Sometimes, not knowing the source material can be a blessing in disguise. I had no idea that Ella Stars was based on a music-based web animation series on YouTube. It follows Ella and Bird, and Ella Stars sees those characters take on the rhythm action genre in their first game. If I’d have known that going in, I may have skipped over this title, thinking it would be aimed at a very young audience. Whilst there is a no fail mode that will help younger gamers, Ella Stars is a fully fledged and extremely well thought out rhythm action game.
Ella Stars is a 2-lane rhythm game. It doesn’t matter what button you press, but you’ll either need to press one or both buttons, depending on what enemies are running towards you. Think Muse Dash, but cute and without the needless cleavage. Drum enemies need to be hit four times to kill them. Health can be replenished with two hits as the heart flips into the air and comes back down again mid-beat. A disco ball requires a quick 1-2 hit to give your fever meter a boost. Triggering fever lets every hit feel like it’s a perfect hit and boosts your score. Rhythm charts are quite fun because they follow a mixture of drum loops and fills, synth melodies, and vocal syllables. Often, it’ll flip between them in the same line. You’ll tap out the lyrics and then have a drum enemy trigger a drum fill. Miss enemies, and not only do you get a very Michael Jackson sounding “no” sound, but the music’s rhythm and guitar sections fade away to leave just the vocals and keys. It’s a nice way to signal issues and reward immediate correction.
Easy and Medium difficulties have the same rhythm charts that may have different buttons to press because each chart is procedurally generated. Hard and crazy difficulties seem to have more procedural generation points to them. The key difference between each difficulty is that each mistake costs more health as you choose harder difficulties. Hearts are abundant across the game, so I never lost a run, but I did lose my combo an awful lot. There are a lot of hold notes in Ella Stars, with other notes to play whilst holding them. For whatever reason, no matter how hard I try, releasing held notes seems to be a complete lottery as to whether the game thinks I’ve let go in time to the music. Visually, it looks fine. Sonically, it sounds fine. I played around with the calibration repeatedly and swapped from controller face buttons to controller bumpers to keyboard settings – the same issue occurred. It feels like the release of a held note is being judged differently compared to every other note in the game, either earlier, later, or more accurately than anything else. It ruined my combo constantly, and I’d say well over 90% of my missed notes came from this. I hope it is rectified post-launch, because it is the only issue the game has. Even with it, it won’t stop you from completing songs and exploring the entire game… but I want my high scores!
Without a doubt, the best thing about Ella Stars is its original soundtrack. There are 30 songs, and they are split between 90s Hip Hop, 90s RnB, and late 00’s electronic pop. They often reference pop hits very briefly in the lyrics or a keyboard motif, and I found myself nodding along and acknowledging these homages to those chart hits. There is a playground lyricism to a lot of the songs, especially the raps, that reminds me of Parappa the Rapper. It’s childish in many ways, but it commits to the bit so hard that it never feels cringeworthy or uncomfortable. Instead, it is uplifting and joyful… well, most of the time. Some of the lyrics seem to bully Ella at times, but then she’ll kick their arse at the end of the song anyway.
That leads me to the last two fun things about the game. Each song has a unique boss that’ll turn up after halfway or two-thirds in. They’ll charge at Ella and require a button mash to push back, but crucially, they’ll come with different ways to distract you. Maybe the rhythm chart is shorter, partially see-through, or obstructed by something. Maybe they’ll put you behind a screen of water, or move the chart up the screen so it no longer matches where you expect it to be. It makes bosses feel like they impact gameplay, and I enjoyed their inclusion. If you get their health down to zero before the song ends, you are then given a randomised four-button prompt. These come from your two buttons and two others assigned elsewhere on the keyboard or controller. This kept tripping me up, as I was so zoned into using just two buttons. Get those right, and your score can increase up to x1.10. It’s a nice addition, and the random nature of it keeps you on your toes.
Ella Stars is a fun, approachable, flow state style of rhythm game that eases you in by letting you make loads of mistakes and then slowly draws up the bridge to make you better over time. The hold button release issue aside, this is a steal at its £4.29 price point. If you enjoyed Radio Hammer Station, Muse Dash, or Parappa the Rapper, Ella Stars should be next on your list.
A review code for Ella Stars was provided by the developer. Ella Stars is out for PC now.
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