Space Tail: Every Journey Leads Home Review

Space Tail: Every Journey Leads Home is an attractive platformer game just released for PC and Nintendo Switch, which are the best places for independent games. This game is about a smart female dog that is sent into space!

The story shows a lonely and sad dog who is selected by scientists for the exploration of life-bearing planets and sent into space by a rocket. You control this dog and explore different planets. The story is not very logical, but in any case, a game where the hero is a pet wearing a space suit is not intended to be taken that seriously. The story wants to be a tribute to the animals that are used in various space programs and probably lose their lives. Therefore, the narrator who is the only voice in the game has tried to express emotional and poetic sentences. We don’t think Space Tail’s story is a bad excuse to start an adventure, but if you’re into pet dogs, in particular, you might be more drawn to the story than we are.

The gameplay of Space Tail is not very innovative in the field of platformer games. You can see the familiar platforms and obstacles of this genre here. Also, there are various puzzles on your way that you have seen many times in other games. However, the developer’s approach to overcoming these obstacles is unique.

The hero dog has three important senses with which you can find a solution for your needs. She has the power of sight, hearing, and smell and with their help, she can see the world around her in different ways. Of course, you can only activate one of these powers at a time. Finding the right sense for the upcoming puzzle and taking advantage of that is one of the fun points of the game. Of course, you don’t depend only on these dog senses to advance in the chapters. The developer has considered other mechanics for you.

The hero cannot fight in this title and instead overcomes the enemies with his intelligence. Also, a living comet and a robot help you during the game. You should use stealth to avoid the eyes of the enemies too. Of course, all this does not prevent you from failing a lot through the game. In general, the enemies are cruel and the main character dies very soon.

Another prominent and unique feature of this game is the body language acts your dog makes to interact with aliens. For example, you can choose to make her howl, lie on the ground, etc, so that the space creatures react to these actions and helps you or is afraid of you or even attack you. This feature may be interesting and fun at the beginning of the game, but as you progress further, it becomes repetitive and affects the smooth rhythm of the platforming gameplay.

Space Tail is made as a two-and-a-half-dimensional game. This means that the characters are three-dimensional and the whole environment is usually two-dimensional. We experienced the game on Switch, which unfortunately has a low resolution and blurry visuals. It is clear that the developers have tried their best to design diverse and attractive environments, but the Switch is not a place where you can enjoy these images. In general, the game has various technical weaknesses such as bugs (which usually do not disturb the gameplay) and not-so-smooth physics and controls.

In verdict, we can say that Space Tail is an acceptable game, but it is better to experience it on a PC instead of Nintendo Switch, especially since the game price on both platforms is just 20 dollars.

The review code was provided by the publisher