Starlink: Battle For Atlas review: Physical toy spaceships and modern video games collide

IT MIGHT not boldly go where no game has gone before, but this is the gaming equivalent of a Saturday morning cartoon.

TOY rocket ships and spacefighters have been a staple of childhood bedrooms since the 1930s or so — but since it’s nearly the third decade of the 21st century, it makes sense to combine them with modern gaming consoles as well.

“Toys to life” isn’t a new concept in gaming — the Skylanders games have been around since 2011, for example — but publisher Ubisoft have decided it’s something they want to have a crack at too.

Starlink: Battle For Atlas is aimed at the six to 12 age group and perfectly captures the feeling of being the hero of your own action cartoon. Best of all, it’s age-appropriate, so there is nothing objectionable in there — no excessive violence, no swearing, even death is handled obliquely.

Overall, the actual game itself is pretty good too — sort of a cross between No Man’s Sky and Mass Effect in a way, with a plot involving the player’s crew — the Starlink Initiative — visiting the Atlas star system about their ship, The Equinox, in search of an energy source called Nova.

Aliens known as the Legion ambush the ship and the captain is captured, causing the ship to crash and requiring the player’s extended tutorial to get the ship flying again.

The antagonist is the Legion commander Grax, who combines a mysterious mask with a plumage of feathers. Grax is also obsessed with the Wardens, a vanished and powerful race who left behind a lot of mysterious technology which he wants for his own purposes.

In Starlink: Battle For Atlas, kids can become the hero of their own action cartoon.

It’s nothing new plot-wise, but the game is aimed at kids and does a good job of presenting itself in an engaging way without talking down to younger gamers.

As a gaming parent myself, finding things I can play with my six-year-old son is a challenge at the best of times, so having a game that’s not only suitable for him, but set up so I can play as well, is a welcome addition to the gaming landscape.

Starlink features split-screen co-op — a feature sorely missing from many games nowadays — and means that friends, siblings, parents, caregivers and even grandparents can join in and be involved as well.

The Nintendo Switch version of the game comes with the added bonus that it includes characters from the legendary Star Fox series of games — notably pilot Fox McCloud and his starfighter the Arwing.

As well as having Fox and his ship as playable elements, other members of the Star Fox squadron are in the Switch game too — a nice tie in that continues Ubisoft and Nintendo’s long history of collaboration. Due to the console’s limitations, however, the graphics aren’t as impressive as the Xbox One and PS4 versions, so there’s a trade-off in that sense — more content vs better graphics.

The toy ships, pilots and weapons can all be hot-swapped in-game and while the toys are an engaging addition to the proceedings, they’re not actually necessary and it’s entirely possible to complete the game with just the starter ship. Having said that, having multiple ships and weapons available does make things easier, as each ship essentially represents a “life” — hot-swapping damaged ships during boss battles means you don’t have to go back to the main ship and start the mission again, effectively.

The Nintendo Switch version of the game comes with an extra level.

In fact, the toys are basically optional — it is entirely possible to play the game entirely digitally, with no toys attached. The extra ships and weapons are unlocked like traditional DLC (ie, you have to pay for them), and they do come in handy.

The ship controls and combat mechanics are very good, and the transition from planet to space is well done and seamless; it’s a great feeling being able to fly around on a planet battling enemies and helping outposts, then blast into space, fly through asteroids and battle outlaws, before visiting another planet and undertaking new adventures there.

Being about 20 years outside the target demographic, however, I figured it would be helpful to get a younger view on the game — namely, my six-year-old son.

He loved the game and the toys — he found the characters relatable and likeable, and soon settled on a favourite (Judge, the alien). He particularly liked being able to hot-swap pilots, ships and weapons on the fly.

He also liked that the controls were fairly straightforward, and the bad guys were obviously bad without being scary.

The game allows you to battle enemies on a planet, before blasting into space to new adventures.

It was pretty clear to him when a flamethrower was not working (such as against lava monsters) and that swapping it out with something else would be a good idea, and he also liked the combination effect some of the weapons created — for example, matching a vortex cannon and a frost missile barrage could create a snow vortex.

I was impressed with how well made the toys were, too — indeed, after playing the game my son enjoyed playing with the toys separately as stand-alone ships and pilots.

The reality is buying all the ships — either physically or digitally — is going to add markedly to the cost of the game, so as a parent it’s worth weighing up if that’s a road you want to potentially find yourself going down.

Sure, Starlink: Battle For Atlas isn’t great art and doesn’t boldly go where no game has gone before, for the most part, but it doesn’t need to. It’s the gaming equivalent of a Saturday morning cartoon (remember those?) and it does what it set out to do extremely well.

It’s aimed at younger gamers, so those of us old enough to legally drive or buy alcohol may not get quite as much out of it as someone still in primary school, but frankly there aren’t enough games for that age group which manage to combine action and adventure while still keeping things G-rated but interesting.

Junior gamers and space adventurers have to blast off somewhere and as long as you keep the additional costs of the toys in mind, Starlink: Battle For Atlas is a great launch pad with a lot of potential.

I was impressed with how well made the toys were.

- Royce Wilson is a freelance games writer for news.com.au. Follow him on Twitter @Royce Wilson

Originally published as Starlink: Battle For Atlas review: Physical toy spaceships and modern video games collide