Super Mining Mechs is a follow up to last year’s Mining Mechs, an exploration/mining game that we liked, even if it didn’t particularly wow us. We thought of it more like a podcast game, something to chill out with while listening to something else.
This game follows on from the original. There’s a little bit of story pre-amble which is voice-acted this time. Lots of talk about the Earth having run out of resources and so now you get to explore four planets, rather than one. However, in gameplay terms, this is more of what we got before which is to say that you’ll be digging. A lot.
The idea is pretty familiar to anyone who played the original or games like Steamworld Dig, Minecraft or Terraria. You dig through dirt as you look for resources. Eventually though you’ll cap out on dirt or resource capacity and will need to go back to the surface. Here you can ditch the dirt, sell/store the resources or engage with upgrading your passive abilities or your mech. Increasing your dirt/resource capacity, mech speed, drilling speed and so on. Essentially you’re digging in order to get stuff that will let you dig more.
Upgrades are earned by completing a list of resources that you’re asked to collect. Sometimes these are readily available but sometimes you’ll need to dig a lot deeper. Later on in the game you’ll need to switch to other planets to find the rarest ones. This adds a bit of interest compared to last year’s game, even if ultimately it still just involves you digging to the depth where those resources show up.
Along the way you’ll find areas where you can build mines. These work differently to before. Previously they just generated money, a resource that we never had to think much about this time as we always seemed to have enough. Now they generate whatever resources you have unlocked. Need some argon, carbon or iron? Just tell the mine to get it and, if it’s available, you’ll be able to collect it after a minute or so.
However, mines need power and so you’ll need to find a power stone and create a generator there (see above). That can then be connected to the mine using cables and you’ll be good to go. You can also create, and power up, heaters/pumps (used to let you explore cold/hot planets respectively) and radar stations which power up your little mini-map (a new, but not massively useful, feature that wasn’t in the original).
In terms of things to find, it’s these mines and power stones. And while the playing area’s width has been extended by ten blocks, finding them isn’t too tricky. We just ended up digging massive tunnels down every 15 or so blocks across and that seems to work fine.
And, much like the original, there’s not much else to talk about. You dig, collect, sell, hand-in, upgrade and build, all in service to being able to go deeper underground. And with a look that’s much the same as last year’s offering, and tweaked gameplay that doesn’t alter too much of the original formula, the only question you need to ask is do you need more Mining Mechs?
But, as with the previous game, we find ourselves happily sinking hours and hours into it. There’s barely any challenge, all the game really asks you for is time, and we’re not sure any of the changes they’ve made actually improve anything. But are we still happy to keep digging? Yes, we are.