INTRODUCTIOn
Lonely Astronaut is a casual single button game developed by independent developers Greyson Richey and Nick Lives. As you would expect from a single button game, it is incredibly simple, but it does manage to stand out a bit with its nice artstyle and the use of existential dread as a theme. Overall it's a fine game, but not anything that people would rant and rave about.
Lonely Astronaut is available on Steam and itch.io for $2.99
story
There's really not much to say here. You are a dead astronaut, and your goal is to keep your corpse from being blown apart by asteroids for as long as you can. The longer you survive the stranger things you'll see, but otherwise not much really going on. When you die you get a nice and depressing quote from various famous people, which is a nice touch to the whole existential crisis idea that the game plays with.
Gameplay
As mentioned earlier, Lonely Astronaut is a single button game. Essentially, you press a button to propel your corpse with a jetpack, attempting to avoid asteroids and other hazards. The only way to change direction is to ease up on the jetpack and let your body spin around. Its simple, but it can take a bit of nuance in order to get the hang of it.
You are also given the option of using various different skulls that will change the gameplay. Effects include a more powerful jetpack, larger asteroids, and what can only be properly described as Groovy Mode. It doesn't seem like much, but these additional skulls can add a nice bit of extra difficulty to the game. The only other notable gameplay feature is being able to double tap a key to release a pulse that will destroy incoming projectiles.
sOUND AND GRAPHICS
Lonely Astronaut is a bit of a mixed bag in this regard. The artstyle is nice and consistent, though noting that would really stand out as astounding. Meanwhile, the sound design is almost non-existent. The only sounds are the jetpack and the explosion when your hit by an asteroid. The music is just Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and Chopin's Funeral March. Overall very lackluster on this front.
ConclusionS
Lonely Astronaut is a simple, but short experience. Gameplay is bare bones but manages to be fairly entertaining. After you've discovered a few interesting things and will go through the various quotes given at death, there really isn't too much to keep you playing. This along with a lack of real music or sound design, bogs down Lonely Astronaut. For anyone looking for a quick time burner, this is a good option, but otherwise, it may not be for most people.
Pros | Cons |
+ Simple but fun gameplay | – Overall lack of content |
+ Nice artstyle | – Little to no actual sound design |
+ Neat theme |