Starlink: Battle for Atlas Reviews
Before you know it, Starlink turns playing with toys into something that feels an awful lot like work.
Starlink has a good playful foundation, but it has been sacrificed to a generic Open World approach and rampant recycling. Atlas is all about mass instead of class - it's a shame about the great Toys-to-Life approach.
Review in German | Read full review
Starlink: Battle for Atlas draws you in with fast responsive controls, but quickly dulls out with its mundane tasks.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Instead of forcing story-based planet missions into a game that doesn't have an interesting story, Starlink should have doubled down on space combat. If it did, the flaws in the story would have been outshined by the constant joy experienced while dogfighting in space.
Starlink: Battle for Atlas can't decide whether to take its toys-to-life concept seriously, or drop it completely. It has a good, if somewhat repetitive, open world experience to offer, but it's held back by mistakes that aren't entirely its own fault.
Starlink: Battle for Atlas is a fun, arcade-y revival of the spaceship shooter that's been filled out with a lot of extra open world stuff - both the good and the bad.
A muddled mess of good intentions and corporate greed that ruins a promising space adventure with needless repetition and horribly expensive toys to life gimmicks.
Frustrating platform elements and rote missions prevent Starlink from being as good as its promise deserves.
Starlink: Battle for Atlas has moments of exciting combat, neat customization, and some engaging mechanics. However, this new intergalactic action adventure suffers an engine misfire due to a ton of repetition, occasionally awkward controls, and a lackluster story.
Colorful and action-packed Space Opera with witty toys-to-life component. There are deductions for the outrageous pricing policy.
Review in German | Read full review
Starlink is a fun game, with great toys to play with and solid combat to back it up. Unfortunately, the sloppy story and barren explorable worlds hold back what could have been a great return to form for the toys-to-life genre.
It’s a clever take on a somewhat redundant genre, and it’s hard not to be impressed initially with Starlink: Battle For Atlas. Despite some serious repetition there’s a whole lot to like here and the Star Fox content makes the Switch version the one to get, if you want it. Its the closest thing to a Nintendo Switch Star Fox but I suspect you could see it in bargain bins before too long.
Take away the toys and you still have an exciting adventure awaiting you in Starlink: Battle for Atlas.
I recommend giving this game a shot. Minus a few flaws, it can captivate you in certain ways that other space exploration titles have failed to do. And if you’re a fan of plastic toys? Even more of a reason for you to get your hands on Starlink: Battle for Atlas. It’s not the greatest, but it does what it’s supposed to and it does it right.
Starlink: Battle for Atlas is an open world space shooter that is aimed at the younger market by combining toys with gameplay in an interesting way. Actual gameplay is not groundbreaking and gets repetitive after a while, but the way the game integrates with the toys at your disposal is quite innovative and fun, provided you have enough options available.
A fun game which looks and plays really well, but suffers from a repetitive structure and a mediocre story.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Starlink is a simple game, but that’s not necessarily bad.
Overall, Starlink: Battle for Atlas is at odds with itself. Even if it has some cool mechanics, solid controls and plenty to do, there isn't enough diversity, story is underwhelming and the entry level experience is pretty limited. Even with all the content you're still better off going digital than physical, since the toy concept falls flat. Despite this, the Star Fox content is solid and it really is a fun game in short bursts. So, if you're looking for exploration game with plenty of small tasks, it's a solid choice, where as if you're hoping for the next big thing, this isn't it.
Starlink: Battle For Atlas is a fun game that adults and children alike will enjoy. The planets are beautiful and the amount of customisations that can be made in the game is impressive. Ultimately, the missions get a little bit repetitive and the Nintendo Switch version leaves a little bit to be desired in the visuals department, but as far as Star Fox goes, this is better than most Star Fox games in recent times.
Starlink: Battle for Atlas preserves some of the complexity that makes deep space sims so rewarding by striking a healthy between fidelity and delight; a complicated toys-to-life scheme may dampen the experience for some, however.