In Space Miner you play Joe (or Jade) Gritstone, a fresh college graduate who starts working at his/her uncle’s asteroid mine field. Shortly after his arrival, however, uncle Jebediah signs a bad loan contract with Mega Space Corp. and the family is about to loose everything. But Joe soon discovers that Mega Space is after the asteroid field for a reason and the financial crisis turns into a treasure hunt for an alien artifact…
“Space shooter meets RPG” is probably a good description for this funny game full of quirky characters. The basic gameplay is a lot like the arcade classic Asteroids. You fly your space ship through 2D space and shoot asteroids which explode into smaller and smaller pieces until they finally release the precious ore. Different types of enemy robots try to kill you in the meantime, but they can be destroyed and salvaged for scrap metal as well. Once your cargo room is full or a sector has been mined clean you return to uncle Jeb’s base and sell your cargo. The money you make can be spent on new guns, stronger shields, better scanners and ore collectors, bigger reactors to power all that equipment or even new ship hulls that have more weapon slots and a bigger cargo hold. In certain missions you can even find alien technology that gives your ship unique new abilities.
When you have mined a sufficient number of asteroids your mining license level will increase, giving you access to new sectors of the asteroid field. There are occasional side and story mission where you have to collect lost space tourist or defend a stranded ship from attackers.
