Preview: Space Ark

I have to say that while I’m not a big indie gamer myself, Space Ark is a game that could pique my interest.

On a not-so warm day in London I got the chance to see a game that I knew very little about. Setting myself up for embarrassment I met the technical director of Strawdog Studios Simon Morris who walked me through Space Ark, an upcoming Xbox Live arcade game due to be released in April.

Describing the game as “a little bit of arcade and a little bit of hardcore”, Space Ark is about a bunch of animals called “arkonauts” who are herded onto a “space ark” and are flown into space to find new planets to terraform and live on. The planet they lived on was shattered by a black hole and the arkonauts fly into space to terraform (repair) the planets left damaged but salvageable. The story is exactly what you’d expect from a tongue-in-cheek, happy arcade game – the narrative is only there to give you the game play a purpose but the story is well presented and doesn’t feel tacked on.

Building up the best combos and collecting the best fruit is vital for the biggest total score.

The game play is simple enough: you choose an arkonaut and you throw and “bounce” your arkonaut around different levels to collect DNA combos to help terraforming take place. The game play is a morph of many different retro and modern day arcade games have inspired Strawdog to create their own unique game that takes the positives from what other games did well. The most reminiscent inspirations for players will be the likes of Peggle, Brickbreaker and Shatter but Simon referred to a game I was unfamiliar with called Arkanoid.

Arkanoid was very much before my time (as far back as 1986) but research into the game shows me exactly how Space Ark is influenced by it. You have a launch pad which you scroll left and right along the bottom of the screen. Your arkonaut stands on the pad and to begin the combo collection you launch your arkonaut into the air to collect the combos and build up your score.

Scoring points is vital here – the main appeal of this game will be point scoring and competing. The bigger the combo you score when collecting, the more points you get. Depending on what size a combo you get in one bounce you will be rewarded with a particular fruit that corresponds to different point scores – the fruits range from the least effective cherry to the most effective melon. Fruit will be scattered around latter levels too and the more you collect the greater your overall score will be.

The level designs are very colourful and the progressive terraforming of the planets looks excellent.

The game mechanics are simple – you only use a few buttons throughout the whole game (which I welcome very much as this means younger gamers will be able to jump right in). The left analogue stick controls your launch pad whilst the right analogue sticks controls where you aim your arkonaut. Much like Peggle you have a line that you curve in the right direction to hit as many blocks as possible for the biggest combo. The A button activates initial launch and the right trigger uses your special power ups (such as a gun) gained from packages that are placed in some levels.

The only flaw with the controls are beginning and ending – having to press A whilst aiming your initial trajectory with the right analogue stick feels awkward, and upon trying to exit you have to jump within the range of the portal but the game tries to make if you fly towards it but want to keep collecting you don’t get sucked in. However trying to exit because of this is tricky at times. However I was not the first person to mention this so hopefully the start and finish issues will be corrected in time for launch.

There are five planets to terraform, with six stages to play through as each of the available arkonauts to choose from on each planet. This offers a lot of game time (four hours worth was the time I was told but I can see much more than that) and gives the difficulty progression of levels a chance to fully come to fruition. These five planets to terraform are part of the single player campaign. The game will also come with Survival mode (like Hexic HD), Time Attack mode and Head to Head (which is split-screen two player).

I got the chance to experience both the campaign and the Head to Head mode. The Head to Head mode is manic – I had a very heated match “to the death” with Simon which culminated in me losing emphatically. I understand why Strawdog opted not to include online multiplayer – the leaderboards offer people the chance to compete and working on an online Head to Head mode would have taken the development time away from the rest of the game. I appreciate this because this is a game where split-screen works brilliantly – the two players play on the same stages so compete to collect as much as possible. There’s no separation – you can steal the opponent’s fruit if you’re that mean.

The mini narrative running throughout can be appreciated. I got a strange PixelJunk Shooter vibe from the story...

Collecting everything in each stage opens up the stage exit portal which you fling your character into. You don’t have to collect absolutely everything, just all the gems but collecting every single item in a stage gets you a perfect score which adds a bonus to your stage score. It’s all about the points with Space Ark so sticking behind to collect the last few fruit or bonus packages which appear in some levels will get you the extra points that may put up ahead of your friends in the leaderboards.

This decision making is one thing that was very enjoyable in split-screen – while I was quick off the mark to collect as many gems as I could get my hands on, Simon chose the slow and steady approach, building up combos, collecting only the best fruit and taking in as much as he could whilst maximising his combo score. The fruit build up your combo bonus metre so conservative fruit selection instead of smashing and grabbing can work in your favour (20 cherries accumulate to 4 melons).

Much as you’d expect with any point-scoring game, tactics can yield much greater success. That said you can go wild and fling yourself around the place collecting everything for the sake of collecting everything in minimal time but outside of Time Attack mode there isn’t a timer so playing the steady approach will give you the chance to top the scoreboards.

If you drop your character (it falls below your launch pad) you’ll combo multiplier will drop and you’ll lost valuable points. You don’t lose lives, you lose points – try not to fall!

Overall Impressions:

Space Ark is a lot of fun. It’s childish and silly but it’s brilliant and incredibly addictive. Completionists and people who like to compete will be in their element here – the game has a small learning curve but is advanced enough to separate the pros from the rookies after a while. Practice makes perfect here – learning the ways to maximising your score becomes an non-mandatory objective. To be the best you need to learn the ins and outs of the game and this is where I think Space Ark will shine the most.

For 800 Microsoft Points you’ll be getting your money’s worth – the game play is both familiar and creative, the aesthetics are bright and shiny, the scoring mechanics seem polished and engaging and the longevity and appeal of Space Ark could surprise a lot of people. Don’t be put off by the slightly cutesy nature of the game – Peggle has that too and that’s ridiculously addictive too. If Strawdog Studios take the minor issues on board and tweak the game a little more, I can’t see any reason why Space Ark shouldn’t be a great arcade success.

I’d like to thank Simon Morris from Strawdog Studios for giving me the chance to play the game, as well as Simon Callaghan and Oliver Birch from PlayReplay for organising the event, along with special thanks to Tom Page from PlayReplay for not only helping organise the event but for helping me find the event location too!

For more information on Space Ark, visit http://www.strawdogstudios.com/games/spaceark.

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