Space Pioneer Review (Nintendo Switch)

Review Code Used Many Thanks to Wiretap Media

On the job with your robot buddy

Space Pioneer is a sci-fi themed top-down shooter. The universe is a very dangerous place and you are an intergalactic mercenary and explorer for the Galactic Federation. You have been sent to distant galaxies to explore and do some clean up duties. Fear not, you won’t be doing this all on your own as you have a little robot companion who beams down to the planets surface with you. Two’s company right?

When Xeldar, an intergalactic war boss, makes an appearance and starts attacking local planets you must track him down, along the way take out any alien threats you may come across.

Keeping an eye on meters

On each planet you are given a main objective to complete and usually, after completion, you are given a related objective to complete to finish the mission. Objectives like fuel the ship and once that’s done you are asked to repair the ship. Along with those, there are also three challenges to finish. You earn coins on completing an objective and challenges. These coins are used to buy skills like speed, so your character can move faster and upgrade your equipment. Like for example upgrading your health pack so you can recover more health.

Along with collecting coins in the levels there are various trophies to earn which in turn earn you chests. These chests have cards in them and these are used to increase the levels of certain equipment or health.

Space Pioneer is not a game where you can just run though the planets with your gun firing non stop. Your gun will overheat. Being in the middle of trying to defeat a horde of aliens when your gun refuses to fire as it’s overheated is just asking for trouble!

You can build turrets or throw bombs to defeat more aliens. however these also have a countdown until they can be used again. So you need to keep an eye on all the cool down meters while running around the level avoiding and shooting aliens as you complete the missions. Multitasking eh?

Retro look and music

On your journey through the planets while you hunt down the War boss Xeldar you will encounter many enemies and fight a variety of mini bosses. The planets have different terrains such as Ice, Jungle or the Desert planet. Each comes with its own visual style from different flora and enemies that are unique to the location.

Space Pioneer has quite a retro look in its art style and the same can be said for the music that accompanies the gameplay.

The joy-con and buttons on the Nintendo Switch are used to control your character. They work fine as does the game when it is running, I encountered no glitches or bugs while playing Space Pioneer.

Conclusion

Space Pioneer is a entertaining shooter and I have enjoyed my playtime with it. I didn’t find any off the levels overly hard to complete and felt the same about the bosses I encountered. The tactic that I found worked well for me was circling continuously in any direction and firing at the boss or enemies. This way I was able to avoid attacks and take minimum damage.

It’s clear the developers have worked hard at creating the game, however, it doesn’t really bring anything new to the table as it is. The first few levels are hectic while you memorise the control sequence. As you progress through the levels there are plenty of rewards for completing them and then upgrading your equipment. But there’s nothing new we haven’t really seen before.

Saying that I still feel it’s an enjoyable game to pick up and play in shorter bursts.

Final Verdict: I like it.