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Play as the crew of the Spark, the spaceship equipped with the most advanced AI in the universe. Your mission is to deliver precious cargo to the four corners of the galaxy to ensure the survival of humanity. Beware, alien pirates and hostile environments await you, so only the best will arrive in one piece.
Spark Riders 3000 is a hybrid single player/co-operative tower defense and survival game for 1 to 4 players in which players must coordinate their actions to ensure the success of their mission.
Each scenario is different and you will have to adapt quickly to avoid seeing your ship destroyed and its cargo intercepted by alien pirates.
The goal is simple: reach your delivery point without having one of the ship's vital rooms destroyed.
—description from the publisher
- Mandatory free companion mobile app
- Unique abilities for characters
- Ability to give help to another crew member
- Can be a little overwhelming with a lot going on
- piloting a spaceship to deliver a valuable shipment while surviving attacks from alien species
- a spaceship named Spark traveling thousands of astronomical units away
- guided by the ship's AI Iris, progressing the mission story and events through a companion app
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- action selection — Players choose from actions like piloting, shooting, tinkering, or event actions during their turn. Movement is also a key part of a turn.
- Companion app — A mandatory mobile app is used to guide setup, manage alien behavior, track ship status, and progress the mission and events. Without it, the game cannot be played.
- cooperative play — Players work together as a crew to pilot the ship, survive attacks, and reach their destination.
- Dice Rolling — Armor dice are rolled to block incoming shots against the ship, corresponding to armor tokens in a targeted room.
- Modular Board/Rooms — The spaceship is composed of different rooms, some critical to protect (cockpit, nexus, engine room, cargo bay), with damage states indicated by cards.
- Set Collection — Players earn crystals collected by drawing prosperity cards, which are then placed as items or gear.
- Variable player powers — Each rider (e.g., Nova, Alex) has unique abilities at the top of their player board, in addition to shared abilities.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- So core component of the game is a mandatory free companion mobile app that you have to download.
- And without the app, you won't be able to play it.
- So, the game is divided into two main phases. We have the aliens phase and the crew members phase.
- So, you'll notice that there are uh unique abilities here.
- So, this is a a really cool looking b uh spaceship, but it can be a little bit overwhelming with a lot going on.