Starlight 2 & Starlight Xmas (review) — Free Kongregate games with badges

Starlight 2 – 2 badges, 20 points

Starlight Xmas – 1 badge, 5 points

If I only had one word to describe the Starlight games, it would have to be tedious. The gameplay for both games is virtually identical. You are presented with a field of stars connected by lines, and must rotate the field in 360º space to form a picture. The pictures in Xmas are obviously Christmas-themed, while in Starlight 2 the images are a random collection of generic objects and occasional pop culture figures.

I have to give credit to the developers, in that Starlight certainly is an interesting toy and my first few levels were genuinely enjoyable. However, there is no increased challenge or sense of progress as you move through the levels, so they quickly become tiresome.

Classic mode in Starlight Xmas has 30 levels. To get the game’s sole badge, you’ll need complete the game with 200,000 points. Points are rewarded based on how long it takes you to solve each puzzle, and I was able to easily reach 200,000 with a few levels to spare. If you somehow don’t reach 200,000 by the last level, you’ll need to complete the game over from the beginning.

Classic mode in Starlight 2 has a whopping 95 levels. There is no point requirement this time; simply complete every level to earn the easy badge.

To earn the medium badge, you’ll have to complete the 92 levels of ‘pro mode’ as well. Pro mode is exactly the same as classic mode except you also have to rotate the image to stand upright after you solve it. This doesn’t add any challenge to game, just an extra chore, and most of the images are repeats from classic mode. Worst of all, some of the images are at an angle when they’re positioned “correctly,” so you just have to rotate them little by little until you have them where the game wants them.

Both games also have an extra mode that is not necessary for earning either badge. In Xmas, you have ‘puzzle mode’ which is just connecting the dots, and in Starlight 2 there’s ‘quiz mode’ where you are presented with the same pictures from classic minus the lines and need to choose fr0m four options what the picture is. Some are so obvious as to be pointless, while the ones that could be more than one answer frankly just feel unfair. Since neither mode is required for the badges, they’re not really worth bothering with.

The best part of these games is that the time commitment is very low. You can easily earn all badges for both games in under 45 minutes, with most of that time dedicated to finishing pro mode.

It’s worth playing a couple levels of Starlight just to see how it works, but past that, the badges are only reason to stick with it.

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