Affordable Space Adventures

Affordable Space Adventures is a physics based puzzle game where you guide a spaceship through the levels, utilising the craft’s mechanisms. These mechanics are slowly introduced to you over the course of the game.

You start off being able to turn the engine on or off, and activate your scanner which doubles as a flash-light. With the standard engine, you can control how powerful your thrust is, control your weight, and stability control.

You are then introduced to the Electric engine, which has similar function, but with the likes of anti-gravity replacing the mass control, and de-accelerator replacing the stability control.

The engines are assigned to the shoulder buttons, and you can switch between the standard engine and electric engine with ease. Switching the other direction will cut out your engine and send you plummeting since the standard engine takes a couple of seconds to boot up.

There are mechanical creations on the planet that will zap you if they detect you. You can scan them to discover what they respond to. The limits are shown on your Gamepad. This gives an interesting aspect to the puzzles as you toggle systems on/off, or lower their strength to find a combination of systems that will allow you to remain undetected, and give you enough movement to maneuver past them. You have to manage your heat, electricity, and sound.

Later on in the game, the temperature takes a larger focus, so then you are opening and closing your shutters to moderate your temperature. In freezing temperatures, your engine shuts down; incapacitating you. In high temperature, it burns up and leads to exploding.

The mid levels have many levels where momentum and timing is the focus. You are introduced to different landing gears; soft, sticky, slippy. You may be required to build up speed, activate the slippy landing gear, cut off your engines, then switch to sticky to come to a stop. The landing gear is assigned to A,B,Y buttons. The sticky landing gear can be used to carry boxes in order to block lasers, or press switches.

The amount of systems you are introduced to can be a problem. I found I was forgetting mechanics when I returned to the game several days later. Some mechanics were barely used, or generally under utilised.

The game’s generous use of checkpoints means you don’t usually have to redo much when you fail.

The game does create a bleak atmosphere. There’s a good feeling of isolation, with use of dark colours, smoke effects and only using environmental sounds - no music.

I thought the game was very creative and makes good use of the Gamepad. During the first half of the game, I thought this could be held in high regard alongside the best games on the system. However, I felt some of the latter levels were fiddly, felt too similar to other levels, or were boring. Some of them, particularly the final level, only had a small margin for error, so it was more frustrating than fun in these parts.