Fine print: Super Stardust PSP missing 'plenty of modes'

by James Ransom-Wiley { Dec 9th 2008 at 2:53PM }

Super Stardust Portable is missing a few "key features." As is, the downloaded PSP game lacks Endless and Bomber Mode (and Survival Mode!), despite these two modes -- "and more" -- being advertised in the description on PlayStation Store, reports IGN. "Extreme weak sauce," declares the site's review. "Yeah! What they said!" we say.

Super Stardust Portable was released last week, nearly 18 months after Super Stardust HD and about five months after that game's last expansion. It's not unreasonable to assume that the $10 port would include the full canon of Stardust gameplay we've seen offered to date. But, as our eighth grade algebra teacher so wisely passed on:

Don't assume, it makes an ass out of u and me.

Tags: psn, super-stardust-portable

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

offday @ Dec 9th 2008 3:15PM

That's freaking ridiculous. Anyone who bought that deserves their money back, considering the description is a flat out lie.

BigD145 @ Dec 9th 2008 3:17PM

False advertising. I guess it's a good thing that all advertising is false so the company can't be held accountable for this.

PS F*U you money grubbing cheapskates

baby sea tuna @ Dec 9th 2008 3:27PM

Who cares about missing modes, I think the fact that the PSP is missing a second stick is going to be the most detrimental to this game's playability (not to mention sales.)

jkrashid @ Dec 9th 2008 3:44PM

U know what the wierd thing is, when u load up the game you can look at the global high scores......one of them is bomber, one is survival, one is impack, other is arcade etci reckon theres gonna be a trophy patch (heres hoping anyway lol!!

Brian @ Dec 9th 2008 3:52PM

Super Stardust HD is one of my favorite shooters of all time so I did not hesitate to get Super Stardust Portable. They did an excellent job of porting the game, the graphics, sound and gameplay are all perfect. If you go to look at your high scores in the game it shows endless as one of the game modes, so I assumed it was unlockable after beating one of the other game modes. I am disappointed to hear it may not be in the game as endless is one of my favorite modes in Super Stardust HD.

Jimmijam @ Dec 9th 2008 9:24PM

How does it play without the second stick? The media's been very quiet to review this one... which is weird considering that a) it's been out for a while now and b) considering the dearth of titles on the PSP this season.

Brian @ Dec 9th 2008 4:50PM

It plays great even without the second stick. I was very concerned that it would be difficult to control your shots using the buttons, but they pulled it off. If you tap rapidly on one of the buttons it causes your shots to spray out as if you were moving the stick back and forth, which works great. Also, the gold melter's direction is interpolated when you move from one button to the next so it feels like it has analog control even though it doesn't. If you push all four buttons at once with the gold melter it will twirl around you, which works great if you are surrounded by lots of asteroids or enemies. If you played Super Stardust HD you should be able to adjust to the new controls very quickly.

Sora @ Dec 9th 2008 7:23PM

Even having never played Super Stardust before, the controls feel really smooth, and I didn't have much trouble getting used to them. The fact that they pulled it off with only one analog on the PSP is a strong point of the game, and really shows how good this developer is compared to other PSP devs, who fail hard at controls.

Span_Wolf @ Dec 9th 2008 4:06PM

Can somebody give me a direct number to call so that I can possibly get some sort of refund? I bought this the moment it came out and then went, "Hey.. where's all my modes?"

Span_Wolf @ Feb 10th 2009 4:40PM

And I just won twice. I called up my CC company and did a charge back, but not only did I get my money back, Sony just sent me an appology email 2 months later with a code for the expansion free.

Tez @ Dec 9th 2008 4:16PM

Interesting that the description is wrong. The blog post on Sony's blog right before the game was released never made any false statements about these modes. Someone's getting fired over this.

Then again, you have the people saying the modes are listed in the high scores...unlockable, perhaps?

Hashbrown Hunter @ Dec 9th 2008 5:03PM

Possibly. But it's more likely Sony deciding to sell the modes as DLC.

Tez @ Dec 9th 2008 5:41PM

That makes sense, too, considering it was paid DLC on the PS3 version.

hplcman @ Dec 9th 2008 4:19PM

Yeah. What's up with the PSP?? Why are there so few new games coming out (especially at this time of year!!!)? I was thinking of picking one up, but now I'm a little nervous about it...

Hashbrown Hunter @ Dec 9th 2008 5:02PM

Piracy. It's probably the most affected gaming platform right behind the PC. The prates have been destroying PSP game sales so publishers are very concerned that their games won't sell. And they have a right to be. The PSP is an excellent system, but when the amount of pirating on the system is staggering enough to slow game releases to a halt, you know there's a major problem.

John @ Dec 10th 2008 5:13AM

You know, I pirate PSP games. Some of them are too shitty to risk $40 on without a trial.

Also, the games I do have I rip to memory stick anyway to conserve battery life and avoid annoying UMD noise.

Hashbrown Hunter @ Dec 10th 2008 7:17AM

Yeah the whole downloading backups thing is actually legal so long as you own a physical copy.

"You know, I pirate PSP games. Some of them are too shitty to risk $40 on without a trial."

Referring to this quote, what about the great games the PSP had this year? God of War and Crisis Core. And also, if you didn't want to waste $40 on those, any pirate could've gone out and bought Patapon and the ridiculously good value of $20. But no, the pirates downloaded Patapon. Can you justify THAT?