Thank you, Rokabium Games, for sending us a review code!

Something Ate My Alien... Usually, the titles of media would be the name of the main character, or an object, or a meaningful blend of words. This is just a statement, but believe me, it does make more sense in context. Something Ate My Alien (SAMA) by Rokabium Games is a 2D puzzle platformer where the main plot is that some kind of pirate alien tentacle creature hijacked your ship and is forcing you and your many alien buddies to loot planets of its resources.

Your unwelcomed guest is not the kindest individual. It is very demanding of your services and requires a “ransom” of a specific amount of materials. The four difficulties ranging from easy to insane do change the amount of materials the pirate requires for each planet. Any items collected that the pirate does not care for or has more than enough of can be hoarded for yourself, to either upgrade your weapons or suit to make future voyages easier.

The player alien goes underneath the crust of the planet to gather many types of minerals, gasses, fossils, and energy. Your main weapon is a mining tool in which you will blast away the ground and you jump around with your jetpack. This mining tool is only for excavation so your starting offensive weapon is a blaster meant to fend off the creatures that lurk below. Controlling your alien is pretty simple as you move with WASD, and aim around with the mouse. (The mining tool and weapons require aiming around.) Although SAMA when first starting up recommends the usage of keyboard and mouse, it will prioritize a gamepad if plugged in. Unlike many games that immediately switch the button prompts depending on what control method you use, the display will always show gamepad prompts even when using KB+M. Fortunately, all bindings can be remapped to your choosing if the default controls are awkward.

One of the main objectives of each planet is to collect ten tokens, because throughout your voyage you’ll come across giant serpent creatures, appropriately named “Somethings”. They will swoop by interrupting your progress every once in a while breathing fire and causing a general ruckus and can only be harmed when all ten tokens of each planet are collected. I also found out why the title is named as such, when the Something did in fact, eat my alien in one bite!

The aforementioned tokens are acquired by completing puzzle rooms. Basically, all of the puzzles in this game will consist of pushing color-coded blocks into the correct spots. These puzzles are simple enough when starting, but they do get a bit complicated as more planets are unlocked. I enjoyed these puzzles as each world introduced new gimmicks and patterns to keep them from feeling stale.

SAMA puts you into a rhythm because each planet is huge in size. Your alien will dig around looking for various loot until you’re either running low on oxygen or weight capacity. Scattered throughout are teleporters to send your alien back to the ship to store any resources gathered, as well as to replenish your health and oxygen levels. This pattern will pretty much repeat right until the credits roll. Strangely enough, the gameplay loop ends up being rather relaxing, although monotonous at points. Blasting away aliens is cool with the half-dozen weapons you can use, digging and the sense of progression is there, and the atmospheric music compliments it all.

However, on a negative note, the planets can start to feel similar to each other as enemies start to repeat patterns and the Somethings fought at the end of each planet don’t change enough to feel engaging after the second meeting. Playing for long periods of time is probably not the best choice to make unless digging and exploring is something you crave.

Morally, there really isn’t much to scoff at. The only notable aspect is the violence. The environment and alien design do lean more towards the cartoonish side and most enemies explode in a puff of dust. Even the alien simply dissolves into particles when killed.

Something Ate My Alien is a simple experience that may just surprise you. This adventure can take anywhere between 8 and 24 or more hours as each planet can range from 2 to 6+ hours of content depending on your playspeed. It doesn’t set out to defy the genre, but what it does, it does pretty well and is generally safe for anyone to play. If only the worlds had a bit more variety in them but taking your time to experience these underground alien worlds will prevent it from feeling too repetitive.