Developer: Halfbrick
Price: $2.99
Genre: Puzzle
Acquired: Developer Provided Review Copy
Verdict: Worth the little bit of coin and memory card space. Highly enjoyable atmosphere, highly frustrating puzzles
Pros: Great music, challenging for something so simple, addictive game play
Cons: Not much to look at, could cause you to throw your PSP in frustration
Finally, a PSP Minis game that is not some iPhone port has landed on the PSN! Blast Off is both challenging and relaxing. The real question is will this simple game of challenges be worth your time and coin? Without a doubt, yes, yes it is!
Blast Off is a game of few controls. The face buttons control the rocket and the nub controls the direction of the ship. That is all there is to the controls. It sounds simple enough. Ultimately, this is where the easy life ends though.
Blast Off starts out with a few nice and easy levels before it begins the punishment. The addition of gravitational pull gets introduced with planets and black holes. Astronauts will be set all over the place to challenge your patience and navigational skills. Add to this a limited amount of air and fuel, and the fun times keep on rolling. It might sound like a broken PSP waiting to happen here, but once you master these forces, the game becomes addicting and highly enjoyable.
This game gets frustratingly hard. Therein lays the double edge sword. It is addictive and challenging. Having to master slingshotting around planets is a must. Halfbrick was also kind enough to include a set of high scores to help give players something to shoot for. The high scores are nothing to laugh at either. All in all, there is a challenge here that is quite impressive for such a small game.
Though collecting all the astronauts is necessary to get a gold medal for the level, it is not necessary to proceed on to the next stage. One astronaut is all it takes to proceed through the game. This is nice as some stages just take too much thought on a Saturday morning!
While there is a calming aesthetic to the game, there is not a whole lot to look at. The ship is simple, the planets are not much to brag about, and the astronauts are but simple sprites. It all works, but there is nothing that is going to blow your mind in the graphics department.
Overall this is a great game to be had on the PSP Minis lineup. While the challenge can be frustrating at times, there is a simple enjoyment to be had here. This is simple enough to play in short bursts, but yet has enough meat and taters to last for that hour or two gaming session. This is one of the first PSP Minis games I can recommend you try.
Popularity: unranked [?]
No comments