When it comes to game developers in Finland, most gamers probably think of Remedy, responsible for the first two Max Payne games and the upcoming Alan Wake, or Bugbear Entertainment, developer of the FlatOut franchise. With 12 years under its belt, the Helsinki based Housemarque has been around longer than both of those, making hardcore shoot 'em ups like Stardust and The Reap on Amiga and PC. In the last few years, Housemarque has done work on TransWorld Snowboarding for Atari and helped program part of Guerrilla's Killzone: Liberation.
This summer, Housemarque will get back to its roots with a hardcore shooter that may interest fans of Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved and Blast Factor. Like Blast Factor, Super Stardust HD will be on the PlayStation Network, though we don't have confirmation on a U.S. release at this time, so here's hoping it doesn't end up a Europe-only release.
In the game you control a tiny spacecraft that hovers over planets. Your mission is simple: destroy everything in sight. The ship has three different weapons, each of which has a different impact on the various asteroids and ice crystals floating around. For example, while some weapons are able to break asteroids more effectively than others, they create far more debris as well. After blowing up enough asteroids and crystals, enemies appear -- once you eliminate those, you move onto the next phase. Each planet has five phases, with the last featuring a boss battle.
We'll have to wait until we get some hands-on time with Super Stardust HD before we can remark on whether there is any depth beneath the seemingly simple gameplay surface.
