Deep Space Rush
Nintendo Switch

Developed By : BUG Studio
Published By : Ratalaika Games
Category : Action, Arcade
Release Date : Oct 25, 2019

It’s a wonder that space travel continues to be a thing in real life, when there are so many movies, games, and books that tell such devastating stories in the great beyond. There’s always a conflict, always fighting, and generally some type of alien that tries to rip faces off anyone that it sees. Nevertheless, it’s a journey we’re determined to make in reality, despite the horrors we encounter with it on a screen. Deep Space Rush on the Nintendo Switch brings us on yet another of space’s dark journeys.

Welcome to the De-Team! You’re now part of an elite security team that runs protection missions all across space. Scattered across the dark void are a plethora of space stations, that all need saving from potential virus contaminations, and that’s where you come in. You’ll need to go into these areas and deal with any contamination issues before infection spreads and harms anyone.

Each time you begin playing, your small transport ship will dock itself into the space station where you’ll have two choices. There’s a small console that will bring up a sort of store, offering different upgrades for your health and weapons. These are upgrades that can be purchased with the coins you earn as you complete runs throughout the game. Your other option is passing through a small teleporter and finding yourself on the ship.

Once on the ship, you’ll never have the same experience twice. Everything that you encounter is randomly generated as you play, and you’ll be able to tell where these “chunks” occur as hard barriers come down that prevent you from back-tracking.

Through the station you’ll encounter plenty of enemies and traps trying to prevent you from getting any further. A lot of the traps are your basic 2-D platforming traps like spikes in the floor, laser beams, and holes you can fall through.

Enemies, though, will have many more different types, and each type can have different variations. For instance when you first start running into the space station, you’ll eventually come across these very generic looking baddies that will book it straight for you. One variant is just a regular guy while another is a bit more kamikaze and explodes if it gets within a certain proximity of you.

There are much more enemies to deal with though, and luckily you’ll have plenty of weapons to help you combat them. You’ll have your standard gun that comes with unlimited ammo, as well as a handful selection of other guns that can be picked up at random throughout the level. These pack a pretty heavy punch, but come with limited ammo so you’ll have to tone down the button mashing when you pick them up.

As you progress through the space station, you’ll earn coins. These can be found around, dropped by enemies, and are rewarded at the end of a run depending on how long you survive for. These coins are one of the only things that remain with you as you cycle into your next run, and as I mentioned at the beginning can be spent in the shop. The upgrades you purchase will also remain through every single run.

While I had fun playing Deep Space Rush I also wasn’t drawn into it in a huge way. There are plenty of games that run off the same type of system, needing to grind in-game currency to purchase upgrades so you can improve. However, that combined with the simplicity of what this game had to offer made it feel more like a mobile game than anything else. Which isn’t a bad thing necessarily, but it didn’t do a great job of really selling the game as a whole.

I found myself dipping into this game with the consistency of a mobile app, playing for short bursts and only when I had some severe downtime I was trying to fill. If you find yourself enjoying games like this then it may be a perfect fit for your library. However if you are looking for an invigorating and in-depth experience, you may not find that in Deep Space Rush