Games worth discovering

Some Mobile Games Really Are Better with a Controller - It’s Still a Space Thing Review

15K View2022-08-14

For as long as I’ve been playing mobile games, I’ve always resisted the idea of using a controller with them for reasons that don’t make much sense. I purchased a Razer Kishi months ago, and I’ve tested it with a few games here and there, like Diablo Immortal. But for the most part I always find myself getting annoyed enough by the process of removing my Samsung Galaxy S21’s case and clicking the awkward controller into place around it that I don’t even bother. The slight improvement in playability with traditional controls versus touchscreen controls rarely seems worth the trouble.

Color me surprised that the game that has finally started turning me around on the efficacy of mobile gaming controllers is not some massive, gorgeous, big-budget experience. No, the game that convinced me that controllers not only sometimes improve a mobile game but can be damn near necessary was It’s Still a Space Thing, a simple retro platformer that would feel right at home on the NES.

Developed by solo indie dev Brad Erkkila and released earlier this year, It’s Still a Space Thing is actually a sequel to Erkkila’s 2016 title It’s a Space Thing. Where that title was more of an arcade-style high-score chaser, the sequel expands on a similar set of mechanics and spreads it all out across a full-length game’s worth of levels, including tough boss fights.

The story of It’s Still a Space Thing, inasmuch as it has one at all, is laid out in a speedy opening cinematic that immediately shows off the game’s sharp 8-bit aesthetic. A text crawl announces: “Evil bosses and minions and stuff have taken over your space base.” You take on the role of “the lone warrior, maverick, etc.” who must clear out the base of homicidal robots, aliens, and all sorts of other baddies.

That task is represented via a simple core gameplay loop: You spawn into a level made up of 2D platforming challenges and anywhere from a couple to dozens of enemies. Then you navigate through that level, blasting down bad guys, collecting gems, and locating the exit portal that takes you to the next level. The mechanics will be familiar to anyone who grew up with a Nintendo—it’s a mix of platforming and shooting that feels most comparable to classic Mega Man gameplay.

That comparison should get you excited; it’s high praise! But it’s also a warning in the same breath. If you haven’t gone back to play those iconic Mega Man games, you may have forgotten one teensy little thing about them: Those suckers were challenging. I’m not the kind of gamer who spends a lot of time complaining about difficulty in games, and I still think those classics are worth playing, but they tend to be much more skill- and reflex-testing than the average game released these days. And It’s Still a Space Thing absolutely follows in that direction.

The enemies in It’s Still a Space Thing tend to spam out huge waves of bullets, and the only way to ensure that your health bar isn’t immediately drained is to throw up a shield. In addition to your regular gun and shield, you also have one special attack that has a cooldown, a button for jumping, and a button that swaps your gun from aiming straight ahead to aiming up. So all in all, that’s seven on-screen buttons to keep track of during often intense levels.

I’ve played mobile games that have had more crowded screens than this, but I don’t know that I’ve ever had quite this much trouble controlling things. In the middle of particularly difficult encounters, I often found myself accidentally hitting the aim change button while moving, or throwing up a shield when I intended to use my special ability to get me out of a tough spot.

Given the fast pace of It’s Still a Space Thing, mistakes like those often led to death. Frustratingly, the game doesn’t appear to have any way of modifying the layout of buttons on your screen. I would have loved to move the aim button to the top of the screen, for example, or to spread the special weapon and shield buttons across the bottom of the screen instead of having them in a giant clump alongside the jump and shoot buttons in the lower right corner. That lack of functionality was very nearly enough to drag down the full experience for me.

That is, of course, until I decided to give that aforementioned controller a try. A couple of zones into the game, as levels began to grow increasingly tough, I finally broke out the controller, and the difference was night and day. It’s Still a Space Thing feels one hundred percent like it was designed with controller play in mind. It was so smooth and responsive, such a massive boost compared to the touch screen controls that I was honestly blown away. That was the moment when It’s Still a Space Thing transformed from a loving but flawed homage to 8-bit action games into something that could actually contend with those titles.

From the moment I made the switch to using a controller, I started zooming through the game, having a blast even when things got difficult. As it progresses, It’s Still a Space Thing introduces new gimmicks and tweaks to its formula that help keep things fresh. My personal favorite was discovering a rocket pack in some levels, which allows your tiny astronaut character to begin zooming around levels at will and opens up so many exploration possibilities. Later levels let me jump into a submarine to explore otherwise toxic water areas, navigating around mines, enemy subs, and other new underwater opponents. The game is full of fun ideas that help every level feel unique.

The player is also given some control over keeping things fresh in the form of special weapons and perks. In-between levels, you can spend the gems you’ve collected to unlock a wide variety of weapons and perks, but only one special weapon and two perks can be equipped at any time. The perks are tinier bonuses that don’t affect the gameplay too much, such as giving you more health or more ammo for your regular gun before it overheats and has to cool down. But the special weapons can make a huge impact on how you play. For example, heat-seeking rockets allow you to plan ahead and take out particularly annoying enemies from afar, while landmines require getting much closer but do an absolutely devastating amount of damage.

Different special weapons also have different cooldown timers, so some might seem weaker than others but are also likely going to be easier to use multiple times throughout a single stage. I had a lot of fun unlocking and experimenting with each of these tools of destruction. They were particularly fun to swap between during boss fights, searching for the best option against these screen-filling encounters.

Speaking of boss fights, It’s Still a Space Thing runs at the ideal length too—not so long as to overstay its welcome, but not so short that I felt like it didn’t have time to fully explore its ideas. The game features six “zones,” made up of between five and ten levels each, with a total of fifty-three levels. Each zone culminates in one of those boss fights, but not until you can make it through all of that zone’s levels without losing your limited number of lives. Don’t fret, though; in a concession that is absolutely kinder than anything from the NES days, if you run out of lives you can either spend some of your gems or watch an ad to get a refill without starting the zone over.

The ad situation, I admit, is less than ideal. While watching a quick commercial to get some extra lives or more gems is totally optional, the game will occasionally force you into an ad between levels. There wasn’t a set pattern to this that I could discern—it probably happened to me once every four or five levels—but it was always annoying. Similar to wanting more accessibility options, I wish It’s Still a Space Thing offered players the option to pay for the game and not have to deal with ads anymore. I would have happily forked over $5 or even $10 to make this excellent retro experience a little smoother and to support the developer.

That said, if having to sit through a dozen or so 30-second ads across the whole game is the price to pay for playing It’s Still a Space Thing, then that price is absolutely worth it. Brad Erkkila has really captured the essence of what made those classic NES action games feel great: tight level design; clean, iconic visuals; imaginative additions to the mechanics; and especially a deeply challenging but rewarding experience.

Scoring this one is a little difficult, because I really do feel like a controller is required to get the most out of this one. If you have a controller, I think this is easily a four-star game, but if you don’t, it probably falls into the two-star territory just due to how nearly unplayably frustrating later levels get when using touch-screen controls. For the sake of having a proper score on this review, I’ll just split the difference and say that if you haven’t been convinced to bust out a controller while using your phone before, It’s Still a Space Thing is one of the best arguments yet for doing so.

SCORE: 3 STARS OUT OF 5

PLAY IF YOU LIKE:

• Mega Man and other classic action-platformers. It’s Still a Space Thing captures the magic of being eight years old, crouched down in front of the TV in your basement at 2 a.m., the volume turned as low as possible while still allowing you to hear it because you snuck down to play Nintendo while you’re supposed to be sleeping and you don’t want your mom to wake up and yell at you to get to bed.

• Huntdown. While Huntdown’s aesthetics are a little darker, grimier, and more in line with something I’d remember from the Sega Genesis, it does mix platforming and run-and-gun action in a similar way to It’s Still a Space Thing. It’s also very, very good. Check out my colleague JB’s review of Huntdown right here.

💬 If you’ve played It’s Still a Space Thing, let me know what you think about it in the comments! And even if you haven’t, I’d love to hear if you have ever used a controller for mobile gaming. If yes, what game made you want to use one finally? If not, what would it take to convince you? Leave your thoughts in the comments, and I’ll be sure to respond!

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