Stars in the Trash Review (SilverDakota)
A charming little adventure game, 'Stars in the Trash's biggest selling point is obviously it's art. It's a beautiful game, with wonderful character designs, and top-notch animation. There's so many wonderful little details in the characters' movement and in the backgrounds. Even if the style itself isn't your thing, you can't help but admire the skill and dedication behind everything. It really feels like playing through a little animated movie.
You play as an indoor cat finally getting to roam the outside, as you help your friends thwart the evil dog catcher and his army of rats. It may sound a little silly at first, but there's a lot of heart to the story as well. The overall message of the game is quite sweet, and worth a playthrough, in my opinion. It's also done entirely through visual storytelling, without any narration or dialog, which is very impressive. Definitely a game that can be enjoyed by all ages, with a simple but meaningful story.
The gameplay itself is solid. Nothing ground-breaking, of course, but very fun. Most of it is pretty easy, with a couple of more challenging sections that may take a few tries. The game is very forgiving in that aspect though. And of course the environments are just lovely to run through with a lot of things to interact with, like balls to play with and potted plants to knock over.
The game does feel short. It took me a little under two hours to finish it, and over an hour finishing up those last achievements. I think the price is fair for a two hour game; what I mean by 'short' is that it feels like it's missing another level. Some game mechanics are only used very briefly, and I feel like they could've been expanded on in the later half of the game. That said, the main draw of the game is it's art and story, and both those things more then make up for the shortness, in my opinion.
Overall, a sweet little game with a ton of heart. Definitely would recommend playing to anyone who loves a good, classic animal story.