Space Frontier offers only a single, simple screen and a large rocket ship. On clicking play, your ship explodes upwards, burning away from the bottom. As it reaches each new section, there is a tiny green area; you tap the screen at that moment to get a perfect result, or just before it to get a ‘Good’ or ‘Awesome’ result. If you go too late well… it explodes and everyone dies.
As the ship propels upwards, points are gained speedily, meaning that the more sections of the rocket you have, the further you’re going to get, as you can burn through more. Every 10 points corresponds to an additional coin, which can be used to purchase more sections.
When you manage to hit an ‘Awesome’ or ‘Perfect’ you gain a few seconds extra of flying time without burning up the ship, meaning you get a nice chunk of bonus points. When you start building up ship sections and thus have a lot more speed tests to tap at the right point, you get that many extra chances to hit an ‘Awesome’ or ‘Perfect’ meaning even more point gain possibilities.[sc name=”quote” text=”If you go too late well… it explodes and everyone dies.”]
The visuals and sound as the rocket is shooting upwards and gradually gets more burned is intense and satisfying. The camera zooms in and the pace speeds up inexorably, making the whole experience tense and exciting.
Once you hit 9 additional stages of your rocket, you can begin to colonize Mars. Before each launch, you can spend 1 gold, increasing additionally every purchase, to add an additional colonist to your ship. If you can manage to reach 2500 points of flight height, they make it to Mars and start their colony!
As more and more people are ferried over there, they begin to generate gold per hour for you, passively. This seems to be an attempt to add a passive element to the game so as to create some kind of return feature; you want to come back to the game to get the gold that’s being held, so you may as well keep playing.
As you get more and more people over there, you reach new ranks and rewards, increasing the amount they generate for you. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of progress possible after this point however; it’s just Mars and then… More Mars.
Space Frontier seems to lack the consistent upward momentum that the rockets possess in copious amounts; once you start colonising Mars and getting colonists there, there isn’t a huge reason to keep playing.
However, what Space Frontier lacks in replayability it makes up for in immediate fun and enjoyment. The effects are good, the game is enjoyable and it makes for some good fun for a short while.[sc name=”quote” text=”The effects are good, the game is enjoyable and it makes for some good fun for a short while.”]
Plus it’s really funny – yet also a little bit sad – to watch the rockets explode and everyone dies when you miss one rocket segment.
[appbox googleplay com.ketchapp.spacefrontier]
[appbox appstore id1252963998]
