Reviews Home » Action Games » Fastar!

Released: 30 Jul, 2010

Reviewer: Andrew Nesvadba

Version: 1.0.2 Size: 10.0 MB

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Fastar!

$1.99

Save: 80% Action Games1.0.2Cat in a Box Games

PROS

Action-RPG gameplay parody.
Lots of gameplay modes and magic to explore.
Impressive, basic art style with expressive cubes.
Online scoreboards.

CONS

Some game modes are brutally challenging, you have been warned.
Writing this review means I'm not playing Fastar.

VERDICT

Fastar! may be a parody of RPG and action titles, but its strong, simple gameplay beats the pants off just about everything out there while still making your crack a smile.

Video Review

Full Review

If you're a fan of RPGs and especially action RPGs then there's no more to say about Fastar! than to go and check it out now. For everyone else that still needs convincing, Fastar! by Cat in a Box Games is a side-scrolling genre parody of RPG and action titles and from the very moment you start playing you're in for a treat.

Like so many RPGs you're placed in control of an anonymous slayer-of-things with a suitably oversized weapon in tow on a quest to go as far right as possible. There are four control options, varying from swipe based to tilt and even traditional d-pad setups, but the true mind-blowing setup is its one-handed option. Ordinarily gameplay involves running along towards your next enemy, dispensing magic and sword beatings while collecting cash for upgrades, which is just built for landscape orientation, but in one handed mode you play in portrait and maneuver via a treadmill swipe pad and tap to attack.

The parodies don't stop at the presentation either, with each enemy being represented as a colored square. This would be boring if it wasn't for each one having a distinctly unique personality (how does a cube manage to show fear?) that players will need to learn to quickly and efficiently dispatch them. Players can briefly pass through towns to replenish their healthy while new areas quite literally cut between each other as you progress.

Fastar! is unadulterated fun and this will easily become a regular mainstay of anyone's gaming collection; definitely a must try.

App Store Info

--- Opening weekend sale! 50% off! ---Action and Role-Playing in their purest, gleefulest form!Fastar! is the timeless tale of a boy with a big sword and a bowtie journeying across vast lands while being ambushed by malicious geometry. Wait, what, seriously? I'm not typing that, it doesn't make any sense. Oh, look what you made me do. I'll just start over.Fastar! is an Action RPG for when you just don't have time for an Action RPG. Dead simple to pick up and play, you'll be slashing and shopping your way across the grassy plains of [irrelevant flavorful name of fantasy world here] in seconds. You'll cross the world in mere minutes. But mastery of your true objective -- reaching that goal as fast as humanly possible -- could take a lifetime*.Fun for everyone from the casual player who loves to mash buttons, to the hardcore gamer-optimizer who loves to mash numbers, Fastar! will provide you with hours of minutes of seconds of simple arcadey joy.Featured features:- Reasonably adorable hand-drawn graphics!- 24 different game modes for a variety of play experiences, some of which don't actually count!- Global arcade-style high scores lists, where you can become internationally renowned if your full name is three letters or less!- Flashy magic spells for any kind of player, from Daring to Thrifty to Congealed!- A variety of control schemes to suit your particular playing posture! (Astronaut gymnasts excepted)- Sometimes in the background you can see a guy on a unicycle! Look for him, he's nice."It's all about speed and it's ridiculously enjoyable."--Gizmodo"It’s all about distilling the unique fun of RPGs... into mere seconds of play."--PocketGamer"Expected to operate uncomfortable"--WeiPhone.com User Comment (translation c/o Google)"This is a game everyone can, and should enjoy!"--AppAdvice"[A] great cartoon RPG for the iPhone!"--1stimpressions.mobi"What this game has, above all, is that very particular, intangible magic which makes the very few select games rise above the rest."--Gabrien, TouchArcade forums"Fastar is a game that tried to do something different, and managed to get it absolutely right."--TouchAHolics"Pick it up for some great action!"--148Apps"A ridiculous amount of fun!"--TouchArcade Review* Lifetime reference mammal unspecified

Updates

Added more navigation buttons to the high scores screen so you can skip to the top and bottom of the list easily.

Languages

English

Rated 9+ for the following:

Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence

Requirements

Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.
Requires iOS 3.1 or later

Screenshots

Click here to download this app on iTunes!

Comments (3)

rekz (1 year, 3 months ago) Reply

This review is off. There's no way this is a 5star game.

It's more of a humorous novelty game that is 'at most' a 3star game. I played it for free, I deleted it then next day. It didn't have a lot of depth, frankly, and the lackluster graphics (swing a sword at blocks) got dull in just a few minutes for me...

To give this 5 stars and Dungeon Defenders 3 stars shows how some reviews are definitely 'whack' on AppSpy. Dungeon Defenders kicks the crap out of this game in *EVERY* way, period.

andrew (1 year, 3 months ago)

I'll break this down:

1) This was reviewed almost 6 months ago and the App store was a very different beast pre-fourth gen devices.

2) Dungeon Defenders was broken on iDevices that weren't iPads, with extremely poor control designs, horrific framerates and a terrible tutorial system that may as well have been trial and error.

3) Games are reviewed on an individual merit, comparing the score of one game to another is NEVER a good way to compare games as (at best) they're only an indicator of how good the game is/was at the time it was reviewed and a reflection of how well the game was executed.

The fact that Fastar! was still receiving updates long after it was released to help balance the gameplay for better competitive scoring shows just how popular the game is. I'm not saying your opinion is wrong, but rather that individual tastes will always vary. I will invariably like or hate games that the majority of people like or hate in an equal and opposite fashion, but as long as I can demonstrate the reasons for doing so I can only but hope that people understand my position (if not entirely agreeing with it).

So yes, at the time Fastar! was, quite frankly, a clever and original title that played with ARPG conventions in a tongue-in-cheek way while remaining challenging to play. The multiple modes were also immensely clever in their design, giving players a choice of what they enjoyed and allowing them to focus on it.