Createdelic has announced that they have a release date for the anticipated Starstruck: Hands of Time. Over three years after I added it to my Steam wishlist, it’s set to land on September 16.
Starstruck is a game about, uh… hm… Well, it defines itself as a “story-rich rhythm adventure game.” It prominently features a giant hand walking around a little model town and destroying everything. There are what look like rhythm battles, which the devs advertise can be played using a Guitar Hero or Rock Band guitar. The story also switches characters on “three intertwined adventures.” There’s also some end-of-world stuff in there. Not sure where the hand comes in.
Hold on, I’ll just play the demo.
Okay, it’s about traveling back in time to try and stop an upcoming cataclysm. You follow this kid with dreams of being a big musician, and whenever he hits a roadblock, you switch to the hand to both clear his way and wreck up stuff around town. There’s probably another protagonist in there somewhere. It might even be the demo, but it crashed on me a good ways in.
What I saw is pretty great, though. I didn’t plug in my Guitar Hero 2 X-Plorer guitar, but the keyboard is just fine. The rhythm gameplay is pretty fun, but the song at the end is brutal. Sounding, I mean. It might be intended to sound lame because they’re amateur teen bands, but there’s also a big dialogue right before it saying that people have different tastes. That’s true, but the lyrics aren’t for me. They aren’t even nearly depressing enough.
Anyway, the demo leaves me optimistic and even excited. The art style is well-executed in its plasticine/diorama look. I’ll definitely be checking it out.
Starstruck: Hands of Time is coming to PC on September 16. There was an announced PS4 version, but, as reported by Gematsu, it has been cancelled. Maybe some other day.
