'Space Miner: Space Ore Bust': RPG Shooter Excellence
posted February 6th, 2010 1:18 PM EST by Blake Patterson in $4.99, 5 stars, Reviews, Role-Playing, Shooter, iPad Games, iPhone games
Every now and then a game comes along that just dazzles and blows you away by getting things exactly right. Such a game was released into the App Store yesterday by Venan Entertainment. That game is Space Miner: Space Ore Bust [App Store]. In short, it's Asteroids meets the RPG. But that description really doesn't do the game justice.
Space Miner places you in the role of the nephew of good ole' Uncle Jebediah Gritstone, proprietor of the galactic Gritstone Mining Station. Uncle Jeb has hired you on to help with the ore mining and it's with much excitement that you make your way to his mining station in your veritable space jalopy. Once on board, things get complicated (it's a long story, enjoy it in-game) and Uncle Jeb is desperately counting on you to go out into the neighboring sectors, blast asteroids, and bring back the precious ore contained within. The more ore you collect, the bigger your cut of the profits. But the pitiful ship you start off with is hardly up to the task.
As you accumulate profits, the money can be spent in Uncle Jeb's shop, where more powerful ships, weapons, shields, ore collectors, power plants, and the like can be purchased. It doesn't take long to find yourself sitting in a decent ship with multiple ore blasters, a sizable cargo bay, and an ore collector that can get the job done. And the whole package is done up with a great deal of spot-on humorous dialog and even an amusing banjo-based audio track that fits ole' Uncle Jeb's operation to a T. (There's no doubt that he's got a still hidden somewhere on that rock of his.)
The game features highly configurable touch-screen controls (onscreen buttons, analog stick) that work nicely, 50 in-game achievements, and online score tracking via the Plus+ network.
Now, with all the heavy RPG aspects and the well done comedy, you might think the game is light on shooter action when it comes to dealing with those asteroids. Happily, that's not at all the case. The asteroid combat system is an example of shooter gold — for an Asteroids-like experience, it really couldn't be any better. And it's not just asteroids you're fighting. There are competing robot miners bent on stealing your ore that must be dealt with. Not to mention the occasional encounter with the daunting gasteroids… (Yea, they're about as bad as they sound.)
Aside from the standard goal of blasting asteroids to mine ore, there are a total of 24 missions to complete, such as rescuing helpless tourists floating through space (think Dave Pool), destroying a massive robot enemy in order to save a heartless CEO, and the like. There really is an impressive degree of gameplay variation here that just keeps things moving. In my experience, you really have to be careful not to lose track of time while playing this one. "Hard to put down" understates it.
See the developer's game trailer for a look at the action.
Space Miner: Space Ore Bust really is an App Store gem, given the unusually broad appeal I feel surrounds the title. Shooter fans definitely have a lot to be excited about, as do RPG fans — but even those that usually find themselves impatient in an RPG setting should enjoy Space Miner. The RPG layer is not only light, but easily manageable and delivered with a healthy dose of humor. It strikes a balance between two different gaming styles — shooter and RPG — like I've not experienced since playing Activision's Battle Zone, which married action and real-time strategy with similar elegance. Without a question, this is one of the best games I've played since the App Store went live over a year and a half ago. And you don't need to take my word for it; our forum readers are going nuts over this one.
Whatever sort of gamer you are, don't miss Space Miner: Space Ore Bust.
App Store Link: Space Miner: Space Ore Bust, $4.99
TouchArcade Rating:
So why is it when you've got your FREAKIN' RELATIVE begging you for help, that you still have to BUY upgrades from them?!? This is one RPG trope I'm really getting tired of.
This situation comes up a lot?
You have no idea. Any RPG where you can buy things has this.
"Hey, you need this sword to save my life! Just pay all of your money."
Well hey, that sounds a lot like what my relatives would do to me!
That really bugs you?
You're actually buying upgrades from Space Trader Galactus. Him and Jeb have a mutually beneficial business setup.
"See the developer's game trailer for a look at the action."
What game trailer? It's a huge empty white space!
I can't display Flash content, but I do support H.264 playback natively. For a website about iPhone/iPod touch/iPad games, I find it ironic that you use Flash for videos.
Youtube supports h.264. You just have to be patient if it's not encoded for iPhone, or turn on h.264 if you are in a web browser.
arn
H.264 is always enabled in Safari. But when you embed YouTube HTML in your website, it doesn't work since you're embedding a Flash object. You need to use the HTML5 video tag for that.
Go ahead, try it, all you get is an empty white space even with the Mac OS X version of Safari.
I just tried on my iPhone. The video on this page plays just fine.
The way this site codes videos works just great. YouTube has a delay, that’s all—complain to them, not TouchArcade
It's working here, both on Safari for the Mac and for the iPhone.
That's because your plug-ins are enabled. Disable your plug-ins to turn of Flash and you'll get an empty white space too.
Why am I disabling plug-ins? Because Flash freakin' sucks and keeps crashing my browser, that's why. Using Flash to play videos is akin to publishing documents in JPEG instead of PDF.
STFU, Troll!
You can’t disable plugins on iPhone—there are none. The video here “just works” on iPhone and iPod.
If you want to disable Flash but have the convenience of being able to turn it on in trusted or rare situations, check out "NoFlash." It works really well. You can whitelist stuff that doesn't crash (like YouTube) while blocking out everything by default.
Or, just install clicktoflash – selectively enable flash objects – works great.
Looks sweet! Any ideas when this will become free?
Hopefully never. Support this dev and stop being such a cheap-ass. And yeah, I know I'm being mean. But in this case, I think it's well-deserved.
If you look at the credits, there seem to be at least 5-15 people involved with the production of this game.. so I doubt you'd see it for free. At least, not the full version. This isn't an indie developer trying to make a name for themselves..
Cross your fingers for a one day sale or something!
LOL, I get so many free games for my iPhone every day there's really no need to buy anything. And besides, making these games should be a fun hobby, not a real job!
yeahhh ok, thats not how we're guna see more ill games, the freebies are cool but pay games are always better
@blackHorse : in what sort of world are you living?
This game should never go free. Have you freebie nuts looked at a shelf of DS or PSP games?
They look like this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/3121405200/sizes/l/
…
lol guys, just use ClickToFlash to disable flash and then you can have the best of both worlds, and yes … stop trolling, play a game and be happy : )
One of the best gems the App Store has to offer!
I really can't lay it down. Just impossible!
This game simply does everything right.
And it's full of heart and soul!
Get it!
I was surprised to like this. I only bought it due to the emphatic reception on MacRumors. I don't like games that have stories/cutscenes and most space shooters aren't that good on the iPhone due to lack of space. Add to that the controls – which I really didn't like at first – and this was bound to fail for me but.. there's just "something" about this game that's keeping me playing. It's been executed so well.
I nominate this game for best use of wordplay in the title!
The iTunes store sample pics look good. The Humor example is pretty fecking funny. My tears have tears. Will be getting this once I finish working and get home to a wifi connection. About 200mb.
Sorry, 118mb.
Still need wifi though.
Game is pretty damn sweet. And blackhorse stick to PC flash games you cheap bastard. Support the developers.
I support the developer by playing their free games and becoming their fans! What would be better than that?
Paying for the game? -.-
Hmmm… Leave him in his dreamland and do what he can't do: enjoy this magnificent game. P.S.: this game won't be free or on sale for the next 12 month… :p
WOW!
Just wow. What a great review and thanks for sharing this with us.
Going to grab this as soon as i have finished assassins creed.
This game is amazing — couldn't put it down after 3hrs of game play. Has that addictive mechanic where you want to do the 'next thing' in the game to upgrade your ship.
Support these guys!
I'm hooked! Although, I can't beat the 'Triangulas' zone! Help! I'm maxed out with stuff. I can't think what I'm doing wrong (except sucking!).
Otherwise, great fun. I'd like a little resume screen of all the characters as they're so distinctive.
Sounds pretty good. It's definitely worth me sacaficing a hamburger purchase of two. But I'll probably give it some time to see if it goes on sale.
Is this anything like Escape Velocity from Ambrosia SW? http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/
If so I could see myself getting addicted…
Man, I wish. I want an EV game on the iphone sooo bad. And it's certainly doable.
This game is a lot more linear, and a lot smaller–there's only one path through the game, there aren't multiple planets to visit (although there are many different systems to visit), you only get missions from a few characters, and there are only a few types of missions. Still, it is pretty darn fun, and addictive…
Well, to be clear, you do have a lot of freedom in terms of the order you visit systems, and there are a few side missions, but there's only one path through the main storyline, and essentially one way of getting money–destroying ships and asteroids. It is a fairly nonlinear game, just way more linear than Escape Velocity.
this looks outstanding ..
see, if we support devs by paying full price this is the quality of game we can expect in the future. if ya lounge around, wait for sales or a freebie friday we will end up with crap. your choice
To be clear – my "boooo" isn't about the game, but was in response to a now-removed comment from somebody who pirated the game.
I am LOVING this game. I was an asteroids addict when I was a kid and this feels very close to it, with a good twist.
Lots of fun
I hate the music…. sounds like I should be playing some American farm game.
And yet again BP's skill as a critic come into question. Try harder?
Pretty good game. Good graphics.
Loving this game.
Get it! Worth every penny!
Can't stop playing, most addictive game I've played on ANY platform in quite some time!!!!!
Stay away from this game unless you are willing to get sucked in for 10 hours. As the reviewer says, its a perfect mix of arcade and rpg-lite. Dangerously addictive, i couldn't put it down after I got started. Finished it in one sitting, now my back, wrists and fingers ache…
the controls on this game are terriable. I wish they would just do it right with left right turn as in Asteroids and Malestrom
Controls are terrible? The controls did take some time to get used to, perhaps a mere 10 minutes but a small learning curve. Once you have them down, they were the smoothest controls on any game for the iPhone yet.
It may have to do with the mass of your ship's hull in relation to your engine power. Try a lighter hull or more powerful engine and you should gain better control. Hope this helps!
god damnit this was worth every penny
Closest game yet to Star Control II. Actually…I don't understand why we haven't seen an upgraded port of SCII yet on iPhone/touch. It's open source, apparently…yet no one has tried to port it over.
If you like space mining games and want to fly around in actual 3D space, may I suggest Battle for Vesta?
App store link and video at:
http://www.battleforvesta.com/
…doesn't even compare, Vesta should be renamed to 'bad wireframe'
I love this game but oh my, could we please be allowed to use our own music…
Loving it!!!
Just finished the game – I can finally get on with the rest of my life. So addictive I couldn't put it down. Here's hoping we see expansion packs, a sequel or updates soon. So good I I'm going to give it a 5 star review on iTunes.
How'd you get through the last Beta level? I've cleared 100% of everything else, but can't make it through Beta
This game is the most all round entertaining I have played on any format in ages. Better than any of my PSP or DS games and, for the price, that's just outstanding. Highly recommended!
Excellent game! Unbelievable and very well polished. I can't remember the last time I got so addicted to one game. In fact, this game brings back memories of playing classic NES games like Blaster Master, Excite Bike and the original Zelda. Well worth the full cost of admission. I can't wait to see what Venan does next – perhaps a sequel on the iPad?
Just picked this up on sale for $2. This game really is fantastic.
It does remind me (a little) of escape velocity because of the ability to upgrade your ship, the asteroids. . . intertial-flight style gameplay. Of course EV is much much more complex than this game, but this game really is fun and the production quality is outstanding. Definitely a must-buy.
This game is unbelievably addictive. I have never played an iphone game this long, especially on my first, 2nd, 3rd…. sittings. I'm not even a sci-fi RPG or western theme fan. This game is so good I dont' want it to end! I've already given it a 5-star rating on iTunes, and I do NOT give out 5-star ratings lightly.
Suffice to say, I feel very guilty I got this at $1.99. It's worth the original price. I look forward to more games by Venan Entertainment!
Now if only flatspace updated with the rest of the customization options and the cheat options from the PC version….
I'd be very happy.
This game is brilliant. Bar none, the best game I've played yet on my iPhone. It has that playability factor that keeps me ignoring the TV while I lounge on the couch for that "one more level". It also has that playability where I sneak the occasional cargo load in between compiles at work.
In short, this game is absolute WIN, and I can't wait to see what the developer has next for us.
In 90's Mac gaming terms, it's Maelstrom meets Escape Velocity. Certainly, it is far shorter and narrower in scope than Escape Velocity, but it plays almost exactly the same in terms of controls and combat, and a fair amount of weapons, upgrades, and several available ships keep thing interesting. As a huge EV fan, this is the first iPhone game that I felt I absolutely HAD to beat.
Booooo
You should be banned from the world…