What a horrible name. SPAZ stands for Space Pirates and Zombies, and it is just a horrible name. I saw this game a few times on Steam, each time I wrote it off without even watching a video because I thought I knew what it was all about. I assumed that what we had here was another game capitalizing on the Pirates and Zombies craze that is now starting to become old news on the web. While that is objectively true, I thought that it meant this game was beneath my consideration.

How damned wrong I was.

This game is the perfect spiritual successor to Star Control. I played Star Control basically exclusively for a good 6-month stretch of my life, and for a video game nerd, that is fairly significant. If you have never played it, you can get it for a couple bucks on GOG.com here. Alternatively you can download SCII for free here and get an idea, just be warned that the story mode is nothing like what was in the original game. This guy captures the feel of Star Control pretty well in this posthumous review:

Yeah, I know it is all dated and whatnot now, but just think about what a leap this was in the early 90s. I still have all the specials memorized for these ships… Anyone who plays the Ur-Quan first is just going to LOSE.

Forgive me, I digress.

We are talking about SPAZ here.

So, poor me, passing over this game. Luckily Steam had an achievement thing over the holidays at the end of 2011, and I nabbed it for a couple bucks. I truly wish I would have bought it for full price, as I really feel the need to give these developers a proper reward for making a game this good. I think I need to buy a few copies and send them out to my friends as gifts. Mental note.

The first thing that you are greeted with when starting the game is a letter from the devs, stating that they are a company of two, and that they made this game because they can’t find games like it anymore. That melted my heart. It also got me started thinking, and made me realize quickly that they are almost certainly referring to Star Control. Nerd-chills. Then TotalBiscuit starts talking as the narrator. I am not sure what my face looked like, but already, before the game even starts, I realized that I had made a huge mistake.

The game is just amazing, but this isn’t a review, you really should just go check it out if you haven’t already. The devs are committed to releasing a free expansion for the game in the coming months, and adding new ships and elements to the game.

I am playing through it for the second time now, This time on Insane difficulty, because it is there, and it is taunting me.