Affordable Space Adventures review: A treat for those who always wanted to be an astronaut

Nintendo Wii U; KnapNok Games; £16.99

Budding astronauts who booked places on Virgin Galactic way back in 2008 are still waiting to blast off into the blackness of space, their expensive interstellar exploits having been delayed more times than Duke Nukem Forever. Fortunately, KnapNok Games have decided to fill the void for them by providing Affordable Space Adventures for Wii U owners.

Opening with a corporate advertisement for in-game company Uexplore that details the amazing opportunities for exploration on planet Spectaculon, a safe but uncharted world, Affordable Space Adventures initially seems like a friendly, secure way of exploring the cosmos.

That is, until you actually find yourself in the small craft, navigating your way past the wreckage of Uexplore's mothership while lightning flickers ominously overhead. Dense fog obscures much of the scenery, and many of your ship's functions are initially offline. It doesn't look much like the picture painted by Uexplore's marketing campaign.

Piloting the craft is simple, but more systems come online as you progress through the strange world, and soon your GamePad is full of switches that must be carefully monitored. Put your fuel engines on full thrust against an incoming storm and the heat reactor will meltdown, causing your craft to explode. It becomes a careful juggling act where players must combine use of engines, stabilisers, and the mass generator (used to sink to the bottom of watery sections, or against up-drafting wind currents) to negotiate various puzzles.

These come in several forms, beginning with simple switches that must be pushed either with your craft or by triggering it remotely by firing flares. Then your ship's stabilisers come into their own as you must fly carefully around laser barriers, and puzzles continue mainly in this vein until your scanner begins to pick up readings of alien artefacts.

These artefacts are generally hostile, and a balancing act of your ship's systems is required to pass through their alert fields. Some require that you make no noise, and others that you use no electricity, or don't pass a certain heat threshold. It's quite an ingenious system that sees you trying different combinations until at last a breakthrough occurs. Two difficulty modes, tourist or technician, allow for varying levels of challenge.

Despite a strong solo showing, it's in co-op mode where there is most fun to be had, with up to three players each taking charge of sections of the ship's controls. The potential for collaborative puzzle solving is moderated by the temptation of your co-pilots to occasionally sabotage the mission in the name of humour - as your ship creeps through a silent section, the urge to sound the horn often becomes too strong.

KnapNok have implemented what is possibly the best use of the Wii U GamePad since ZombiU, showing what an indie developer with vision can bring to the console by delivering something that even Nintendo themselves have frequently failed at - an experience that can only really be provided by the unique setup of the Wii U.