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.

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133 Comments

  • This was my second PSN game and I really like it. Then later on got all of the available add-ons. I was really glad that I got the game and still enjoy playing it from time to time. It’s one of the games for people to start off their PSN game collections.

  • When I bought SSHD, I was knee deep in Ridge Racer, fl0w, and a couple other games. I think Heavenly Sword too. But as good as these and other games were to me, I’d trade them all in a second just to have SSHD! It’s still one of my favorite games EVAR! Hope we get another one soon.

  • This is one of the best games…EVER. This game made the PS3 for me. The only thing that can make it better would be if you could save your game as you advance…hard to play for so long and get a high score!

    12

  • 2 Billion may be impossible, I will get Bridy on here to comment. It may be able to be done on split screen coop though, we only played around 10 times to to post that top score… come on Housemarque bring us the impossible online coop!

    On a similar note you guys should sell your online leader boards as an API. Your the only ones that I have seen so far that got it right for a PSN game.

  • I bought a PS3 for SSHD! I am not ashamed! It’s one of my favorite games, it never gets old.

    Online play would be amazing, but I am looking forward to their next game, as well.

  • Sounds cool, but sadly I still can’t find my self to buying PSN games.

  • If EU can get a price drop. why cant we?!
    :[
    lets get a bundle going with both dlc packs for a nice price of 12$ ;)
    OKAY OKAY I’LL DO 15$
    $ 10? DEAL!

  • Haha, it took me 400 tries to get Late Boomer, but I had fun I’ll admit that.

  • AWESOE GAME!!! I wish other games were this exciting. SSHD is such a blast to play. Sure it can be frustrating at times. Every time that I play I get to play it seems that I get better and better. I can’t believe that it’s been out for 2 years now. Hopefuly there will be a swqual or more similar games coming out like SSHT. (:

  • Come on Jeff, tell SCEA to give us a one week price drop like the Euro Store. I WILL buy this game for $2 and if not you’ll be forcing me to make a Euro account!!!

  • I was expecting a price drop as I was reading it. But no, only Europe, eh?

    No sale.

  • Man, I’d probably buy it if it had some sort of price drop, even though the game’s already on my PS3 under my brother’s account…

  • damn it looks good ima buy

  • going to buy this game

  • WHY NO DISCOUNT IN USA STORE VERY SAD… I HATE THE EUROPEAN THEY ARE SO LUCKY WITH THE 1.99 EURO DISCOUNT SALE… IM GOING TO MY CORNER NOW AND CRY FOR A HALF HOUR ABOUT CROSS THE POND HATRED….

  • and also scea must think we are stupid… thinkin we only got 1 account so we cant see what is happening on other psn networks…

  • Huh? I read a nostalgic article. And then I saw the word “price” mentioned. And what did I find? Same old price? This just don’t cut it. What is reasonable here is offer a discount time frame like what’s mentioned by others here like the Euro, or even an attractive offer with the add-ons as a bundle.

    Til then, what is the reason to pay for this game?

  • Heres a helpful suggestion drop the price of $9.99 price to $5.00..I also know what your working on its called Trine! And its looks amazing just release it before the Summer of 09 is over.And maybe you should add more content as well add easier levels for people who are struggling on the tougher levels perhaps with new Trophies?? But seriously SCEA has already ticked me off by not fixing Games that won’t sync up I have problems with–> LBP, Uncharted, Burnout Paradise. I will never understand as to why they don’t care about our problems on PSN.? I’m also very angry as to why the heck can’t they bring us VidZone for America?..I would really like to see Michael Jackson’s Music Videos from the early 80’s God Bless you RIP MJ..It should’nt be Exclusive to Europe only! It should be Exclusive to the Entire PSN around the world! Without these cool features we have nothing to lookout for on the PSN..To me its inexcusable that they won’t do this the last update 2.80 was complete crap to everyone..Where is IN GAME MUSIC FOR HOME AND IN THE GAMES WE PLAY SONY! I have 27 games and most don’t support IN GAME MUSIC! SHAME ON YOU SCEA!!.. No Offense to anyone Hey Sony you started this now fix it!..

  • Well, I’m from Europe and I still can’t get the game for 2€. We don’t have a PSN store in Slovenia, so I use a UK account. The problem with that is, that I can’t put any funds on the account, because it only accepts UK credit cards and there are no PSN cards in Europe. All of you will probably have the same trouble getting money on the UK account.

  • A fantastic game, on either PSP or PS3. Here are a few requests:

    1. Online multiplayer (adding my vote, along with everyone elses)
    2. Price point for DLC– the add on pricepoint, particularly for the PSP, was ridiculous
    3. Scoreboard Fixes!!!– Particularly in the case of the PSP version! It looks like there has been some effort to correct the prominence of cheaters showing up in the scoreboards (thank you!), however there are still some oddly suspicious scores, particularly when some of the scores are IDENTICAL. Seems highly improbable to me, anyways.

  • SSHD is one of the best games I’ve ever played. And considering that the first game I played was Pong, at two years old, that’s saying a lot.
    At 10 bucks it’s a fantastic deal, so I didn’t find paying for the DLC that painful, as the game is easily worth the 20 dollars with all elements included.
    When people request online play, they may not get the intricacies of replication and how hard it would be to duplicate the amount of objects moving on screen. That being said, how about a Planet Duel mode, where you’re essentially playing a single player mode but actions you take send waves or enemies, effects, or increase difficulty for the other player.
    Or not. It’s still fun as is :)
    To anyone considering buying it. If you like shmups, get it. No question.

  • 2 billion on Arcade Normal is close to impossible but I can’t completely rule it out. When I got 1.7 billion I died with 130 bombs (still haunts me to this day)…which could’ve gotten me 1.8 billion. That took 4 times through without dying or using bombs – if someone can pull off 5x through w/out dying they may be able to do it (combined with scores like Somini & Er777 get the first couple times through). I have survived the 5th time through without dying but never strung together with the first 4x through. I’m inspired – maybe I’ll try for 1.8 billion this weekend.

    Online Co-op would be amazing…but I know it’s not easy. Eeze2225 & I would be all over it!

    Best Leaderboard design EVER!

    HAPPY 2nd ANNIVERSARY AND THANKS FOR MY FAVORITE ALL-TIME GAME!! I WANNA KNOW WHAT’S NEXT??!!

  • You crafted an excellent game and you deserve every bit of praise you receive for it. Great job!

  • i love this game i havent got 100% lol but i dont mind playing it for the fact that it is fun im not too worried about gettings its trophies

  • So…..how about that anniversary release on UMD?

  • Stop your trolling.

    How cost efficient would it be to publish, distribute, and advertise a two-year-old game that most everyone else already has, and is already cheaply available on the PSN? You’re the only nut around here asking for full Blu-ray releases of small PSN downloads.

    (No, Super Stardust HD isn’t a PSP title…)

  • i still love playing this game it is far and a way my favorite psn games and i have 63 ps store games so thats alot of competition.

    id love an add on that was basicaly a sequal, just a new set of planets with a new set of wepons,enemys,behaviors but just using the same exsisting engine with new trophys.

  • @HawkEyes1

    stop your whining in europe scee cant even be bothered to bring out trophy patches for games like the last guy and blast factor which you have.

    we dont get half the ps1 games you guys get, we dont get the ps store video on demand section.

    we wait ages for games to come out over hear.

    so quit your whining an be happy that scea DO care about there customers its SCEE THAT SUCK!

  • @126

    I’m not trolling, so shut your big, fat mouth.

    I want a disc release.

    Legitimate question.

    Now bugger off.

  • I should eventually pick this game up, heard alot of good reviews about it.

  • I quit, apparently my PB is exactly what the developers thought (I think mine is ~490M, I know its 110th) but after playing on the PSP I can’t get readjusted to using the wide camera on the PS3 to play a decent game again. This game is probably the best game to play, but sadly I get too distracted trying to string a few hours to play arcade mode.

    PS: How come no mention of the insane TA’s on the planets. Those are probably just as sick as the arcades. Or the approaching 250M (I haven’t looked lately) for a single play through of arcade mode.

  • Online co-op is the feature I’d be most excited about. Most definitely.

  • I love SSHD but I only have it on the PS3. I really wish that there was some way that for a lot of these games that carry over that we could just download the PSP version for free as well since it is basically the same game.

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