StarPagga

You don't have to venture to a galaxy far, far away for melodrama and space antics. StarPagga provides plenty of both, even if it could benefit from the star power of an iconic villain like Darth Vader.

This high flying space shooter does share something with the dastardly figure: something great lies underneath a tough mask. StarPagga is too hard for its own good, but break through its difficulty and you're rewarded with excellent aerial action.

Placing you in the gear of a fighter pilot in the forward assault Azure Squadron, the game follows a galactic war against an unknown alien race. Surprise sorties launched by alien raiders prompt you into action just outside Earth's orbit, after which you travel deeper into the solar system to destroy massive enemy bases and confront an armada of nimble fighter ships.

The 12-mission single player campaign begins in earnest with a tutorial that does a fine job of acclimating you to the accelerometer controls and touch-based attack systems.

Tilting your handset steers your ship, while its velocity is handled via a vertical gauge on the right side of the screen. Tapping on the gauge adjusts the speed accordingly. Alternatively, a touch control scheme is offered that employs a virtual D-pad, though it's inferior to the accelerometer.

In an interesting twist, the game allows you to choose from four vessels instead of forcing you to fly a stock ship. Each provides a slightly different configuration that emphasises speed, agility, or firepower.

The Avenger craft, for instance, holds more missiles and has accelerated target systems, whereas the Resilient possesses greater shielding at cost of speed. While the variations are predictable, the choice is welcome and adds depth to the game.

Lasers, fired off with a tap of the lower-right corner, provide unlimited basic firepower. Lock-on missiles offer more bang, though are limited in supply. Early missions can be quickly completed by zeroing-in on enemies with missiles, but as the enemy count grows higher in later skirmishes you're forced to rely on laser fire to get the job done. That gradual weaning gives StarPagga much of its challenge, even if it goes to an extreme.

About halfway through the campaign, things turn frustratingly difficult. Large numbers of enemy ships make it extremely challenging to stay alive and the number of objects cluttering the battlefield heightens the risk of a fatal crash.

This isn't an issue in multiplayer, which offers impressive team-based play for up to six both online and locally. The ability to choose from a handful of environments, set the match length, and even password-protect games is ideal.

Only the lack of players is a problem, making it near impossible to get a game going online. Ideally, more players will begin popping online so as to make multiplayer a real option for those times when you're fed up with the uneven difficulty of the campaign (which is likely to be often).

Assuming this happens, the only serious flaw pertains to the game's steep difficulty curve. StarPagga is one of the best-looking, tightest tuned aerial shooters on the device, yet the ridiculously hard campaign prevents unfettered enjoyment. Fix this and it could very well be the daddy of handheld space shooters.