Burnstar

I was curious about Nerve Software's Burnstar, a Bomberman-styled puzzle game, after I saw a Quick Look of it on this site. It seemed to be the sort of breezy, stage-based puzzle game that might be good for brief play sessions between bigger games. At its heart, though, Burnstar feels like another awkward iOS-to-Steam port with the same bouncy fonts and colorful presentations endemic to that platform, presumably with which to entice a casual audience looking for something that screams "light and fun". I'm not saying that necessarily reflects on the game's core gameplay at all, but it's one of those cases where the first impression counts for a lot and now it's hard to think of Burnstar as anything but another cutesy entry in the pantheon of Angry Birds, Candy Crush Saga and Clash of Clans. They all have the exact same visual style; it's like every American-made pseudo-anime cartoon in the 2000s.

Burnstar has a very loose approximation of a plot - a squad of what I can only describe as "Pyro Babies: The Team Fortress 2 Spin-off That Never Happened" run around their world attempting to incinerate the toxic goo left behind by a mysterious enemy. The goo and the crates containing them are strewn around every area of the forest, and it's down to these conflagration experts to figure out the optimal way of torching every last trace of the malignant fluid. I might wonder why the developers chose a forest as the first setting, since I can scarcely conceive of a less flammable location for a bunch of firestarters, but maybe the game artists are really into drawing forests. Or it's a weird ironic goof that no-one remarks upon.

At any rate, there's a considerable number of rules that should be obeyed in order to determine where these optimal bomb placements are. They mostly stem from understanding how the game's fire physics work:

• An object of a certain value will spread fire to any adjacent object of equal or lesser value. Value, in this case, also corresponds to height from the ground: a medium box won't light a large box on fire, but a large will a medium. It goes large red, medium orange, small yellow and then the loose purple goo itself.
• Certain crates will explode when ignited. Orange crates will explode one space in every direction around them, and red ones will explode two spaces in every direction. The bombs themselves also have a one space area of effect. Destructible objects like cracked walls can only be destroyed by explosions, not fire.
• If a crate regardless of its size is surrounded by fire on at least three sides, it'll ignite no matter what. There's a lot of situations where a crate will be surrounded by loose goo, and it's by igniting that goo that you can easily destroy the crate.
• As well as getting roasted by any open flames or explosions caused by the bombs and crates, there are usually a few stage hazards that can kill you. Naturally, you want to avoid all of it, as it forces you to restart the stage. Each of the four characters you can choose from have a separate ability that helps you avoid damage, from a shield to clones to temporarily freezing hazards in place.
• Stars are required to complete the level. Specifically, something in the region of 60-85% of the stars in the level are needed to achieve a satisfactory rating. Collecting all 100% earns a gold rating. A similar system exists for destroying a percentage of targets (crates, goo, etc.).
• Finally, you have a time limit on every stage too. This is just another rating, so you can choose to ignore it. That's what I've been doing. I hate it when puzzle games centered around carefully and deliberately choosing your next move also force you to hurry up at the same time. If you decide to go this route, Burnstar's (the orange guy) dash move is the worst for staying alive but the best for time trials.
• Collectible saplings? Question mark?

That's about the extent of the game mechanics up to this point. It all makes more sense when you see the game in action via that Quick Look I linked to or in the screenshots scattered around this blog. Each stage becomes a several step process of figuring out how to get all the bombs on the stage - you don't start with any, so finding them lying around is the only way to blow anything up - and then ascertaining where those bombs should go. It largely involves following the chain reaction in your mind back to its most likely origin point - usually a box that won't be destroyed in the chain reaction itself but can trigger the rest of it to happen if blown up first. You also need to be wary of star imprints on the ground; these only turn into stars if an explosion occurs on that spot, so it's often a good indicator of where you need to set your bombs. And then that's pretty much been the whole game so far, excepting one mediocre boss fight that was clearly styled on Pac-Man and doesn't merit further mention.

I'm fairly torn with this one. I managed to complete the first of what I presume are four worlds based on the achievement descriptions, and while I appreciate the depth of strategy involved I'm not sure how much more the game has to offer. It still has at least one other power-up up its hazmat suit sleeves - a rocket, which I'm guessing acts as a bomb that you fire in a direction rather than place on the ground - but if the game turns out to be a series of very similar but far harder puzzles, there's not a whole lot about that prospect that appeals. I'll stick with it tomorrow until it becomes evident that it's run out of ideas, and then I might temporarily bow out and move onto something else. Who knows? Maybe Burnstar will keep tossing around novel twists on its formula for the rest of the playthrough. I can certainly hope that'll be the case.

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