Space!

Intro

"Space!" is a short dodging/puzzle game created by Eyesore also known as Cop Killa using RPG Maker 2003 that only contains four maps, but is so frustrating I gave up on it before I even reached the end of map two. After all, I'd rather spend my time on a game I'd get some actual enjoyment out of like "Advance Wars" or "Disgaea: Hour of Darkness" than spend a bunch of time on a short game whose maps are designed to be as frustrating as possible.

Story

The game really doesn't have a particularly deep story. I suppose that tends to be the case with most puzzle games, but this one seems especially bad since we really don't get a reason for why we are lost in the asteroid maze in the first place.


Everything after this is a quick tutorial on how the game works.

We just know we have to find a way out which is so difficult that even other people on this site gave up before they reached the game's one and only boss fight. So I guess, I'm not alone in giving up on this game early in order to go play s better game.

Gameplay

You fly around trying to avoid various objects ranging from moving asteroids, black holes, and enemy ships. And these obstacles will either remove one of your three heart points are all of them. Though objects that only remove one heart will pretty much always kill you as well since you suffer push back in this game and will usually get slammed by an object multiple times in a row. So getting hit in this game is basically instant death. And the amount of checkpoints in this game are rather limited. So if you screw up your usually going to have to fly through large chunks of a level repeatedly which gets annoying in a hurry since some sections are really frustrating. One of the best examples of this appears early on in stage two where you need to fly through a section where asteroids are moving in a circles where you need to fly between them which is extremely difficult since if you go to early you'll take a hit. If you go to late you'll also take a hit.


Clip speed was slowed down to 30% to make it easier to see what happened.

And you can potentially get hit twice if you went to early since you'll take damage from the asteroid you moved into as well as the one coming up next. Jeez, it really feels like the developer didn't test the pushback mechanic or consider the importance of giving the player a moment of invincibility after taking a hit at all when making this game.

Another issue that can crop up is that if you get hit by an asteroid you can mess up it's movement. A good example of this can be created early on in the second map.



So it's possible to both make areas of this game impassable as well as to make getting through certain sections even easier, but the fact this sort of manipulation is possible at all is a problem.

Graphics

Graphically the game is pretty simplistic but it's serviceable. On the other hand the bulk of the game is comprised of grey obstacles on a black screen which gets tiring to look at in a hurry. I know the developer wanted it to look like the player was in space, but I think making the asteroids and black holes brighter colors would have been a good idea just so the game wasn't a sea of black and grey with a few specks of red, white, and blue tossed in there.

Sound

While the game does have a few sound effects and tracks. Your going to spend most of your time in this game listening to a 20 second loop that will try to burn it's way into your memory if you play this game to completion since your going to be listening to it for the better part of 60 minutes supposedly. And if I wanted to torture my ears in that fashion I'd go listen to the theme song for Lavender Town in the gen one games on an endless loop for that length of time.

Conclusion

"Space!" is a frustrating game that just isn't worth anyone's time and effort in my opinion. In all honesty, I only tackled this project at all since it was supposedly a rather short game with only four maps to get through and even knowing the game didn't have a lot levels I still wasn't willing to torture myself to get to the end of this one and face-off against the final boss. And considering some of the games I've put myself through over the years that says a lot about this game.