Spaceplan review
:: OUT OF THIS WORLDPrice: $2.99
Version: 1.0.03
App Reviewed on: iPhone SE
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Spaceplan is a clicker, but not a clicker like you've seen before. It's a game about space, potatoes, time travel, and (of course) watching numbers go up. At it's core, it is still very much a clicker, but it's easily the most interesting and entertaining clicker I've ever played.
Spuds in space
In Spaceplan, you find yourself in a satellite orbiting Earth, only it's not the Earth that you're used to. Something has happened to make the whole planet die. With nothing but your onboard computer and a potato-making gadget referred to as a “Thing Maker,” you hatch a plan to make things right again.
It's an absurd and humorous story that gets doled out through stretches of generating Watts to create new objects that either increase your Watt generation or advance the story. You know, pretty standard clicker stuff. The only real mechanical difference here is that Spaceplan doesn't create absurdly long stretches of time where nothing happens or hide progress behind a paywall.
Escape velocity
Much like other clickers, there isn't that much to do in Spaceplan besides wait. There's a button at the bottom of the screen you and tap to speed up your Watt generation a bit, which can be a pretty pleasant experience thanks to the game's beautiful visuals and incredible soundtrack, but most of the time you'll just be checking in on the game as your Watts generate automatically over time.
Thankfully, you don't have to stick with Spaceplan for too terribly long before things change. The back half of the game introduces some slight variation on just tapping things, and the entire game can easily be completed over the course of a couple days. The story that unfolds over this time is bizarre, but satisfying in its own weird way, making it the only clicker I've played that doesn't overstay its welcome.
Click bait?
As weird and wonderful Spaceplan is, it's also still just a clicker. On top of this, it's a short game that costs $2.99 when most other games in the genre are free and extremely long. Considering this, it's understandable to question the value proposition of a game like Spaceplan. Because of this, I want to be clear: Spaceplan is absolutely worth your time and money.
Spaceplan is so great precisely because of how genre-defying it is. It takes all of the worst rules of mobile clickers and simply does away with them to create something much more interesting and enjoyable. It also accomplishes all of this while looking, feeling, and sounding incredible.
The bottom line
Spaceplan isn't an exceptional clicker. It's an exceptional game that just so happens to be a clicker. It's a game that manages to be smart, funny, beautiful, and strange with a simple set of tools over a relatively short period of time. Most games can't do that. Spaceplan does so effortlessly.