''The Red Star'' is a third-person

action Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...

video game, based on '' The Red Star''

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

Plot

The story is based on a graphic novel of the same name. It is set in a futuristic, magic-using Soviet Union, which uses floating Skyfurnaces (magical ships) and Warkasters (sorcerers) to conquer its enemies.

Gameplay

''The Red Star'' is a mix of several video game genres like

beat'em up A beat 'em up (also known as brawler and, in some markets, beat 'em all) is a video game genre featuring hand-to-hand combat against a large number of opponents. Traditional beat 'em ups take place in scrolling, two-dimensional (2D) levels, wh ...

and

shooter Shooter may refer to: People * Rod Beck (1968–2007), American baseball pitcher nicknamed "Shooter" * Shooter Jennings (born 1979), country music singer * Evan McPherson (born 1999), American football placekicker nicknamed "Shooter" * Adrian Sh ...

. The action is seen from the isometric perspective, with the goal of walking around and fighting enemies along the way.

RPG RPG may refer to: Military * Rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-launched anti-tank weapon **''Ruchnoi Protivotankoviy Granatomyot'' (Russian: ''Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт''), hand-held anti-tank grenade laun ...

elements are also apparent as players have the option of upgrading certain attributes of a character depending on how well levels are completed. The players can choose between three characters: Makita who relies on speed and fast movements, Kyuzo who is slow but resistant and strong and Maya with a balanced approach of speed and power. Maya is unlocked by beating the game once. Losing a life at any point will force a reset to the beginning of the current stage.

Development and release

In 2003,

Acclaim Entertainment Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game publisher based in Glen Cove, New York. Originally founded by Greg Fischbach, Robert Holmes, and Jim Scoroposki from a storefront in Oyster Bay in 1987, the company built a global develop ...

signed an exclusive agreement with Archangel Studios to develop a video game based on '' The Red Star''. At the time, it was in development at

Acclaim Studios Austin Iguana Entertainment, later known as Acclaim Studios Austin, was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by Jeff Spangenberg, previously lead designer for Punk Development, and originally located ...

with a scheduled release date in 2004. Ray Peña and Stephen Dupree were given the roles of art and design team leads respectively. Acclaim used an in-house level editor, which allowed them to create a ''

Smash TV ''Smash TV'' is a 1990 arcade video game created by Eugene Jarvis and Mark Turmell for Williams Electronics Games. It is a twin-stick shooter in the same vein as 1982's '' Robotron: 2084'', which was co-created by Jarvis. The Super Nintendo Ent ...

''-like prototype by using the existing assets from '' Vexx'' and '' Turok Evolution''. ''The Red Star'' was originally scheduled for release for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox on September 4, 2004. The first time that gamers could get their hands on ''The Red Star'' was in August 2004 on the ''Official PlayStation Magazine'' Demo. ''

Game Informer ''Game Informer'' (''GI'' is an American monthly Video game journalism, video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and video game console, game consoles. It debuted in August 1991, when the video game reta ...

'' made an early review on both the PS2 and Xbox versions. The Xbox version was made in parallel with the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

version. It was completed with a press review copy circulating among gaming publications, including ''

'', but was never commercially released. After Acclaim went bankrupt in 2004, XS Games took the publishing rights to the game. The

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PA ...

port was released in March 2010, through

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

. An

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

version of ''The Red Star'' was released in June the same year.

Reception

The game received "average" reviews on all platforms according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

Notes

References

*Halverson, Dave.
The Red Star Review
. ''Play Magazine''. October 2006.

External links

Official ''The Red Star'' site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Red Star, The 2007 video games Acclaim Entertainment games Acclaim Studios Austin games Alternate history video games Cancelled Xbox games Cooperative video games IOS games Multiplayer and single-player video games PlayStation 2 games PlayStation Network games PlayStation Portable games Science fantasy video games Video games based on comics Video games based on Image Comics Video games developed in the United States XS Games games