Introduction

Out with the old, in with 3D

Back in 1982, Williams released an arcade game by the name of Sinistar. The premise was fairly simple: you are a lone spaceship pilot fighting against the evil enemy hordes. The hordes are collecting crystal energy from asteroids to build the ultimate weapon: the Sinistar. Shhh! I didn't say Death Star, I said the Sinistar. You wanna get sued? If you don't stop them, life as we know it will be eradicated. No pressure.

OG Sinistar

Back in the day . . .

The game (which can be found and emulated; start your search at EMU HQ) played more or less like Asteroids: you're in a field of asteroids, you fly around blowing them up. The space you flew through was a bit bigger (not just one screen that looped), there were more enemies, and there was a secondary weapon, the Sinibomb, (no, not CinniBon - that's a chain of mall stores that serve up tasty cinnamon rolls) that was used to destroy the Sinistar. Pretty simple.

Simplicity itself

Well, the new 3D Sinistar has been unleashed, and from our experiences with the demo, it's still about as simple as its predecessor. You're a lone spaceship pilot fighting against the evil 3D enemy hordes. The hordes are collecting 3D crystal energy from 3D asteroids to build the ultimate 3D weapon: the Sinistar. Sound familiar? Good because once in a while, everyone can use some mindless shoot'em up action.

Glorified Asteroids

Mining 'roids

The new Sinistar promises the same arcade-style action, with levels not really different, just increasing in difficulty. This time, though, you're piloting through space a-la Freespace. That's about the extent of the similarity between the titles, though, as Freespace is an involved tactical space simulator, and Sinistar is a simple arcade blaster. So, obviously, just because you thought Freespace was cool doesn't mean Sinistar is necessarily your bag. If you're looking for something that is a straight shooter but in a 3D explorable world, then this game is tailor made for you.