Space Port

Left a bit... right a bit... space has got pretty crowded all of a sudden!

If you enjoy a challenge and remember Quadropop and Tetris, then you might just like this space age puzzler with a twist.

You are responsible for a sector of space and as a spaceport worker, you’re charged with keeping this area clear of as many ships as you can. Now, as big as space is, it seems to rapidly disappear due to the virtually unlimited number of spaceships which you must attempt to find a way to help clear into hyperspace. To do this, you have to link three or more similarly coloured ships together. Sounds simple, right? Wrong! Unfortunately for you, these ships are all facing different directions and it’s down to you to figure out the best place to locate them before releasing them to fly off in the direction they’re facing.

As with most puzzle games, you are able to rotate the blocks you control as well as slide the grid around the screen. You are rewarded for successfully clearing the spaceships from each level by being given not just points, but should you manage to do combos you’ll get even greater scores and power-ups to use at your disposal. For example, if you manage to clear two different sets of craft in one go, you could be given the option to skip placing a grid of four ships in your future turn. What’s more, should you clear the level without using this function; you’re given an even greater score.

You have two type of game to try your patience and luck at, story mode and survival. The story mode will challenge you increasingly with every stage you successfully complete. The survival mode however is where you must try to simply keep going until you’re unable to place any more ships down.

This game offers one of the most challenging experiences I’ve encountered on the mobile phone, ever! For tactical, logical puzzle types, and for those who have found their superior gaming skills far too advanced for the likes of your mobile phone, this game is definitely one for you.

The graphics are quite clear and well detailed, and as you’d expect, Space Port uses a good mixture of skill and luck as well as a good dose of logic to keep you entertained and glued to the screen for hours.

Controls are simple and responsive. Moving the position of the four ships is simply using the d-pad or directional buttons in the usual up/down/left/right manner with the 5 or OK button triggering the ships to fly in their direction. Importantly, it’s crucial for you to rotate your ships within their grid, to do so, just press the left softkey and they will turn in a clockwise motion. To switch between your bonus feature, press the # key. To activate your special ability (when you may have one), you just need to press the * key.

Overall, this game offers a great challenge and will reward you with hours of lip-biting frustration and fun. The only thing to remember, in space, no one can hear you scream!

Rating 80%

Positives

Extremely challenging and a novel twist on the puzzle game

Once you’ve got used to the way the ships move, this game proves very rewarding

Graphics are quite detailed and colourful

Animated commander is amusing

You can change the difficulty setting (I must confess - I found easy pretty hard!)

Negatives

You could get frustrated by how hard this game is if you can’t get your head round the rules

A little repetitive