Astro Miner

Genre: Isometric Arcade / Simulation

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local Split-Screen)

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Review:

Astro Miner, released in 2022 on mobile devices and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2023, is a game that’s difficult to define. The game is similar to developer Crazy Labs’ other game, Dig Deep, but unlike that game Astro Miner’s automated components aren’t strong enough to consider this an Idle Game. In absence of that, I suppose Astro Miner is a game whose genre is somewhere between an Isometric Arcade-style game and a Simulation-style game.

The premise in Astro Miner has players taking the role of a colorful stick figure man traveling to different worlds to mine through their dirt and rocks using a powerful vacuum device to collect valuable resources and return them for processing to make money. This money can then be used to upgrade your own capabilities, as well as to hire help to make the mining go faster.

At least… in theory. In practice, the hired help in this game is brainless, and will often stand in place staring at nothing and doing nothing. For the most part, if you want to get things done in this game, you have to do it yourself. Unfortunately, your vacuum device isn’t exactly fantastic either, and there will definitely be times where you’ll be wondering if you’re having any effect, or if you need to adjust your position to be more effective, and even when you’re doing things the way it seems you’re meant to, you won’t always be clearing away the dirt you’re vacuuming.

Beyond the frustrations of poor automation and your inadequate tools, there’s not really much to the game. You dig through dirt and rocks to get resources to buy upgrades to be better at digging to get more resources to get more upgrades, and so on. There’s nothing here that really feels like you’re progressing, it’s all just the same thing over and over again.

At the very least, the presentation here is appealing, even if it’s not impressive. The game uses simple, colorful 3D visuals that look nice, and the way the dirt deforms as you vacuum it is visually-interesting as well, but this game doesn’t do much to visually distinguish itself. This is all backed by a repetitive synthesized theme that works well enough, but isn’t memorable either.

I appreciate that Crazy Labs is essentially trying to do a an Isometric take on Dig Deep, and I can see how that could have worked out to be a pretty fun game. Unfortunately, a combination of gameplay elements that are a bit too broken, and game design that’s far too repetitive, I feel like this is a game that players will tire of quickly.

tl;dr – Astro Miner is a game with Isometric Arcade and Simulation elements that has players using a vacuum to dig through dirt on various planets to gather resources. The premise here isn’t bad, but multiple game mechanics don’t work quite right, and the overall game design is far too repetitive. The result is a game that may entertain for a little while, but isn’t likely to hold your interest for long.

Grade: C-

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