Thank you Ghost Time Games for sending us a review code!

Jettomero: Hero of the Universe was successfully Kickstarted on September 1st, 2017 and was released shortly afterward. This charming space exploration game has a neat artistic style and procedurally generated planets to explore. Jettomero is a huge, indestructible, yet friendly robot who doesn’t wish any harm on the inhabitants yet one wrong step and he’ll destroy their various buildings and wildlife.

In order to leave a planet, Jettomero will have to collect fuel crystals or utilize an erupting volcano to launch into orbit. There are typically a few planets clustered together along with a wormhole to open up a new part of the galaxy to explore. Along with fuel cells, some planets have replacement body parts for Jettomero to discover. Occasionally, there will be a hostile nemesis that will need to be vanquished in order to save the planet. The boss fights consist of pressing buttons and arrows in the proper sequence.

Once defeated, an encrypted message will become available. By twisting the decoder knob you can shift the letters around in the words to unravel the mystery of Jettomero’s origin and humanity’s struggle for survival. At first there is only one decoder knob and only one letter to decode per word but the decrypting gets harder with each unlocked transmission. It doesn’t take long until you have multiple knobs with some of them changing multiple letters per word.

I had to leave mid-game and while the parts and decoded messages stayed with me, my fuel reserves and universe area I was in got reset. Thankfully, fuel isn’t too hard to find in asteroids and on land. Most planets' inhabitants will start attacking Jettomero upon landing so his visits are usually brief. The inhabitants don’t seem to appreciate him taking out other gigantic threats and putting out forest fires. I like how Jettomero lets you know when there is nothing else to do on a planet.

Since there are boss battles and armies attacking you, violence is a given. You will see explosions, but no blood. One of the decoded messages had the word hell in it. Other than that, this game is safe for all ages.

With the randomly generated levels there is plenty to see and do. Perfectionists will enjoy locating all of the different body parts for Jettomero. I like the stats menu that keeps track of all of the trees, buildings, tanks, enemies, and other objects that have been destroyed. Some gamers may find the gameplay repetitive after a while. No matter where you fall in the spectrum, there is no denying this game’s charm with its vividly colorful visuals and lovely background music.

In the end, Jettomero: Hero of the Universe is a cute space exploration game. The asking price is $12.99 which is reasonable if you plan on collecting everything in it. If you just want to complete the story it won’t take too long if you’re good at decrypting the messages. Many gamers will be finished with this game in a couple of hours and may want to wait for a sale before embarking on this journey to save humanity.