Category: Starbear: Taxi

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Starbear: Taxi is Flying Towards A PlayStation VR Release

Developer Funktronic Labs have cultivated a reputation for creating titles that have their own unique sense of style and aesthetics, clearly seen in the 60s stylings of its first virtual reality (VR) title, Cosmic Trip, and again in the cute cartoon world of Starbear: Taxi. PlayStation VR users will soon get to experience that world for themselves with the announcement hat Starbear: Taxi will soon be heading to Sony’s VR headset.

The objective of Starbear: Taxi is to zoom around a colourful, cartoonish sci-fi world in a flying saucer, picking up people and taking them to their destination. Those familiar with Crazy Taxi or the Grand Theft Auto taxi missions should be familiar with the set-up.

The player takes the role of the adorable bear pilot/taxi driver, who needs to collect as many fares as possible in an allotted time. It isn’t always as simple as taking the customer from Point A to Point B, as there are opportunities to increase your score by following certain routes, helpfully laid out by floating honey pots.

While the cuddly-looking bears seem to mostly want you to succeed, there are other less-friendly animals lurking about, who will seek to slow you down with hazards such as giant magnets, or even firing enormous rockets as you in an attempt to blow you to bits.

As well as the main campaign there are other game modes to try out, such as the ‘Single Life’ challenge mode, or the Bullet Hell projectile dodging.

Earlier this year the VRFocus team reviewed the PC VR version of Starbear: Taxi, giving it good marks and saying: “Starbear: Taxi skirts a fine line quirky VR puzzler and short tech demo. Thankfully it leans more towards the former, offering an amusingly addictive experience that can actually draw you in for some time. It’s not on the same level as Cosmic Trip yet for those after a quick and simple time killer its ideal.”

Starbear Taxi gameplayimage

Starbear: Taxi is due to launch on PlayStation VR in November 2018. The trailer is available to view below. For further coverage on new and upcoming VR titles, keep checking back with VRFocus.

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Starbear: Taxi für Rift, Vive und Windows MR-Brillen veröffentlicht

Das Entwicklerstudio Funktronic Labs hat ihren bärigen VR-Titel Starbear: Taxi für Oculus Rift, HTC Vive und Windows-Mixed-Reality-Brillen auf Steam veröffentlicht. Innerhalb des rasanten Spiels müsst ihr tierische Fahrgäste mit allerlei Sonderwünschen schnellstmöglich mit eurem virtuellen Taxi ans Ziel befördern.

Starbear: Taxi – Rasanter Taxi-Wettlauf gegen die Zeit

Starbear: Taxi spielt im Jahr 3064 in einer Welt, in der die Menschheit durch knuddelige Bären ersetzt wurde. Der Alltagsstress und das muntere Stadttreiben spielt auch in der Bärenwelt eine große Rolle, weshalb die Bevölkerung schnellstmöglich umherreisen muss. Hier kommt ihr ins Spiel, denn in der Rolle des Starbears erwacht ihr gerade aus dem Winterschlaf und euch knurrt ordentlich der Magen. Ein Job muss her, um die täglichen Honigbrötchen zu verdienen, weshalb ihr euch als Taxifahrer engagiert.

Starbear-Taxi-Oculus-Rift-HTC-Vive-Windows-VR-SteamVR

Der VR-Titel erinnert vom Gameplay stark an das Spiel Crazy Taxi (1999), denn ihr fahrt gegen die Zeit, um ordentlich Punkte auf einem Leaderboard zu sammeln. Pro aufgesammelten Fahrgast wird euer Zeitlimit aufgestockt, damit ihr den nächsten Fahrgast an das gewünschte Ziel befördern könnt. Je nach gewählter Fahrtroute sammelt ihr dabei mehr oder weniger Punkte. Bei einer simplen Fahrt direkt ans Ziel wird euer Konto weniger aufgestockt als bei einer Route, in der ihr ordentlich Honigtöpfe sammelt und damit die Laune eures hungrigen Gastes verbessert. Nach jeder absolvierten Fahrt erhöht sich der Schwierigkeitsgrad, denn die Stadt wird nach jedem Fahrgast größer und hektischer.

Natürlich wäre das alles viel zu einfach, wenn es nicht auch einige Hindernisse zu umschiffen gäbe. Die fiesen Waschbärbanditen versuchen euch stets, mit skurrilen Waffen das Leben schwer zu machen und euch euer hart verdientes Geld abzuknöpfen. Dabei feuern sie mit gigantischen Dornenbällen, Hitze suchenden Raketen oder gigantischen Magneten auf euch. Bereits ein Treffer bedeutet das Ende eurer derzeitigen Fahrt und einen ordentlichen Malus auf eurem Punktekonto. Neben der Kampagne sind weitere Spielmodi enthalten, dazu zählen der Challenge– sowie der Bullet-Hell-Modus. Zur Steuerung nutzt ihr einen eurer Controller, mit dem ihr durch Schwenkbewegungen die Kontrolle des Fahrzeugs übernehmt.

Starbear: Taxi ist derzeit zum reduzierten Preis von knapp fünf Euro auf Steam für Oculus Rift, HTC Vive und Windows VR-Brillen erhältlich. Eine Konsolenadaption für PlayStation VR (PSVR) sowie eine mobile Version für Gear VR, Oculus Go und Google Daydream sollen ebenfalls im späteren Verlauf des Jahres folgen.

(Quellen: VR Focus | Road to VR | Funktronic Labs | Video: Funktronic Labs Youtube)

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Customer Service Goes out the Window in Starbear: Taxi

Today, Funktronic Labs has released its next virtual reality (VR) title in the form of Starbear: Taxi a quick and simple arcade experience where players have to whizz around a sci-fi world picking up fares. VRFocus spent some time getting to grips with the title, recording a gameplay video to showcase the playful cartoon videogame.

Taking the role of a cuddly bear it’s up to players to collect as many fares as possible in an allotted time. With an RC style control scheme the taxi can be controlled via slight twisting and leaning movements to move around the virtual world.

Much like Craxy Taxi time is always critical with each pickup helping to add further time to the main clock, whilst at the same time increasing the leaderboard score. Different fares will offer various scoring opportunities, with a standard point to point pickup offering the lowest, while going for one where you have to grab honey pots on route will give a bigger bonus.

Then there are the hazards to consider, with heat seeking missiles to avoid, giant spiked balls floating around and enemies with magnets that try to slow you down. Get hit whilst transporting a fare and that’s an instant fail, losing time and the points.

Starbear: Taxi 02

As you’ll see from the gameplay video below this can be a tricky process as each time you successfully complete a fare the city gets larger, becoming busier in the process. So more fares and scoring opportunities appear but also the chance to get taken out by an enemy.

There are also several modes to try out. Apart from the main campaign there’s the challenge mode which only gives you one life and Bullet Hell which dispenses with fare collecting in exchange for dodging enemy projectiles. As always, VRFocus will continue its coverage of Funktronic Labs, reporting back with any new announcements.

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Review: Starbear: Taxi

Few videogame developers have an actual noticeable style in respect that you could see a screenshot and know who created it, even if you didn’t know the title. One studio that definitely does fall into this bracket is Funktronic Labs, with a bold cartoon aesthetic that almost comes straight out of 60s sci-fi. This was clearly seen in its first virtual reality (VR) title Cosmic Trip, and that same design ethos has made its way to VR experience number two, Starbear: Taxi, making for a loveable arcade puzzle experience.

With a cute little story about futuristic bears flying around in cars across a sci-fi city, Starbear: Taxi has that feel of cartoons like The Jetsons. It’s instantly simple and easy to jump straight into, only requiring one controller to pilot the taxi, using the trigger for thrust while tilting and twisting the controller operates the side to side and forwards/backwards movement.

If you’ve ever played titles like Crazy Taxi then you’ll know what to expect, you’ve got to pick up a fare and then drop them off to a designated location as quickly as possible. Each time you start the core game you’re given 60 seconds to make as many pickups and drop offs as possible, with each one adding a few extra seconds to the time. Due to the nature of Starbear: Taxi’s design if this was all that was offered it would get pretty repetitive and boring quite quickly. So to mix things up there are different fares available, standard point A to B, fares where you have to grab honey on route, or ones where you need to grab honeycomb whilst a massive swinging ball tries to alter your direction.

Whilst this is all occurring there are hazards to avoid just to make things difficult. Turrets will appear firing heat seeking rockets, while massive red spikey balls will spin around honey pots to make their collection that bit more difficult. Get hit by any of these and you’ll lose your fare and the points that it provides. As the main goal is to score as much as possible in the allotted time to get a leaderboard ranking.

Starbear: Taxi 02

As nice as Starbear: Taxi is to look at with detailed locations that you can lean right into, the gameplay is that frantic that you don’t really get time to appreciate it all. The control scheme seems relatively simple – and it is – but it’s also devilishly difficult to master. A slight twist or lean the wrong way and that little flying taxi just wants to shoot off into oblivion. Subtlety is the name of the game here, playing it over and over again to achieve those small accurate movements.

This isn’t a videogame that’s been designed for long gameplay sessions, in fact Funktronic Labs has designed it around drop in and out short durations. Alongside the main game there are two other modes to unlock if you score enough points. Challenge mode is essentially the same as the core experience with one change, you only have one life. While Bullet Hell does away with the taxi element, pitting you against an onslaught of projectiles. Both modes may offer a slight change to proceedings but they feel more tacked on rather than anything actually worthwhile.

Starbear: Taxi skirts a fine line quirky VR puzzler and short tech demo. Thankfully it leans more towards the former, offering an amusingly addictive experience that can actually draw you in for some time. It’s not on the same level as Cosmic Trip yet for those after a quick and simple time killer its ideal.

80%

Awesome

  • Verdict
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Calling a cab Just got Funky With Starbear: Taxi

LA-based indie developer Funktronic Labs is known for its bright vivid gameplay design, having previously released virtual reality (VR) title Cosmic Trip. A couple of months ago the studio unveiled its latest project, a Crazy Taxi style experience called Starbear: Taxi. Today, Starbear: Taxi has now arrived for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

Starbear: Taxi Hero

Keeping with the bold, cartoon style Starbear:Taxi puts you in control of a spaceship, flying around a city trying to complete jobs as quickly as possible, ferrying inhabitants to various locations. Designed around action-packed, skill-based gameplay, will have to learn the natural physics-based RC flight controls designed specifically for VR to deliver as many busy bears to their desired destinations as possible, avoiding pesky raccoon bandits along the way.

Starbear:Taxi allows for a drop in and play gameplay style, enabling players to stop and start as they choose, whether its to kill ten minutes or for a longer gameplay session. They’ll also be treated to some dynamic tunes, with a soundtrack that alters to their particular play style.

Whilst this is purely a single-player experience, players will be able to take advantage of an online leaderboard to track their progress against friends.

Created as a ‘short but sweet’ arcade experience, Funktronic Labs is looking to bring Starbear: Taxi to as many platforms as possible so the control scheme has been built around both six degrees of freedom (6DoF) and three degrees of freedom (3DoF) input methods. While today’s launch is just for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, the team also plan on bringing Starbear: Taxi to Samsung Gear VR, Google Daydream and Oculus Go this month. Additionally, plans are underway for a PlayStation VR version later in the year.

Starbear: Taxi is available via Steam for $7.99 USD. As Funktronic Labs continues expanding platform support for the title, VRFocus will keep you updated.

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Starbear: Taxi is the Latest VR Videogame From Funktronic Labs

Developer Funktronic Labs, the minds behind virtual reality (VR) titles such as Cosmic Trip and Doggo’s Day Off have revealed their next title to be Starbear: Taxi.

Starbear: Taxi 01

The VR-exclusive title will have players controlling a spaceship as they pilot around a futuristic bear city and must race against the clock to taxi passengers about. The developers at Funktronic Labs describe the title as: “What happens when a game jam focused on mini worlds and new VR control schemes collides with cute, tiny bears drawn on a whiteboard? Starbear: Taxi!”

Starbear: Taxi is being built exclusively for VR offering players an immersive gameplay experience full of action-packed, fast paced taxi gameplay. Spaceships will be controlled with physics-based radio-controlled (RC) style flight controls offering both six degrees of freedom (6DoF) and three degrees of freedom (3DoF) as input methods. Flying around and crashing into objects and bears is likely to happen a lot in Starbear: Taxi but should not be a problem for your cute driver.

Starbear: Taxi 02

With a charming art design and arcade feel, Starbear: Taxi wants to give players a gameplay experience that will keep them hocked and wanting more. Once more, the title will feature a dynamic soundtrack which will adapt the music to suit a players play-style, making each session feel personal. Performance is also measured by score with leaderboards being included to prove who is the best bear taxi driver of all.

Starbear: Taxi is currently in development for a number of platforms including Steam VR with support for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, PlayStation VR, Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream. Currently there are no gameplay videos of Starbear: Taxi in action but the released screenshots and artwork show just how cute and charming the title looks to be. With so many platforms planned for release, there should be a way for anyone who is interested in the title to be able to play.

Though the release date has not been announced as of yet, once it is, along with further updates on the title, you can expect to find them here on VRFocus so make sure to check back.