' Are you confident your ship can get in and out undetected?' 'We don't call it the Ghost for nothing.'
―Jan Dodonna and Hera SyndullaThe Ghost was a modified owned by the that was used by the rebel cell during the. As part of the rebellion, the Ghost saw actions on numerous missions and skirmishes against the forces of the. The Ghost also had an auxiliary vessel called the that could double as both a and a. Following the Phantom 's destruction at, the Spectres obtained a replacement shuttle in the form of the. Contents DescriptionThe Ghost 's schematics.The Ghost was a modified originally made by the. It was named by Hera for her ability to evade Imperial sensors.
The main thrust of Star Ghost is that it can be played with one button. Rather than being able to move your circular space craft about the stage it's. Fly the Ghost across the galaxy and raid Imperial shipments for the growing rebellion!
Although an old vessel with a few dogfight battle scars from the Empire, it still performed reliably. The ship had a nose station underneath the section, with a dedicated gunner seat, and a 360-degree dorsal laser cannon turret midships. There were four main cargo holds.
The vessel had a crew section at the front half, with the two forward-facing cargo holds making up the forward corners of the ship.The Ghost was equipped with both port and starboard docking rings, like a majority of designs. If there was no nose gunner available, the pilot could operate the nose turret from the cockpit. Additionally, the dorsal turret could be operated from the cockpit via an socket, or with a set of controls at the pilot's seat. Behind the cockpit was the crew's quarters, consisting of four private rooms.
By the engine arrays were the two rear-facing main cargo holds which made up the rear corners of the ship.The Ghost had engines which were baffled, energy dampeners, and static to make it hard to detect. These features and over eighty-seven illegal upgrades to the Ghost 's stealth systems allowed the freighter to mimic solar fluctuations or cosmic radiation on many sensors. The Ghost had enough forward firepower to destroy. During the ship's use as part of the early rebellion against the, its captain Hera Syndulla escaped Imperial forces numerous times by activating its without charting a path with the ship's onboard, relying on luck to avoid running into asteroids or supernovae.
The astromech droid C1-10P 'Chopper' frequently got into arguments with the Ghost 's navicomputer when sending it commands, with the Ghost finding the droid very rude and pushy.On the roof of the ship, in the back, rested a called the. This versatile craft performed double-duty doubled as both a and, and triple-duty as the Ghost 's aft gun armament when docked tail-forward.
Although the Phantom was destroyed during a, the replaced it with the, a commandeered during a.History Age of the Empire Before the rebellion. ' Let's go somewhere.' ―Kanan Jarrus upon entering the Ghost for the first timeAt least six years before harboring the Spectres and eight years after the, the Ghost would end up in the possession of, an idealistic daughter to resistance leader and leader of both the. Hera, her astromech droid C1-10P and her starship the Ghost would travel across the galaxy to rendezvous with political activists and dissenters against the Empire in hopes of eventually forming a resistance movement in the far future. Accidentally meeting with survivor Caleb Dume—known as —during the events of the, the two would ultimately save the planet and its moon.
Sometime following the events of the conflict, the Ghost would become home to ex- student and former, and would strike out on a campaign of anti-Imperial activities on the distant agricultural world of. The SpectresThe Ghost performing a '22 pickup' on KesselAround this time, the crew embarked on a number of missions, usually on Lothal. During one such heist, Jarrus and Syndulla decided to raid an Imperial supply convoy. However, they were chased by several, and in the midst of the battle the shields of the Ghost were disabled. While Chopper was ordered to repair them, the crew noticed that communications were down, which Chopper was again asked to fix. However, Jarrus countermanded the order and told the droid to focus on the shields instead.
During the struggle, Jarrus managed to destroy one of the TIE fighters that was chasing them, with the dorsal turret, and Syndulla, who was piloting the Ghost, was able to maneuver behind another and destroy it using the forward cannons. Chopper then took control of the Phantom 's cannons himself and used them to destroy the last one.During another such mission, the Ghost was captured and needed to escape from the Imperials on Lothal.
Wren an airbase with the call-sign Spectre Five. She was able to deploy a, allowing the Ghost to slip away undetected. The Lothal orphan later joined the crew, after which, he earned his place amongst the crew when he helped them rescue several from the mines of. The Ghost then traveled to the planet where the Spectres stole a shipment of from the Empire to sell to the and black marketeer.
The Ghost then rendezvoused with the to return and to their. Harrying the Empire on Lothal. ' This is my ship you're wrecking and I want you off it!' ―Hera SyndullaEzra training aboard the GhostWhile living aboard the Ghost, Ezra shared a room with Zeb and the two frequently quarreled with each other.
Following a fight, Hera sent Ezra and Zeb to buy some in the Lothalian town of. After running into Imperial entanglements, the two stole a TIE starfighter and embarked on a little adventure. After supposedly destroying the fighter, Ezra and Zeb returned to the Ghost as friends.Later, Kanan gave Ezra his first Jedi lesson while the Ghost was hovering over the skies of Lothal. Since Ezra was not concentrating, he almost plummeted to his death. Following that lesson, the Ghost traveled to the planet where the was supposedly imprisoned in a fortified prison called the. While Hera and Chopper waited aboard the Ghost, Kanan and the other rebels flew down to the planet in the Phantom.
However, this turned out to be a trap set by the and the rebels narrowly escaped with their lives.Following their adventure on Stygeon Prime, Hera and Kanan flew the Ghost on a raid against a convoy of transporting a large. While Hera flew the Ghost and attacked the cruiser carrying the crystal, Kanan flew the Phantom and distracted the TIE fighter escorts. Hera and Kanan were aided by Ezra, who had infiltrated the at Lothal's.
Later, the Ghost rendezvoused with the rest of the team outside Capital City where they were joined by a Force-sensitive cadet named. Hera arranged for Kell and his mother to be moved to into hiding.The Ghost and Phantom escaping the destruction of an Imperial convoyLater, the Ghost took part in a rescue mission on the asteroid after Hera and Sabine were stranded there and surrounded. The Phantom had sustained a fuel leak during a skirmish with TIE fighters. After evacuating Hera, Sabine, and the Phantom, the rebels fled into space. On, the Ghost was used by its rebel crew to flee Lothal's Capital City after they disrupted the Empire Day celebrations and rescued the fugitive, a wearing a cybernetic implant containing vital information on Imperial operations in Lothal.The Ghost was then pursued by TIE fighters led by the Inquisitor. After sustaining some damage, the ship managed to jump into due to Tseebo transmitting the coordinates.
However, the Inquisitor had succeed in planting a on the Phantom, which was still engaged to the Ghost. In order to protect Tseebo, Kanan and Ezra departed on the Phantom and lured the Inquisitor to PM-1203.
Meanwhile, Hera rendezvoused the Ghost with a mysterious rebel leader named, who arranged for Tseebo to be moved into hiding.
“Star Ghost or the ghost of Flappy Bird?”
After a quick glance at Star Ghost on the eShop, you might be fooled into thinking that this is just another bullet hell-style shoot-em-up; but secretly, deep down, it’s actually Flappy Bird on a mission in space. With guns.
Controlling your ship is simple as you’ve only got to press one button; shooting is automatic, as is your forward motion. The really nice thing about only having one button to worry about is that you can keep your eyes firmly on the action ahead of you. Your focus is around navigating the level rather than navigating the controller.
Along the way, you’ll pick up various power-up’s that make your journey through space far more manageable, which boil down to; credits, fire-rate bonus, fire-spread bonus, traction bonus and health. There is also the inclusion of a nasty virus icon which basically disables your ability to shoot for a while and you can do nothing but dodge what’s coming at you; making your life absolute hell for a few moments in the process.
Every time you pick up one of these power-up’s, the level of whatever it was you picked up is increased and the timer for that element is reset. If you don’t get another power-up before that timer runs down, the element is downgraded by a level, and so on. It’s actually a nice way to keep things moving along without getting too comfortable at any point. Additionally, before starting each level, you are offered some upgrades in exchange for the credits you’ve collected.
Each level is relatively short, which isn’t a bad thing. The ending of each level had me reminiscing about the end of each Super Mario Bros. level; where you have to jump on the flagpole. Here, you’ve got a flagpole with a moving target – hit the target for some much needed extra credits. Each area finishes off with an increasingly more difficult boss battle to test your skill before moving onto the next and as you’d expect, the difficulty of the enemies and terrain is ramped up considerably as you progress through the game.
Avoiding collision is rewarded with score multipliers and score chasing is of course at the heart of this arcade game. Therefore, the lack of any online leaderboards is hugely disappointing and could have been a great hook to keep people coming back for more. The lack of Continues will also frustrate many players.
Star Ghost is good, harmless fun; of that there is little doubt. But when reviewing the game for the Switch, we must not of course judge it solely as a handheld experience. And that’s where it falls short. As a console game, this isn’t good enough. It’s nothing that my iPhone couldn’t play, and as I’ve vented about before, this is a huge problem for me and the vast majority of smaller eShop titles; they’re mobile games.
3
Summary
Star Ghost is a great example of a simple idea executed well. It’s very easy to pick up and play and does feel very rewarding. As a portable-only game, you can probably add a little onto the score, but as a console experience, it just doesn’t have enough to keep you occupied for too long. It’s a good game, it’s just not anything you absolutely have to own.