Space Miner: Space Ore Bust, an amazing arcade adventure game from Venan Entertainment, is currently available from the app store. Combining open-world, Asteroids-style game play with RPG elements, Space Miner has hit on a magical formula that sucks you in like matter in a black hole.
Space Miner: Space Ore Bust Pros:
- Witty and engaging backstory
- Plentiful side missions
- Gorgeous graphics
- Plethora of sound effects
- Outstanding replay value via Plus+ online leaderboards and extensive achievements
- Highly customizable controls
Space Miner: Space Ore Bust Cons:
- No included soundtrack or iPod support
Space Miner sees you going to work at your Uncle Jeb’s Gritstone Mining Station, piloting a fully upgradeable space craft in dangerous asteroid fields, blasting the rocky projectiles and collecting the valuable ore left behind. The money earned from collecting ore can be used to purchase ship upgrades, such as more lethal weapons, a better engine, a stronger hull, more effective ore collectors, and more. As you mine the galaxy, you’ll earn licenses which allow you to travel farther and farther into space. Of course, this not only means that you’ll have access to more valuable ore, but you’ll be navigating more dangerous territory, as well. Due to an ill-advised loan taken out by your uncle, Mega Space Corporation is now deploying robot drones to mine ore from your asteroid fields, and they’ll put up a fight to protect their claim. A witty and engaging backstory plays out in between mining excursions, as you and your uncle try to figure out how to get out of debt to the bank. Side missions abound, giving you the opportunity to earn even more money by rescuing stranded space tourists, saving the bank president in a boss battle, and other such tasks. The asteroids themselves offer a good deal of variety, with some harboring hidden dangers to your ship.
Graphically, the game looks fantastic. The 3D-modeled ship and asteroids really pop against the celestial backdrop. Explosions exhibit nice particle effects and upgrades made to your ship are manifested visually. The game runs super smooth and the ships and spinning asteroids create a good sense of speed. The sounds are great, from the banjo solo on the main menu to the plethora of sound effects you’ll hear while shooting asteroids and zipping around the cosmos. There is no in-game support for playing songs from your own music library, but we were so engrossed in the game that we hardly noticed the background music, anyway. Controls were pretty intuitive and worked very well. They are also customizable, so you can experiment until you find what works best for you. Autofire and thrusters can be turned on or off, and buttons can be resized to your specifications. You even set the opacity, giving you a better view of the asteroids, if desired. As good as the controls are when you start playing, they get even better over time as you upgrade aspects of your ship. The virtual joypad on the left controls your ship’s direction, while a right-side thruster button propels your ship forward and the right-side fire button discharges your weapons. A map in the upper-right corner helps to orient yourself in space, denoting asteroids, enemies, and collectible items with color-coded dots. Space Miner autosaves on exit, too, so that progress is not lost if you get a call or hit the home button by accident.
Replay value is outstanding, with Plus+ integration providing global leaderboards and a lengthy achievement system (50 in all), as if the highly addicting game play wasn’t enough. There are three levels of difficulty, including a hardcore setting that is unlocked upon completion of the game. The great thing about hardcore is that you get to keep the alien technology you’ve discovered during your first playthrough. It opens up a whole new aspect to the game play, giving you incentive to do it all over again.
It’s been a while since a game captivated us so completely. Descriptions of the fairly deep game play cannot do justice to the game itself; it really must be experienced. This is the type of game that you can drop coin on sight unseen and expect to find your expectations exceeded very quickly. Space Miner just seems to hit the mark on all counts. Touting a fairly premium price tag of $4.99 [currently $1.99 on sale], Space Miner is worth every penny and more, earning every one of its 5-Dimples without question.
