5 games to play after Hello Stars
Drawing lines
Hello Stars has been lurking around the top of the App Store on both sides of the Atlantic of late, and it's also out on Android.
To be perfectly honest, I'm not entirely sure why. Having downloaded the game, it's a rather rudimentary physics-based line-drawer with an uninspired design.
Sure, there's some fun to be had with it, but this sort of thing has been done loads of time before - and much better at that.
I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade here, merely to point out some top alternatives to play once you're finished with Hello Stars.
1
Max & the Magic Marker - Remastered
Hello Stars is all about drawing in level elements to help a ball a star - ramps, pushy things... more ramps.
Max & the Magic Marker takes that premise and places it in a fully fledge platform-adventure. You're literally drawing in elements of this rich comic book world, dropping weights onto see-saws and bridges across ravines.
It's way cleverer and more interesting than Hello Stars, basically.
2
Bridge Constructor Portal
Bridge Constructor Portal is a game that ostensibly has you doing the same thing as Hello Stars - drawing out platforms to steer an object from one point to the other.
But that's a bit like saying Love Island and Lost are both TV programmes set on a beautiful island.
Bridge Constructor is a way more involved and nuanced experience, with multiple components and advanced construction principles at play beneath its intuitive UI.
3
Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage
It's not a like-for-like alternative, as such, but Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage scratches a similar itch to Hello Stars. Only it's much, much, MUCH better.
You're still drawing lines in order to crash one thing into another here. This time, though, you're slicing up icy structures to slide vikings towards their boat.
It's all thoroughly charming and surprisingly varied, and it's also a chance to see where Nitrome's imperious mobile reign began all those years ago.
4
Cut the Rope 2
Here's another classic physics puzzler that has you drawing lines to send a ball towards the level exit.
This time you're slicing the bits of string that hold a sweet in place so that it swings into the grateful gob of a cute critter.
We would have thought that everyone had played Cut the Rope by now, but the success of Hello Stars makes us think that some young whipper snappers haven't. We're not having that.
5
Polar Rollout
I reviewed this little game earlier in the year and found it to be a decent, if deeply uninspired line-drawing game.
Next to Hello Stars, though, it's almost a masterpiece.
Just like the current hit, it's all about drawing in level elements to guide a ball-shaped object to the level exit. But it's far cuter and more involved here, and the physics system is way more convincing.
