I’m Phil Gaskell, a producer working in External Development here at SCEE Liverpool which just shipped Super Stardust HD. We’ve been following all of the feedback and praise that you’ve given this game lately and we wanted to simply say THANK YOU!
SSHD was a fun product to work on and the overall reception has been amazing. I’m honestly quite astounded by the high-scores that some of you have already achieved on this game. Zafro is currently sittin’ pretty with more than 640 million. Wow, the gaming community never ceases to amaze me….
For those of you who don’t know, Super Stardust HD is a download game available now only via the PlayStation Store, and was developed by a small team in Finland called Housemarque. In the end, the team at Housemarque was able to get over 10,000 active objects with physics and collisions, and over 75,000 particles simulated and drawn at 1080p 60fps…It’s truly a sight to see.
SSHD is an ultra intensive action game that raises the shoot’em up genre to the next level. You battle to save five planets on the brink of extinction from massive asteroids and a horde of enemies…sent by the evil penguin Professor Schaumund (yep, a penguin…a real nasty one too!). The stars of the show though are the asteroids, made of rock, gold and ice. Check out some of the images above and below and you’ll see what I’m talking about. You can slice, shatter, melt, and pummel them into tiny pieces – it’s very therapeutic! Perfect for a quick fix or the long haul.
One of the things we’re really proud of with SSHD is the sphere concept. Unlike other shooting games where you’re confined to a play area maybe a couple of screens big or scrolling along uncontrollably, the action in SSHD takes place in orbit around a planet. This means you can boost around it infinitely (and sometimes you might need to). From a player point of view you never worry about hitting the sides, and it allows you to concentrate more on dodging around the rocks and enemies, and blasting anything that moves. It gets really intense at times, quite simply if you blink, you’re dead.
Love this game. Pretty addictuve. My record is around 38 million :)
I know you guys know that you have to get those PSN tickets out here in the US.
It sucks to work 20 hours be able to afford the game and not be able to buy the game because of the legal age to get a Credit Card is 18. Ever try asking a parent for their Credit Card to buy games online? It’s not peaches and cream or a cake walk.
I’ve actually had to buy a friend of mine the game with my CC and let him give me the cash. But I’m sure the PSN tickets are coming since Japan has theirs.
Just wanted to put this in writing
great game, used to love my AMIGA 500 so much!!!
i am on Nemain planet now:)
HUGE QUESTION FOR STUDIO LIVERPOOL EMPLOYEES:
I’m a huge Formula one fan and I just love F1 CE but with the current F1 rights ended does that mean no Studio liverpool F1 game anymore?
Or did Sony extend them and can we expect more fantastic F1 titles from you guys?
Sony should bring out a blu-ray collection of the arcade games because not many people have broadband connection as yet. This would help bring games like stardust HD to the masses.
since we’re talking about SSDHD, i can’t but ask a question : since at least one guy of the team is a former Amiga coder, do you see it as an advantage today to have the background of someone who know how to go deeply to the metal (assembly, tricks with the blitter, etc.). is is some kind of competitive advantage in the current industry since the ps3, looking very powerful doesn’t have that basic architecture but so much potential, as the Amiga at its time ?
After reading the comments about this being an amazing and fun game, I think I’ll go ahead and buy it. Is there a leaderboard or anything? If it doesn’t, it won’t change my mind. Just curious.
I think we have a geometry wars killer on our hands.
Wait…no custom soundtracks!? C’mon Sony! REQUIRE the use of this feature!!!
@107
Yes there is an online leaderboard for different game modes.
@stennex – that is an interesting idea. I will make sure to pass along.
Oooo stennex has just scored big. If that is acctually made i can say i was here when it started =D
Great game btw, i did a review on it on youtube, basically half of it is me pretending im in the spaceship with alarms going off as we get hit. Good times
Great game SCEE Liverpool. I like the blend of Asteroids with Geometry Wars. It would’ve been nice if you added online co-op. Nice soundtracks for the game, I liked the soundtrack on the first planet. Keep up the good work
The blu-ray disk would be an awesome idea; as well as trophy’s for this game, something like 10 million – 25 million – 50 million – 100 million points; clear each one of the planets with out dieing for a trophy each… etc…
@ Patrick Seybold
There hasn’t been any news on the PS3 HD EYE-TOY, should we expect any news on e3?
This game demands custom soundtracks. I’m sick of the music in it already.
Xbox 1 could do custom soundtracks, why can’t the Ps3? come on, now!
Wonderful Game. Bravo.
I´d like to purchase this game (and so many others) but my country (Peru) isn´t listed on Sony´s countries when registering an account, so i am unable to add a credit card. :(
Anyone willling to add funds to my account and i´ll send them payment through paypal?
Come on Sony, you have a big market here in Latin America…at least accept international credit cards so a lot of people like me can enjoy these awsome games.
Jose.
I would love to see some extra planets come out in the future. I’ve played through all of them, well not in Arcade mode. But I’m working on that! ^_^
But yeah, some extra planets with new weapons would be wonderful! That would keep this game a live for so much longer.
Great game, can’t wait to see what else the PSN will have. Keep up the wonderful work guys.
yeah this is off the subject but when r u guys gonna give us a killzone2 dev interview i mean seriously these games that ur showing are amazing especially HS AND UNCHADTED but everyone is still thinking about KILLZONE2. I have been told u guys are gonna show it privately but that is a bad idea b/c everyonw is looking forward to seeing it even non sony fans so please show it to us in the press conference and show alot of it. If it looks amazing like u guys say it will then u shouldn’t worry about anything.
Ide figure Ide write my own review of the game. I just bought it and my girlfriend and I are both addicted. The HDness looks frucking beautiful I cant believe how good it looks. Its funny how I play PSN games that are 8 dollars more than I play Resistance which was 60. You should feel honored. Keep up the good work.
This game is daaa sheeeeeit. The 4th planet is some really tough stuff, and I thought nearly geting 7 mil for myself was crazy, Some of these scores look like scores on a game that has been out for a while, people mastering it and what not. And the music….some catchy stuff, but why can’t we get some extra cheese???? Or atleast let it syphon all the tough techy stuff on the HDD…….like SuperStardust be SuperSmart like dat.
Gravatar huh? Pssh.
Cool!
I wanna play this game and ‘calling all cars’ so badly. They both got rave reviews but I’m more interested in this one right now. A demo would’ve been great.
@ 24
I agree about the cards. Will we ever see prepaid PSN cards coming to North America anytime soon? I heard they have it in Japan. I hope something gets announced at E3 on the ‘prepaid cards’ topic. I don’t like using my credit card online and I’m sure some of you feel the exact same way.
@105
Great idea about releasing PSN games on Blu-ray. When more new PSN games are released, maybe they should collect em all and release it on Blu-ray (50 GB) for a reasonable price.
@109
Yes, custom soundtracks are a must if they are to call this era ‘Next-Gen’ gaming.
Easily one of the best arcade style titles ive ever played. Best 8 dollar game, ever.
Hope you make a super stardust HD, with online co-op, more weapons, etc.
Love this game.
Can you guys please add a patch so we can play Super Stardust HD with our own music library?
Yes, broke 100m!!!
And I totally agre with Ghostm, custom soundtracks are ESSENTIAL to this game; I could play this game even longer if I were chilling out to my music library.
Thank you for your time! I enjoyed the read and the game sounds pretty exciting!
Great game!!! fast action!!! Just superb!
yes! yes! yes!
custom music PLEASE
awesome game. just downloaded it. very hard to put down. great job
custom soundtracks
Can I just say a huge thanks to the devs on this game? It’s absolutely brilliant; probably one of the best purchases I’ve made yet on any of the next-gen consoles.
Yes, the spherical world design is *the* killer invention; it completely changes the game, which could have been something much more limiting, in line with others of its genre that we’ve seen… It’s a brilliant game, and I just want to thank the devs for it.
I must say, this is the first AAA game on PSN I have played this far, Tekken DR being second. Other PSN games I would play a couple of times and beat them, and then never play them again, but Stardust gives me the erge to keep playing it over and over again without getting sick of it. Good job Sony and Housemarque on a quality product, more stuff like this in the future.
I fear that Pain might have a short attachment rate…
awesome game, but i wish it had a custom soundtrack feature like in geometry wars!
This looks really awesome it reminds me of the giant clank battles in “Ratchet: Size Matters”. I would get the game for sure if Sony came out with a card you could buy from the store because I dont have a credit card.
Zafrio just blew his high score by 100 million points plus .. someone should interview him ..
…custom music would be cool .. although i love how i remember Axelay when i play this game .. wonder if the composer was inspired by that game.
Excellent title. Worth a fiver of anyones cash.
Nice work guys.
More like that please.
yes, i love this game too! however i still kind of suck but still have a blast! keep em coming sony!
Super Stardust HD: You Blink. You Die. (Its better to have watched a chick flick beforehand)
Yep, it’s ace, I like it, I’m rubbish. Sound could have been a bit more, I dunno, hulking, thumping smashing, crashing, and generally more? Music, well, it does the job, but I’d have preferred more variable tunes, and the ability to play my own. But please please please understand, I love this game, a lot. Woo Hoo!
I absolutely love this game. Hopefully we’ll be able to get some add on content like additional planets, weapons and asteroid types.
I think this game is probably better than any single game I’ve played on XBLA to date (not counting the rehashes of games I love like TMNT 89 Arcade and Castlevania SotN). Well worth the purchase, I’d really love to see an add-on for online co-op or competitive play though.
Severly off-topic random thought: a PSN game of “24” with episodic content would severely rock I would go on severe marathon binges like the show (…yes I know there’s a less than stellar PS2 game I’ve beaten…). Free idea Sony make it happen. (:
awesome game. Good job with this game.
This game is great. Highly recemmended. honestly took me by surprise. its worth every cent.