For more on Star Raiders, check out our full Star Raiders review. Or, for more of the best Xbox 360 games for a 10 year old, why not try our Family Game Finder
When you're young, who doesn't dream of going into space? Star Raiders lets your child live that dream, but rather than piloting boring space shuttles on their way to scrape some intergalactic goo off the outside of the ISS, they'll be blowing things up, and defending an entire civilisation from alien attack. And how much cooler is that!
Left in charge of a very special spaceship, it'll be up to them to take part in a number of missions from the galaxy map, as they seek to defend friendly ships and cruisers from Zylon attack, clear areas of enemy vessels, or, in one of the more in depth missions, search for and locate a piece of a super weapon which will negate the Zylon threat. In a brilliant twist, the ship they pilot can transform at the press of a button into one of three different modes - attack, which is best for dogfighting; assault, which works well for attacking capital ships; and turret, which is best for defence.
Knowing when and where to use these modes will be key to your child progressing through the game, so there's a fair amount of thinking to be done here. Flying around inside, or next to a capital ship as you pick off its weak spots is also an inexplicably cool feeling that's sure to raise a hair on any child's neck.
That being said, it's somewhat disappointing that Star Raider's tutorial is so poor, and the game in general is so badly explained. Rather than setting out what you need to do, your child will initially be left to experiment as they find their feet, and while it is fairly straightforward to pick up, the controls - which change every time you transform your ship - don't help much, and when combined with the tiny font, mean this won't be suitable for children under seven.
There's nothing for parents to be concerned about in Star Raiders. With no swearing, no sex, and very little in the way of violence beyond simply blowing up other capital ships and fighters, Star Raiders is clean sci-fi fun.
Sadly, Star Raiders doesn't have a local multiplayer mode, which means it can't really be played as a family.
Age Ratings
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
