Sometimes when you see a picture, whether it be from a book, a movie poster, or a game, the first glimpse can leave an impression. Sometimes that impression can leave a bad taste while others can put a smile on your face. So does Developer Solus Games give us more of a lasting impression than what we see at first glimpse? Let’s find out with Starship Disco for the PlayStation VR.
So what is the premise of Starship Disco and what do you do? Well, basically, you have your stationary ship in front of you in VR if using the DualShock 4 and you will be aiming to shoot at the ships as they enter these circles, but you will want to time it right or you might miss or shoot too early. So try to get as many points as you can without missing a beat. But one of the great things about Starship Disco is how these ships come at you or from behind you to the rhythm of the music.
So of course, before diving right in, you need to decide on your control scheme: PlayStation Move controllers or DualShock 4. With the Move controllers, you have a choice of using one or both. By using both, you will have to match the colors, which at times can get difficult. But if you want what I feel is the chill zone, use the DualShock 4 controller, as you will be aiming with your headset and firing with the X button. That really is it.
When you first start, you are shown the included Color Blind Mode, Trophies, the different Targeting Type modes as well as the included seven songs, the Miss Delay option, Import A Song, and your difficulty setting. Everything is here that you would hope for or at least think that you could hope for. So I would suggest trying the in-game songs first just to get a feel of how Starship Disco is going to treat you.
But I did mention the ability to import songs and this is where Starship Disco really comes with love. To import the songs, you will need to make sure you have a USB drive and a computer and do the following:
- Insert a USB drive into your computer and make a folder called Music.
- Move over any music that you have and make sure that it is in .mp3 format you may want to take some time to make sure you have the artist and name of the song listed, as it can get pretty crowded trying to find the song you want to play.
- Put the USB drive into the PS4, start-up Starship Disco, select Import A Song, and then enjoy your favorite music in an immersive way.
But there is something you may not realize when picking the songs. As each song can be different depending on the genre, just remember faster songs will have faster ships coming. A song like Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight starts slow but then picks up, but if your song that you pick is more fast-paced, the action can start to pick up.
Looking at the graphics, Starship Disco doesn’t need to focus heavily here, as that is not what this is about. Your ship up close when using the DualShock 4 controller looks very detailed as if it were a model that you could just hold in your hands. The thing is when you are playing; you do see your ship, but you may have noticed from the videos it does not show, but I assure you, the ship looks pretty cool. Going through the tunnel of lights also goes with the music, which I liked and the enemy ships from a distance may not be as detailed as some might like, but again, the focus here is the music, but I could make the enemy ships out. That leaves us with the sound. The sound is so loud and clear, and some may want to turn it down or feel free to leave it on the highest volume and just enjoy your music the way it was meant to be, in immersive Virtual Reality, and experience it instead of just listening to it.
There are a few things that I wish were added. First, when you go to Import A Song, there is no search feature. This is why it is important that you do this at the time you are adding music to the USB drive, but being able to search for the song or artist would be a nice addition to have. And finally, I would love for there to be leaderboards added based on genre, artist, and song. If you start a song and a leaderboard show based on that, it would just give it that little extra to what already Starship Disco brings.
Starship Disco brings a standard to rhythm games that should be followed by allowing you to use your own music, as it adds to replayability. Being able to escape to your favorite song no matter what situation or troubles life may throw at you and just get into a zone is something that is special.
Starship Disco is out now on PlayStation VR and is also available on the Oculus Rift/S, Oculus Go, and Gear VR on the Oculus Store, and Steam.
To learn more about Solus Games, please visit their site, like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, and subscribe to their YouTube channel.
In case you missed the trailer, please enjoy. Until next time, I am going to get lost in Virtual Reality with some music.
Mr. PSVR, June 15, 2019, theplaystationbrahs.com
