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Starri 2.0 - loss of gameplay & addition of sensory ovefload

Starri

I am writing to express my incredible dissatisfaction with the Starri 2.0 “upgrade”, which has made the game unplayable as compared with the original.

Specifically, selecting songs is now a sensory overload experience. The screen is filled with extraneous information (why take up screen space with a barcode) and the sound effects are unnecessary and loud, as is the animation. This sensory overload experience continues throughout the new version of the game.

In addition, while playing the game, there are huge losses in the gameplay itself — the inability to change the character location between near and far (instead defaulting to making the character GIANT, thus obscuring the incoming notes) and the very stilted dancing gameplay by forcing the balls to remain at the end of the hands are two examples of huge losses that I cannot improve by simply turning down the volume or turning off the irritating, overpowering sound effects and cut scenes. The new symbols are also a loss. The new red X manages to simultaneously be jarring, contributing to sensory overload, and also less clear as where to avoid. The replacement diamonds for the prior “sticks” are harder to recognize and differentiate from the other symbols.

I discovered that I am apparently just one of the many, many angry Nex customers whose postings I found online when I searched Starri 2.0 after discovering that my favorite game had morphed into a sensory overload experience that was more difficult, less smooth, and much less fun to play. This is not an issue of change being hard, which it is — this is an issue of the fundamental components of the game being left on the cutting room floor by a company from which I expected much more. I have been singing the praises of the Nex Playground, and my family is directly responsible for at least 4 other families purchasing one in the past 8 months since we got ours. However, unless Starri is returned to a more playable game, quickly, the instead of promoting the Nex to others, I will become someone who lets our play pass expire.

I hope you are hearing, loud and clear, how many components of Starri the company fundamentally broke in the 2.0 upgrade, and that you return the essential components of Starri 1.0 to the “new” version promptly.

Posted by NexPlayerFam ·
3 comments

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Comments3

  • Aleesha Haskett

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    Sep 1

    Well said. It's like you were reading my mind.

  • NexPlayerFam

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    Sep 1

    I have now played more songs and am even more disappointed. I turned off the crowd because it was annoying and distracting, but yet every song still starts with the crowd cheering (constantly, and does not stop until you slash down — it’s irritating and over stimulating) unless I turn off SFX, but I like hearing the slashes as I dance. Every cut screen is overstimulating (I turned off the cut scenes, but the “Starri” screen between EVERY screen selection now flashes with yellow and black without the ability to turn this off). When I choose a song, a character on the screen dances around and makes noise for no reason, and the “Let’s Go” button flashes with the background pulsating. There is a spinning record on the song selection screen that is distracting/overstimulating and takes up space, so the actual song info is now much smaller. And the song info on the ticket inexplicably also rotates back and forth and has background “shine” that is all visually distracting and unnecessary. The tunnels are harder to see and both the tunnels and X’s flash for no good reason (also cannot turn this off — and tbh the default should be that ALL of these overstimulating, unnecessary visuals and audio settings are all OFF and one can turn on “overstimulate” mode if you want). I am also experiencing what others have reported, that the arm circles do not register correctly, causing loss of perfect… which I can no longer see because the rainbow colored number for the combo looks nearly identical to the pastel-colored full combo without perfect. I have adjusted settings, and I remain extremely disappointed, and honestly am baffled as to how the development team didn’t anticipate ANY of these issues. Next time, do a bunch of focus groups of current Nex users, don’t just chase the next shiny thing. Please promptly fix every issue that you created with this “upgrade”.

    • Aleesha Haskett

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      Sep 1

      I agree