Real Life Highscore

 Here is my first look at the brand new Astronaut sim on iphone “Astronaut Spacewalk” by Jorge Hernandez. It is currently priced at AU$4.49 (at time of writing) on the itunes store.

The game itself is relatively simple. You control an astronaut who is on a spacewalk to do various astronaut like things. For example, fixing broken external cameras and setting up experiments.

The game controls are set out in a way that I have never seen in any game. The entire game screen is split up into squares. Each square has a function. Most of them are for your space suits thrusters. You can turn on your X and Y axis, strafe or roll.
At first the controls may seem very complicated, however they are actually quite intuitive and come more naturally than you would expect. The trick to it is finesse and limiting yourself to moving in one direction at a time.

Don’t forget that motion is perpetual in space and you need to move in the opposite direction to stop. However the suit has a neat “Null” function, which will even you out and stop all motion. It makes things a little easier, but nulling out isn’t free. It costs “electricity” to use your suits computer to activate “null”, and you only have so much electricity stored up. It’s best to even yourself out manually if you can. You also have “air” and “fuel”. Obviously you lose air at a slow rate over time, and fuel is used when you engage your thrusters.

The game has a great sense of immersion. While the sound effects help bring you in, the music can become irritating. Which is a shame.

Overall I had a lot of fun playing this game once I got my head around moving my astronaut.

Released: 4th July 2012
Cost: $AU 4.49
Developer website: http://www.astronautgame.blogspot.com.au/