 3.5/10.
Difficulty
You get 3 lives in shmup levels and none in exploration levels. There are no continues and no password system. So, good luck getting very far without a lot of practice. You also get a Game Over if you run out of fuel in an exploration level.
Final Verdict
In the end, I have to give Destination Earthstar a 3.5/10. It’s a game with great ideas but poor execution, which makes the result all the more frustrating. If you want to torture yourself by playing this waste of potential, or if you are a collector, it’s about $7 for a loose copy.
