The Space Pioneers Review
Mobile games are great for arcade-style fun, but there's always a catch. Maybe you have the stamina to navigate, maybe your phone battery is melting like a summer snowball, maybe the controls are awful. For this reason, it can be a real blessing when a mobile game makes the leap to consoles. Enter Space Pioneer, a mobile arcade game that begs for a console port.
Space Pioneer is a dual-stick shooter where you mow down waves of aliens in various colorful biomes. There is no story to tell and that is fine. We're not here for some sort of compelling narrative, after all. No, this is more of a guns/goo/great loot type thing. Rather than the story, you are encouraged to continue with the list of massive upgrades, as well as the numerous achievements. Make no mistake, this is tremendous momentum to get things done. Seeing the fabulous new Death Machines still greyed out on your menu is more than enough to warrant an extra step. Whatever faults one may find here, the main game loop is tight. Guns aren't a sneeze either.
When it comes to firearms, there are a wide variety of weapons to turn aliens into burning particles. Everything from grenade launchers to energy rifles to something called the Tesla. Whatever your playing style, you can definitely find the right tool for the job. Additionally, the game lets you not get stuck to a weapon for too long. Getting max ranks on most stages requires using a gun to complete the level, often with a certain number of kills. In fact, using X times X times is becoming a fairly common requirement in most stages. Although the design of the weapons is very varied, the same cannot be said for the missions themselves.
Big Fun with Tons of Guns
Each planet has The missions and The challenges to complete. Either way, you'll see everything the game has to offer pretty quickly. The level of difficulty increases well, but this is done at the expense of inventiveness. Most of the time, you just kill people with a particular gun a certain number of times. Or you have to occupy a given space until enough time passes. Finally, you will be tasked with defending a given objective from waves of attacks. The gameplay itself is fun enough that you mostly don't mind repeating. It's all fun, frantic, and pretty fast-paced. Who cares if missions, challenges, and level designs start repeating themselves?
All of these minor grievances are rooted in Space Pioneer's mobile origins. This is a game meant to be played in short bursts. Longer sessions leave the cracks in the facade a bit of sun, you see. On the other hand, bringing a mobile game to the Switch is a tangible benefit. Stamina and microtransactions no longer get in your way. If you want to play this game for hours, there is nothing stopping you. And you totally could! Challenges, upgrades, and achievements all come together to create a truly engrossing gameplay loop. If you play Space Pioneer long enough, these moving bones float to the surface. It might diminish the experience a bit, but it's refreshing to have that freedom.
For the most part, the game has moved to consoles with admirable grace. The controls are easy to adapt, the graphics scale well from handheld to docked mode, and the user interface easily adapts to local co-op. However, I experienced a slowdown. There is a particular enemy in snow levels that digs up coins when no one is looking. It's great for your wallet, but it can spiral out of control if left on long enough. There were plenty of occasions where the gameplay was absolute treacle, culminating when I discovered a huge field of play. Beyond that weird and very specific set of circumstances, Space Pioneer worked like a charm.
Maybe just one more level
I had a lot of fun playing Space Pioneer. The massive list of guns all feel distinct from each other in a practical way. The action ramps up in difficulty in a measured way to give you time to prepare. The drones, background actors in many ways, shoot out little blocks of text filled with weird words. There are even tangible benefits to playing a mobile game on a console. I'm not attached to endurance or battery life, a breath of fresh air that will never fade. And yet, this same process of mobile transplantation has its own drawbacks. The game is skeletal, like rough wood piled up in the shape of a building. Something essential is missing from its new home on the Nintendo Switch. Stages, missions and challenges are all interchangeable. Even the bosses seem to change their palette from time to time. Still, the game is still fun. You will find yourself trying again, one more step, over and over again. If you're looking for a little sci-fi arcade action, definitely check out Space Pioneer.
*** A Nintendo Switch code was provided by the publisher ***
