Star Raiders

10 cert, Atari, Xbox Live

Some things never change: older generations will despair for the younger ones, people will still continue to watch

the Late Late,

and Atari will, apparently, continue to reboot retro shooters.

Star Raiders

is old fashioned in every sense; the gameplay is reminiscent of shooters from the 1980s (particularly the vector-graphic

Star Wars

arcade game), the graphics are nice but simple, and the characters and script are a shopping list of clichés. Feel free to read the expository text if you enjoy phrases like “Her fiery spirit is driven by the loss of her father”. Thankfully the gameplay, while simplistic, isn’t bad. Seen from behind in a third-person (third spaceship?) point-of-view, your opjective is simply to hit other spacecraft and projectiles more than they hit you. There are the usual weapon upgrades.

Star Raiders

playable enough, even if it’s a universe away from being innovative.