8-bit homages are nothing new, but what's perhaps a little less common than the NES throwbacks are those referencing 8-bit home computers that were a much bigger deal in Europe and in particular the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, perhaps due to its instantly recognizable neon-on-black color scheme. The brass ring of this particular sphere of nostalgia-mining would be Terry Cavanaugh's 2011 game VVVVVV, which balanced that old-school platforming difficulty and personality with an injection of innovation and a fantastic chiptune soundtrack. Others, like Glass Frog Games's 8 Bit Space, are far more modest with their aspirations.

In 8 Bit Space you are a little astronaut dude whose job it is to explore planets for glowy objects - done up in the traditional strobing multi-colored style of old Spectrum collectibles - and gemstones in particular. Each of the game's five solar systems has five planets of levels comprised of multiple single screens stacked together, sometimes in a linear order but usually in a branching maze, and there are three gemstones hidden across system: finding them all unlocks a temple which provides one of several trophy-looking things that, once all are found, unlocks the ending. The game really is as simple as that: it's the type of throwback that errs closer to being as elementary as the games it venerates rather than looking to reinvent an archaic format for the modern age. That tunnel vision works against 8 Bit Space as much as for it.

If you were to go back and consider VVVVVV's approach to this homage format, the old computer game connection is mostly a superficial one. The core of VVVVVV is in its gravity-flipping mechanic, which wasn't anywhere near as old hat as its art direction, and the way some portions of that game might toss you into a deadly auto-scrolling tower or a sequence where you and a companion that shadows your movements need to escape together. Instances where a particular collectible was so difficult to reach that you might give up and focus on just completing the game, or stick around and doggedly pursue it for the eventual delayed gratification when it finally falls into your hands. That feeling of triumph when you complete the game's last few hurdles as the music swells up. 8 Bit Space has none of these ingenious concepts or moments. It's simply a game where you jump around small maps, collecting as much shiny stuff as possible before bowing out with its amusing ending after an hour or so. There's no other controls besides move and jump, every enemy mostly just patrols around passively, and the only variation in the level design is that sometimes they're a little bigger than average. Oh, and the color schemes are usually different.

That's not to say that 8 Bit Space doesn't have a few ideas of its own. It presents a difficulty system which seems to acutely understand the demands of the modern player as well as the type of older audience that might not desire such concessions for the sake of this contemporary notion of enhanced accessibility. On the easiest setting, you can die as often as you like with no repercussions beyond getting booted back to the level's entrance while retaining all collectibles. On medium, you have three lives before getting kicked out of the current level entirely and forced to start over at 0% completion. On the old-school difficulty, you have three lives and no continue function, so dying means restarting the whole game. In each case you're getting a version of the game that makes sense to you as either a casual tourist with some historical interest in the game's presentation, as a modern platformer fan who wants some kind of challenge and penalty for death, and those of an older or perhaps more masocore leaning who want the same harsh fail state conditions such a game would've had as a Spectrum ZX release in the mid-80s. I also found it cute that the game tosses in a few tips of the hat to classic Spectrum ZX icons, each of whom appear as statues in the five temples.

The game is perfectly functional and offers some satisfying if basic platforming action, evading enemies rather than destroying them as you pick your way through each of its maps collecting as much as you feel like collecting en route to the exit transporter. Given the bar was made so much higher for throwbacks such as these well over ten years ago doesn't really do it any favors in comparison, though, and there are many other Spectrum ZX homages since that are more ambitious (another semi-recent favorite of mine is Lumo from 2016). Judged on its own merits of being a tiny, modest platformer sold at a tiny, modest price it's nothing to sneeze at - especially if you're a thirty- or fortysomething year old parent trying to explain the type of games you played as a kid to your own progeny and could use a cheap and cheerful approximation to demonstrate - but I couldn't help but feel underwhelmed by how rudimentary it all is. If you're looking for a 1:1 recreation of ZX gaming you might as well just boot up the original Manic Miner or Chuckie Egg.

Rating: 3 out of 5.