Affordable Space Adventures

The game's own title has a slightly sly tone to it. " Economic Space Adventures ", a casual name for a game that, "despite being two-dimensional, has a very remarkable capacity for immersion. Going back to the name of this adventure, the (not very extensive) KnapNok platform plot has the explanation. Let's imagine that in a few centuries, humanity has already launched into space travel with a certain economic laziness. A planet is chosen, and the "tourists" are sent there in a small ship that is not equipped with weapons, only with navigation controls if they are at risk. And to the chagrin of these customers, it turns out that the one they are going to stop (called Spectaculon ) is indeed a danger to their lives, since the "friendly" Martians have set up a number of traps and dangers.

Affordable Space Adventures is presented as a single or local multiplayer bet, severely varying the experience between being carried out by one or more players. If we do it as a single player, we will experience a closer, immersive journey. Spectaculon is a desolate place, and in which the Wii U's graphic capacity has been taken advantage of, even though it is two-dimensional, to provide everything with absolutely great light games, which endow the space with great plasticity. So far we are not seeing anything new. What is interesting about the game? You have to take a look at the Wii U Gamepad screen to understand why mechanics is its strong suit. We have access to all the parameters of our vehicle, and we are going to have to take full advantage of them, from the stabilizer to the anti-gravity control, through propulsion (dangerous, because if we go over there, we will start to burn. Scary, huh?). We can launch flares, use the landing gear at leisure, turn off the ship ... The best thing is that it has even counted on the effect caused by each of them, that is, radiation, electricity, noise ...

And all this, is it necessary? Or just a grace that the guys from KnapNok mark to put "chicha" in command? Attention, because it turns out that it is the playable base: many dangers will depend on our handling of the ship, and this is incredibly fun, thanks to the fact that the answer is perfect. For example, various traps will detect if we are on, or making noise. How do we manage? Boost to the maximum, we turn off the ship, we make the minimum noise and ... just when the danger is turned on to the maximum to turn at the last minute and avoid a direct collision with any element on the planet. Sounds alluring, right? We could say that it is a puzzle in itself , but it is necessary to test it to understand, in addition, that it is not an impossible goal in any case: rather we are facing a game that tests us but without destroying our pride every two footsteps (ahem, Bloodborne ...), and the neat response of the command will make us enjoy each combination, and we are looking down at the command every few seconds, feeling like a real pilot.

What if we want to experience it in company ? Better than better, the participating players divide up the ship's controls, causing a very difficult situation for the Enterprise . Sorry for the trekkie wink, by the way, but that's what it was. The voices among colleagues and reproaches are a real delight when you have to agree, while the resolution of situations causes a feeling of exceptional satisfaction to the group (in which, on the other hand, the one who will try the most request information is the engineer, who manages the screen). It helps a lot that the title has a sense of humor , and in its texts (in Spanish, to the delight of Spanish speakers) we will discover facts from history and conversations that will get us more than a laugh.

Its duration, yes, does not exceed 10 hours . Yes, it lasts longer than many shooter ...

And we asked ourselves, what if the game had an online mode? It would require a microphone without a doubt. But it would have been great to be able to share the adventure too without bringing our colleague home.

In the technical section , beyond the great design, we must return to talk about the brilliant use of lighting , very well orchestrated, although the ship seems "toy", and is not comparable to what surrounds it. However, applause to developers, ASA can be considered within games that take advantage of the graphics qualities of the console, and that's not very common among indie games. The audio is more discreet, with ambient music and some effects, which although immersive, in the multiplayer are practically hidden. Therefore it complies, without fanfare.