StarBlood Arena

Solid VR shooter limited by dwindling multiplayer audience.
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StarBlood Arena
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this game.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that StarBlood Arena is a futuristic, arena-based, action/arcade shooter. The bulk of the game focuses on shooting opponents out of the sky in zero-gravity dogfights taking place in confined arenas. The pilots are all diverse and unique but don't have much character development. The game is generally simple to play, though navigating in the VR environment can get disorienting. There's some use of profanity in the game's dialogue and commentary from the match announcers. While StarBlood Arena's focus is combat, there's no real blood or gore, as players instead blow up opponents in large explosions.
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What’s It About?
STARBLOOD ARENA is the wave of the future, a winner-take-all TV show where pilots from every corner of the galaxy come together in wild ship-to-ship combat. Pilots fight for fame, fortune, and their lives in four match types. Stay alive, and you'll get the chance to spend your ill-gotten gains to upgrade and customize your ship as you see fit. After all, a fresh look can lead to fresh viewers, and higher ratings means a higher payday. Just remember that on the StarBlood Network, one wrong move could turn today's MVP into tomorrow's RIP.
Is It Any Good?
This futuristic space shooter is fun but basically falls apart because of the lack of people joining multiplayer matches. In the future, plain old sports just don't seem to bring in the ratings like they used to. Instead, TV viewers want to see crazy vehicles, razor-sharp reflexes, and explosions … lots of explosions. Enter StarBlood Arena, the epic intergalactic sports show that pits players against each other in massive sci-fi dogfights crammed into itty-bitty spaces. In fact, that's one of the drawbacks to this VR shooter. You're tasked to do some fancy flying against a field of opponents, but many of the maps feel a bit claustrophobic. It doesn't help that, thanks to the game's immersive 360-degree VR view, it's easy to lose track of any sense of direction. It's nothing that's overly nauseating, but at the same time, you'll probably want to avoid any marathons in the arena.
While the game does have issues, there's still a lot to love about StarBlood Arena. The pilots are all unique and fun characters, and their ships are equally unique in their strengths and weaknesses. Even with this diversity, there's a good balance across the game. No one character will ever overpower the rest of the field, but no two ever feel the same. There's also a good variety of game types, from basic Deathmatch to a zero-gravity hockey/soccer-type match to some good old-fashioned co-op play against waves of enemy fighters. Single-player challenges exist but feel more like a throwaway, as multiplayer is where the game shines. The problem is actually finding a multiplayer match; you might spend more time waiting for matches than actually playing them.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about violence in media. How does the media portray violence in sports or, taken a step further, as sports? Why is violence in competition so popular?
Talk about rising technologies and their uses. What are some of the ways you see people using technology like VR and motion tracking in entertainment and in other fields?
Game Details
- Platform: PlayStation VR
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Release date: April 11, 2017
- Genre: First-Person Shooter
- Topics: Robots, Space and Aliens
- ESRB rating: T for Violence, Language
- Last updated: April 5, 2021
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