Calvin Dimas
What do you get when you mash up two classics from the GameCube era of gaming? You get an indie dev passion project known as Star Garden. Below are my early impressions of the game
When Worlds Collide
Star Garden is currently being developed by Game Garage LLC and is a cross between the pet raising mechanics of the Sonic Adventure series’ Chao Garden side mode and the racing combat of Kirby Air Ride’s City Trial Mode. Both games are titles that were released in the early 2000s and this era, along with the very obvious yet charming gaming influences is what makes Star Garden stand out. As a younger crowd might say, “the vibes are immaculate,” and Star Garden is truly a showcase of Y2K energy that’s been injected into every inch of the game.
From the intro of the game, to the art and menu designs it feels like going back in time booting up a new game on the most Y2K console, the Dreamcast.
Breaking Down the Game Play
If you’re unfamiliar with the Sonic Adventure series or never had the chance to check out Kirby Air Ride you may be confused on how these two games come together or what a Chao Garden (pronounced chow) and City Trial even mean.
Basically, the gameplay loop of Star Garden will being with you entering an area called the Lumi Garden and hatching a creature known as a Lumi. Your next goal is to raise these Lumi craetures and improve their selection of stats that will be increased over time by feeding them various fruits. The fruits unfortunately cannot be gained in the Lumi Garden, at least not in the trial. It is unknown if this will change during the full release, but that leads to the other half of the gameplay that will allow you to earn the fruits you need.
This is where the Kirby Air Ride DNA makes itself very apparent. By participate in races and battles against CPU players locally or against real players online you can win fruits to help make your Lumi stronger, faster, or even fly farther. While the Lumi may be a cute creature upon first glance you will quickly learn that they transform into star shaped vehicles that you use when racing and battling the other Lumi pilots.
In each match you’ll be competing against other pilots an arena that very much resembles City Trial from Air Ride, where you’ll need to break boxes to obtain temporary stat boosts stat boost to increase your odds of winning. This is known as the collecting phase and in this time frame, each player is racing to find and upgrade their Lumi vehicles to give them the best chance at winning. You can also find other vehicles that you can swap out to that each have their own quirks and optimal movement styles. Even this phase is focused on collection, you and your opponents will likely be fighting for the best upgrades and vehicles. That being said, the real combat doesn’t start until the match timer has reached about two-thirds of the way to zero.
When the combat phase is active, players vehicles can now be permanently destroyed and once destroyed, the player will be out of the match until only one is left standing. This is the reason you’ll want to upgrade your Lumi in the garden. Each match improves your Lumi’s stats and gives you a bit more of competitive edge then before.
Final Impressions
While Star Garden is still very early on, I had a lot of fun with the time I spent with it. Racing around the arena and using everything at my disposal has the feel of modern battle royal but the charm of games I grew up on, thanks to the aesthetics of Star Garden. I know a Story mode is planned for the full release and I am excited to see what that entails, as well as if the Y2K energy continues to flourish in every corner of the game.
I do have to admit that I am worried about this gaming making an impact due to the recently announced Kirby Air Riders, the sequel to Kirby Air Ride slated for later this year in November but I am confident that Star Garden will find a community and will hopefully the first of many indie gems from Game Garage.
Star Garden: The Trial is currently available for download via Steam. The full version of Star Garden can also currently be wishlisted on Steam.
