Christmas Stars Review
Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2021 10:04 pm
This game was entered into the 2020 Heart of the OHR contest, where it won 12th Place.
Christmas Stars was an adorable dual-contest entry, once for the Heart of the OHR, twice for a Christmas jam or something elsewhere. The tale it tells is equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking, told with the literal framing of a TV special aired on a snowy winter night. The visuals aren't much to look at, but there's some clever thought behind the map design as it shifts from free movement to a vertical climb to walking around in a text box to choose an important menu option.
That being said, there's not much to experience here, regardless of whether you care for the story or not. The lone RPG battle is tacked on like a sticky note, and the entire story can be experienced and read out loud in less than 15 minutes, even if you see both endings. In fact, this really shouldn't have been a game at all. I think the effort would have been much better placed in a kids' story book, with lovely little illustrations for each line of dialogue. I'd genuinely like to see that, myself.
Time Invested: 0 Hours, 15 Minutes
Rating: 2/10
Accolade: WARM FUZZIES
Christmas Stars was an adorable dual-contest entry, once for the Heart of the OHR, twice for a Christmas jam or something elsewhere. The tale it tells is equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking, told with the literal framing of a TV special aired on a snowy winter night. The visuals aren't much to look at, but there's some clever thought behind the map design as it shifts from free movement to a vertical climb to walking around in a text box to choose an important menu option.
That being said, there's not much to experience here, regardless of whether you care for the story or not. The lone RPG battle is tacked on like a sticky note, and the entire story can be experienced and read out loud in less than 15 minutes, even if you see both endings. In fact, this really shouldn't have been a game at all. I think the effort would have been much better placed in a kids' story book, with lovely little illustrations for each line of dialogue. I'd genuinely like to see that, myself.
Time Invested: 0 Hours, 15 Minutes
Rating: 2/10
Accolade: WARM FUZZIES