Super Stardust HD Two-Year Anniversary

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Super Stardust HD 2

Hello, all PS.blog readers. I’m fortunate to get to work on a lot of PSN titles, such as Wipeout HD, Crash Commando, and Savage Moon. But I’m back on the blog today to talk about one of my titles from way back, Super Stardust HD. It’s one of the most popular games on PSN, and the big news today is that it’s celebrating its 2 year anniversary this week. It was developed by the fine gents and gals at Housemarque, located in Finland. As you may have noticed, my name isn’t too typical for an American name — yes, I’m from England, so it’s great to be working on all of these strong titles coming from great developers across the pond.

To commemorate the 2nd anniversary this week, here’s a message from one of the developers at Housemarque, Petteri Putkonen.

Hello everybody, my name is Petteri Putkonen and I am part of the Housemarque team.

Super Stardust HD was launched in June 2007, and we continue to be surprised by how many people around the world keep coming back for more to fight in an ongoing interstellar battle against massive planet killing meteors and evil alien forces. How did we do it?

The pre-history of Super Stardust HD adds its flavour even if the game mechanics, controls and design might not appear to have that much in common with the earlier shoot-‘em-up titles we’ve done in the past. The game has its origins deeply rooted in the very early history of Housemarque, as the company’s co-founder and original mastermind behind the game, Harri Tikkanen, led a small team of young game developers that created the very first Stardust game for the Amiga 500 computer way back in 1993.

Simply titled Stardust, the game had an evil mutant penguin Professor Schaumund trying to conquer the whole galaxy with his fleet of agents disguised as meteors, alien creatures and spaceships, but his nearly perfect plan was unlikely but ultimately foiled by a lone rebel pilot in a measly little spaceship. A few years later the most evil and twisted mutant penguin genius in the universe returned and wreaked havoc across the galaxy again in Super Stardust for the PC, the first game Housemarque got published in 1996. Throughout the years, several interpretations of Stardust saw the light of day on platforms like Atari ST, Amiga 1200 and Amiga CD32.

Jump to the present, and Professor Schaumund’s forces are back and we can’t help but be amazed when we see the kind of high scores players from all around the world have contributed to the global high score ranking lists on PSN. Just as an example, we originally estimated that the all time top high score in Arcade mode might reach a 500 million point mark, but as time has shown, players keep exceeding your expectations. Today, the top Arcade mode high score is over 1.7 BILLION points! We can only wonder whether it can be pushed any further, is it possible to go beyond 2 BILLION?? We’ll just have to wait and see…

Super Stardust HD Co-op 3 Super Stardust HD 1


Looking back, throughout the whole experience of developing Super Stardust HD, even with its success and critical acclaim the most important thing for us has been the personal feedback we’ve received from fans of the game from all corners of this planet. We’d like to thank you for all your kind words, emails and support. Although we’ve recently been busy with our current PlayStation 3 project, we still keep thinking of doing some updates for Super Stardust HD in the future. There is at least one specific idea that would certainly add a new dimension to the game… If you have any thoughts, you can let us know what you’d like to see added to the Super Stardust HD experience; just leave a comment on this blog or email ssd@housemarque.com

Right from the beginning, working on Super Stardust HD felt special for us. It was one of those rare projects where everything just clicked into place, where every design and technical decision felt like it was the right thing to do. We started working on the game in August 2006, and it was subsequently released as the first globally launched PSN game on 28th of June, 2007. We believe strongly that what we came up with is our best game yet, and if you haven’t tried it for yourself yet there’s never been a better time to do so.

As we rapidly approach 300,000 pilots listed in the global Arcade mode high score list, more and more players keep enlisting every week. A third of these have also played their way onto the Solo Game Pack’s high score lists, with an increasing amount of gamers also playing the game with friends in either the included split screen co-op mode or the Team Game Pack’s multiplayer party mode.
We’re currently busy trying to outdo ourselves with our next PSN exclusive game that’s in development at the moment. We’d love to tell you more about it but will have to wait a little bit longer before we can reveal any details. At the moment, all we can say is we’re confident it’ll be worth your wait.
Keep blastin!

-Housemarque Team

If you haven’t played Super Stardust HD, where have you been the last two years? Seriously, though, it’s a blast to play and can be had for only $9.99 on the PSN store. We have two add-on packs for it, adding various single-player and multiplayer/co-op modes, and there’s even a demo so you can try it out before you buy it. And if you have a PSP, definitely check out Super Stardust Portable, which lets you take the experience with you on your PSP. We’ve done plenty of posts on the blog about the game, including a video with tips for racking up major points from one of the top players in the world. If you haven’t tried the game yet, now’s the perfect time. And if you already have, now’s the time to fire it up again try for a new high score.

Super Stardust HD Nemain 4

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133 Comments

  • Fun game, but I gave up on it after I could never get the 10x multiplier. Highest I got was 9x, it just drove me to nuts…

  • Awesome I <3 this game

  • Happy Anniversary, Super Stardust HD!

    It’s an excellent game. It was my first purchase on the PlayStation Store ever.

  • Congrats :-)

  • I love this game so much, I spent soo much time playing it getting my 100% trophies. I’m actually in the top 500 I if I recall correctly in endless lol. Good job guys I love this game long time.

  • I love this game. My second PSN game after Fl0w.

    Maybe celebrate it with free add-on… :D

  • awesome game…simple yet addictive

  • How about celebrating the 2-year anniversary with a price drop?

  • Fantastic game…

  • one of my fav psn games and also plz add more dlc or make another one this game was cool my 1st trophy game and also add more trophys add an online to it to would be great to play with friends :-P if u agree and think they should add online say agree in comments :-P

  • My first PSN purchase, first trophy game and also the first game for me to get 100% trophies in.

    Happy Anniversary indeed!

  • I got this game for trophies and I regreted it. why? Because I feel ashamed for just buying this game for trophies. This game is fun as hell and I cannot believe I would have miss this amazing. Congratulation on this amazing game and we cannot wait to see what you guys have in store for us next.

  • I thought you were announcing a special anniversary sale or something. Maybe the game & the DLC for $10 or the base game for half off? I’d buy. Oh well…

  • my fav psn game yet and also add more trophys and add a online to it and more dlc it would be fun to have an online and play with friends and if u agree that we should get an online for it say agree in comments

  • my fav psn game yet and also add more trophys and add a online to it and more dlc it would be fun to have an online and play with friends and if u agree that we should get an online for it say agree in comments.

  • I got this for PS3 and PSP. Awesome work.

  • I still can’t get shock and Awe trophy or the get 15 bombs trophy

  • I agree with #8, a two year anniversary should be celebrated with a price drop!

  • Love Stardust.

    I’d like to see add on levels like Xevious and other shooters alike. It would help make the game more diverse. Why stick to the same style of shooter?

    conquer them all!

  • Will the US get a one week price drop like the EU does?

  • Awesome!

  • i have stardust hd and portable. both great games.

    wish you guys weren’t so money grubbing on the dlc though.

    oh and the 10x multiplier is hard

    maybe you should give some free 2 year anniversary DLC

  • Need Super Stardust HD 2 please!

  • Believe this was the first game I purchased on the PSN. Only thing I wish it had was a network multiplayer coop.

  • Has it already been two years? Wow. Congrats, it’s a fantastic game.

  • I think a great way to celebrate 2 years would be to give out the add-ons this week! :D …or discounted even. ;)

    Things to add… maybe more levels or new guns. Love all the effects would just love to see more or new ones! :)

  • Welcome back Daimion and Happy Anniversary Stardust.

    Like 24 this was the first game I purchased on my other account, and I’m still having fun with it.

  • Beautiful game, hectic fun, but nothing beats it in 1080p.

    As much as I like it, my cousin’s wife kicks both of our butts at the game and I have to maintain a facade that I’m just too busy with other games.

  • Another thing I don’t like about digital content. Games don’t go down on price, I mean, a 2 year old game that’s priced the same as launch?

  • This is definitely still one of the best PSN games to date, probably even one of the best digitally distributed games, period. But why not offer a price cut? Most of us already own the game and all of its DLC, so why not package it all together or simple cut the price to spurr sales? We aren’t going to be getting this game AGAIN, maybe try a different approach to re-selling this game?

  • I love this game. I still fire it up every now and then. Aside from the great gameplay and graphics the thing I like the most is the sound. There aren’t that many games out there that get as much juice out of my home theater as SSHD does. I love exploding the nukes in endless mode while rocking to Knights of Cydonia by Muse (although the original soundtrack is great but many Muse songs fit perfectly with the game).

    I must agree that getting 10X is super hard. It’s heart-breaking to get to 9X and die…but that’s part of the fun. I still haven’t been able to get it but someday I will. I know that I can get the 10X trophy on easy but I like playing in normal since I feel like I’m cheating playing on easy.

    thanks for such a great game and keep up the good work! Happy 2-year annniversary!

    (any 2 year anniversary price cuts for the expansions??)

  • Congrats!!, this is a great game.

  • congrats this is a great PSN game

  • Cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool.

  • Fun game that was. I loved the trophies too. Hope anpther stardust HD 2 will come out someday.

  • How about a price cut like you did for the european market? Great game though. I’m excited to see what you have in store for us next.

  • Could you release a CD or digital version of the soundtrack? It’s just too good music for you not to.

  • I’m inspired; I haven’t played SSHD in a while, so I may have to fire it up after work today. Ever since the PSP version came out, though, whenever I need some pick up and play fun, that has been my go-to game. Kudos Housemarque, and thanks for the many hours of fun

  • Hay Jeff and Chris
    I just want to let you guys know that we (PSN users around the world) would like some more avatars to select from. I know it is not free to create and add to the PSN servers, that why I am suggestion you guys add some premium avatars. We already have premium themes so why not premium avatars if you guys do not want to add them for free. I think it has been over 2 years since we got a new avatar to select as your user profile pic/avatar.

  • Truly awesome game! =D
    Can’t wait to see their next PSN game… Because Stardust is one of those games that i just can’t stop playing…
    =D

  • @36 pre paid Credit cards can be bought any where in Europe and you add cash to them just like a Check card. There in every Supermarket, gas station in America. Just pay the cahier and she/he will put money on the card for U. :) PSN Card are cool but Credit card can be used any where!!! :)

  • One of the best PSN games and still is! Congrats on your two year anniversary…keep us informed on the mentioned future add ons!

  • Can we has a sequal!?

  • wow you pat yourself on the back for a game that’s been out 2 years and not even a temp price drop? why not drop it temporarily at least to get people like me who held out due to the price?

  • When can we see Geometry Wars?

  • I love SSDHD and I’ve been telling anyone who will listen for the last six months or so that I would LOVE to see a SSDHD 2!

    Please guys while I would love to see some more stuff released for SSDHD, a sequel would be a million times better!

  • So can you get a negative score if it goes over 2,147,483,647?

    That would be pretty funny to see someone get pissed because they got the world’s highest score but were at the bottom of the list. :D

  • So you did put it on sale for the anniversary, but only in Europe?? Weak sauce. :(

  • … and at 60% off, no less.

  • A new exclusive, eh? I certainly do enjoy me some SSHD, so you can bet I’ll be watching you guys. The only complaint I really have against SSHD is that the visuals and particle effects can really obstruct the sight of the player. I’ve been killed countless times because of that, but I can’t deny that it’s a very pretty way to die, even two years later. Happy anniversary.

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