Milky Way Adventure

Milky Way Adventure
Developer(s)	Astralitz Games
Director(s)	Aaron Redding
Designer(s)	Juno Gomez
Programmer(s)	Jeremy Green
Writer(s)	Lauren Faust
Composer(s)	Regil Samson
Platform(s)	Xbox One, PS4, Switch, RazerPocket, AstralOracle, PC
Genre(s)	3D Platformer
Engine	Unreal Engine 4
Release Date(s)	September 2018
Mode(s)	Single player stories, cooperative missions
Age Rating(s)	ESRB: E10+ (Cartoon Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes) PEGI: 12 (Non-realistic violence toward human characters)
Storage Needed	35GB

"Fight Alongside the Sisterhood"

Milky Way Adventure (aka Milky Way & the Galaxy Girls: Otherworld) is an 3D platformer released by Astralitz Games in 2018. It is based off the toyline planned by Lauren Faust on "what could've been".

Plot

The Black Hole is aiming to make a vortex to take over the universe. In response, the Solar Sisterhood is called to take it out, but first they have to channel their galaxy power first by reclaiming their planets from the aliens in order to charge an counterattack.

Gameplay

The game itself is more of a 3D platformer similar in terms of Sonic Lost World and Super Mario Galaxy. The originality here is that all of the Sisterhood has a unique ability called Astro Gauge which charges up their special skill which activates their special power. Each character has their own storyline (consisting of 6 missions each) and after that is the final which allows you to use any character.

In combat, there are 3 collectibles that uses orbs similar to that of the God of War series:

• Green orbs: Health
• Blue orbs: Magic
• Red orbs: Experience (to upgrade magic, health or give you new moves)

Characters have combat arranging from space stars to magic. In combat, the R2 button dodges via flips similar to Bayonetta.

Input	Description
D-Stick	Movement
C-Stick	Camera Pan/Zoom
Cross	Jump
Square	Light Attack
Triangle	Special Ability
Circle	Action/Interact
Options	Pause
Select/Touchpad	Girlaxy Menu/Equipment
L1/R1	Change Character
L2	Magical Attack
R2	Dodge/Slide (if skating on Mercury's running sequences)

Girlaxy

Name	Tagline	Ability
Milky Way	Starry-Eyed Space Girl	Star Call (ride on a star)
Venus	Interplanetary Performer	Dance (rhythm dancing)
Mars	Astronomical Artist	Puzzle (Rearrange pieces to fix pallets)
Jupiter	Heavenly Hippie	Animal tending (command animals to solve problems)
Pluto	Cosmic Rocker	Rock guitar (rings sound engines)
Sun	Sizzlin' Solar Sister	Radiant Waves (rings radiant engines)
Uranus	Intergalactic Intellect	Scanner (unlock locks)
Moon	Lunar Lyricist	Polarity singing (black or white)
Mercury	Universal Athlete	Turbo (run real fast)
Saturn	Deep Space DJ	DJ (combine sounds)
Neptune	Celestial Surfer Girl	Surfboard (surf on water)

Special Sequences

• Star Rider: Milky Way pilots a star and controls it via 360 turns.
• Beautiful Dancer: Venus goes in a 4-button rhythm minigame.
• Repair: Mars goes to repair pallets to open gates.
• Portal Lock: Uranus has to guide two orbs with portals to combine them to open gates.
• Endless Skater: Mercury has to dodge walls and obstacles while going fast. The blockade signs, plasma hurdles and alien golems must be evaded by sliding. (It plays more like Bayonetta's unicorn and motorcycle stages)
• Surfer: Neptune has to surf her way to her destination while managing her friction and ampitude toward the waters to avoid getting knocked down.

Difficulty Settings

• Casual: For casual fans of the series. (enemies are less aggressive)
• Normal: For average players who have experience in gaming.
• Hardcore: For skilled players aiming for a galactic challenge. (enemies are more aggressive)
• Extreme: For astronomical champions. Only the champions can apply. (enemies are even more aggressive and some new gimmicks appear)

Astral Techs

Astral Techs is a system that allows you to upgrade and customize your heroes.

Upgrade Name	Description	Cost
Magic Missile	Magic attacks now let you shoot homing missiles at your enemy.	100
Galaxy Blade	Melee attacks are now 2x more stronger and thanks to attack waves now more longer.	100
Astral Armor	Adds another life bar to your player.	250
Anti-gravity surfboard	Neptune's mechanical surfboard. Allows you to jump while surfing.	300

Campaign

Each member of the Sisterhood has their own campaign with 6 missions each, and after that you go on to the Paradox, which is the last area.

Achievements

Achievement Name	Description	Rank
Galactic Legend	Become the legendary hero of the galaxy.	Platinum
Milky Way	Complete Milky Way's campaign.	Bronze
Venus	Complete Venus's campaign	Bronze
Mars	Complete Mars's campaign	Bronze
Jupiter	Complete Jupiter's campaign	Bronze
Pluto	Complete Pluto's campaign	Bronze
Sun	Complete Sun's Campaign	Bronze
Uranus	Complete Uranus's campaign	Bronze
Moon	Complete Moon's campaign	Bronze
Mercury	Complete Mercury's campaign	Bronze
Saturn	Complete Saturn's campaign.	Bronze
Neptune	Complete Neptune's campaign.	Bronze
Milky Way Guardian	Clear the Black Hole Realm.	Silver
Venus Dancer	On Venus, clear all dancing sequences with an SSS	Silver
Milky Way Explorer	On Milky Way, find all of the Rainbow Stars	Silver
Mars Genius	On Mars, ace all of the puzzles.	Silver
Jupiter Zookeeper	On Jupiter, master all of the animals.	Silver
Pluto Rockgirl	On Pluto, perform an rockout solo.	Silver
Sun Solaris	On Sun, find all of the hidden radiant jewels.	Silver
Uranus Hacker	On Uranus, complete all of the Portal Locks.	Silver
Moon Siren	On Moon, polarize all of the enemies using singing.	Silver
Mercury Supersonic	On Mercury, achieve superspeed without taking damage.	Silver
Saturn Groove	On Saturn, find all of the sound combinations.	Silver
Neptune Endurance	On Neptune, surf on all the waves.	Silver
Greased Lightning	Clear the Mercury Road in 100 seconds.	Gold
Black Hole Out	Clear the Black Hole Realm with SSS rank.	Gold
Extreme Space	Clear the game on Extreme Mode.	Gold
Ghost	Clear the final boss without taking damage.	Gold

Reception

Milky Way Adventure got positive reviews, while most praised for being a spirtual successor to Super Mario Galaxy and Sonic Lost World. 

It got 75's on Metacritic, a 7.6 on IGN, a 8/10 on GameSpot.

On Miiverse, the following popular posts are seen;

• Fanart and crossovers between Milky Way and MLP. (What could've been was that Milky Way could've been done instead of MLP for Hasbro)
• Challenges and achievements done
• A poll that askes the following question; On Extreme, what was the hardest campaign?
  • Top 3 were Venus, Mercury, and Neptune. Venus has rhythm sequences that stretch out between 2 minutes to 3 minutes, and the notes come in faster than Hardcore. Mercury has you go on these fast running sequences and dodge obstacles that can nearly drain your health if your not careful. Neptune requires dexterity because controlling your surfboard takes some dexterity (you have to steer it via the racing fashion and if your not careful you can end up not going the direction you want)
  • Another 3 for easiest was Milky Way, Moon, and Mars. Milky Way has you simply control stars whenever you'd like in 360 degrees. Moon has polarity that you need to use stealth and singing to distract the enemy which gets pretty simple. Mars' puzzle pallets are simple because you could just read hints (or simply the real piece and the mostly only harder part was the enemies)
• Milky Way Adventure vs. MLP: Wrath of Virena (Milky Way if your more into adventuring and MLP if your more into action and the fact that their both Aaron Redding's projects)
• Theories on the Milky Way universe

Redding's future on Astralitz Games

Aaron Redding said in a interview that as Astralitz Games has the license on Hasbro's titles (Transformers, MLP, etc), he would be willing to cash in on his legacy on making another project called MLP: New Harmony which is going to be an action RPG meant to be a tie-in spirtual successor to the Elder Scrolls series using a bit of actionized power. To accomplish this, Redding would use the Morandal Engine to do his work on the project, with controls similar to that of the NieR games.