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All those years of Dragonball Z
may have you convinced that aerial fighting just doesn't work
in a video game, but that's only because you haven't played
Astra Superstars. Sunsoft's final entry in the Waku Waku
7 series takes the company's already innovative fighters in a
whole new direction... straight into the skies
above!
 Unlike the stylish but relatively down to earth
Galaxy Fight and Waku Waku 7, Astra Superstars' battles take
place entirely in mid-air. However, the characters
aren't free to fly anywhere they please... they're stuck at a
fixed altitude, but can briefly float above it (or dive under
it!) while fighting their opponents. The combatants can
also jet forward or backward with a double tap of the
D-pad. It's kind of like the air dashing in Guilty Gear,
if Guilty Gear let you jump underground... which it
doesn't. So, er, never mind that comparison.
Anyway, Astra Superstars has the
best aerial battles I've ever seen in a tournament fighting
game. The bi-directional gravity, coupled with the
barriers on either side of the screen, ensure that you'll
never be more than a screen away from your opponent.
This results in fast-paced fights that are more satisfying and
a lot less frustrating than what you'd find in a typical
Dragonball Z game, where you spend more time trying to FIND
your enemy than battling them to the death.
Did I mention the fights were
fast in Astra Superstars? Well, it's worth mentioning
again. Players zip back and forth across the screen,
trading punches, fireballs, and dirty looks all in the blink
of an eye. It may almost be TOO fast for you if you're a
fan of Virtua Fighter or Soul Calibur, but the speed is never
so overwhelming that it's impossible to play. Trust me,
you'll learn to adapt, and if you keep an open mind, you may
even learn to love it.
There's no doubt that you'll love
the graphics and sound, though. Sunsoft made the wise
decision to step up to the four meg RAM cartridge used for
many of Capcom's arcade conversions, resulting in a double
helping of the bright visuals and clever animation in Waku
Waku 7. The super moves are even flashier than before,
and there's none of the background pixelation that was a minor
annoyance in Waku Waku 7. The music's great, too... the
soundtrack features an assortment of catchy J-pop tunes that
are a perfect match for each of the game's eleven
stages.
With only twelve mostly
uninteresting characters (including two unplayables) and
gameplay that favors button mashing over careful strategy,
Astra Superstars won't keep you hooked the way Capcom's Saturn
fighting games had. At the same time, you've got to give
Sunsoft credit for introducing daring new ideas to the genre,
and more importantly, making them work. |
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Astra Superstars
Sunsoft/Santa
Claus
Versus Fighting
  
Satan Volte, the final boss, is a
cinch to beat. Just fly into his face and lay the smack
down!
Nearly all the text is in
Japanese, but a little trial and error is all it takes to
learn to play Astra Superstars.
At five seconds per match, the
load times are almost as fast as the fights
themselves!
Astra Superstars is the sequel to
Waku Waku 7, and the only game in the series that wasn't
released for the Neo-Geo game system.
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