Scramble Star Crossing Preview: When the Stars Align
When the stars align, it spells trouble for your enemies.
Puzzle games are often hit-and-miss for many players. Sometimes the difficulty spike is too aggressive, other times the game is too simple, or the game becomes so streamlined that it could seemingly play itself. Happily, Scramble Star Crossing is like a shooting star leaping through the sky, defying the laws of mundane and creating an absolute blast of a demo!
Scramble Star Crossing, by developers Dusk Sharp, is an action-puzzle game where the objective is to clear as many stars from your board as you can, all the while causing chaos to your enemies’ star board. In order to accomplish this, players must create links of three or more stars of the same color. However, simply clearing out your stars isn't enough to win the day. Perform a clear of three or more stars while another link is clearing and you start to create a chain. The larger the chain, the more havoc you inflict on your opponents. This compounding chain system takes a minute to acclimate to, but once you’re locked in, you immediately start thinking four steps ahead.
My time with the demo for Scramble Star Crossing had me experimenting with the gameplay and how boundless the possibilities were with the chaining system. This, plus each of the five playable characters having their own special move, really had me focused on testing out which abilities I liked and which characters I wanted to focus my skills on.
With this, there is also a Story Mode, which offers some context for the gameplay. As a Star Clearer, players are given the ability to float and manipulate the star-storms that inhabit the airspace of your world. Though the story wasn’t the main focus of the demo, it was a fun way to meet all the characters that were playable and see the silly characters interact and engage with each other.
That being said, my favorite part of the game was the Versus mode. I was able to play Scramble Star Crossing at Anime NYC this year as well as Play NYC last year in-person to really get the 1-Vs-1 experience. The thrill of competing with someone right next to you, while whimsically thrash talking, exponentially elevated the experience and was a clear highlight of the game’s potential.
Though there is no firm release date, I excitedly await the 1.0 version and all that comes with it. If you’re at all a fan of the chaos of changing your friends to oblivion, look no further than Scramble Star Crossing!
Preview by Harry Loizides