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The tagline for Space Miner is ‘Space Ore Bust’, which should give you a pretty clear idea that this is not a game which takes itself overly seriously.  You play the part of a young guy who plans to visit his Uncle Jeb aboard the Gritstone deep space mining station, where you’ll get to shoot some asteroids and generally do very little.  Your plans change when you arrive, as Uncle Jeb gets himself into debt and an evil corporation’s mining droids start stealing profit, leaving it down to you to reverse the Gritstone fortunes.

What this means is the majority of the game is spent visiting sectors, blowing up asteroids and collecting any ore left over, blowing up mining droids and collecting any scrap left over, then exchanging your profits for all sorts of upgrades to make your ship stronger, faster and more efficient.  There are various side missions and the main plot of course, but they usually revolve around something similar, and you know what, it’s all absolutely fantastic.

It’s a tried and tested formula which still works – make money and buy cool stuff – and its execution in Space Miner is almost faultless.  There are several recurring characters, whose dialogue is witty and amusing, all the upgrades available in the Gritstone shop are things you’ll want to try, there are licenses to give a sense of progression and plenty of levels to represent great value for money.  The graphics are superb too, with detailed backgrounds, varied weapon effects and interesting enemies all on display.  Best of all?  You’ll be wanting to find time to play it, and you can’t say that about many iPhone games.

The control system is simple, with a thumb pad, a fire button and a thrust button, giving the game an appropriately Asteroids-style feel.  The thumb pad was initially too large for comfortable usage, but a very helpful resize option has been included which instantly fixed the problem.

There are only a couple of downsides – some of the hillbilly music is irritating, seeing me reach for the music volume slider, and slow-down was evident on busy levels while playing on an iPhone 3G.  On the subject of sound, do play with headphones on at least once, as the stereo effect and bass response are both excellent.

Venan Entertainment’s first iPhone release is a cracker, as Space Miner is an addictive, fun to play and beautifully designed space shooter which definitely deserves your $4.99/£2.99.

5/5