No one can quite figure out what to do with the Wii U Gamepad. It seems rife with potential for new gameplay possibilities but most developers seem to either ignore its existence, or simply use it to display a map or inventory screen. Launch title ZombiU has perhaps utilized it better than any other title even almost three years since its release, but never fear- KnapNok’s Affordable Space Adventures feels like the first game since that truly gets the Wii U Gamepad.
In Affordable Space Adventures you play some unknown person or persons travelling to another world in a Small Craft, a cheap spaceship provided by a manufacturer called Uexplore. You are shown a brilliant commercial that extols the virtues of the craft, which will provide you with everything you need to explore a wonderous alien world and nothing you don't. uExplore also prides itself on its history of 0 accidents or deaths since the beginning of the company's history, and you seem well on your way to travel to a new world and claim your own land, in safety if not comfort.
Of course, when you (crash) land there, things turn out slightly different.
Affordable Space Adventures owes a lot to platforming puzzlers like Limbo and its ilk, the kind of game you only advance through after enduring multiple deaths, most of which are completely over the top and humorous in their violence. It retains that haunting, nightmarish vibe that Limbo made so popular but that's about it, as it's a much more colorful experience (and less crippling, atmospherically), and a whole lot more twitch-based.
Your little Small Craft is all you see. You’ll spend the majority of the game flying it through tunnels trying to avoid various turrets and robotic enemies that wish you death, as well as crippling heat and cold on the inhospitable planet. The game's brilliance lies in the fact that your ship is controlled by a heads down display, here recreated with your Wii U Gamepad.
