Max Astro: Stranded Beyond the Stars Preview

Meet Max. He’s an astronaut. He isn’t the fittest, brightest, or most conventional space pilot out there, but everybody deserves their own story, right? When his rocket ship takes a turn for the worse by plummeting into an unknown alien planet, it’s up to Max to defeat the mysterious aliens and make his way back home.

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Crashing to an iOS device near you

Meet Max. He’s an astronaut. He isn’t the fittest, brightest, or most conventional space pilot out there, but everybody deserves their own story, right? When his rocket ship takes a turn for the worse by plummeting into an unknown alien planet, it’s up to Max to defeat the mysterious aliens and make his way back home.

In Max Astro, the new iOS title from indie studio Execution Unit, players control Max through a unique one-finger control scheme. Max will automatically walk across the bottom of each screen, and boost over block walls that are two blocks or shorter at the expense of oxygen. By tapping to fire Max’s blaster, players must try and make stages as flat as possible to preserve precious air.

Obstacles include dangerous man-eating flora with a mind of its own, and ballooning (and, admittedly, adorable) space pirates. Players can use their blasters to pop the pirates and force their spiky bodies to clear blocks ahead of Max’s path. It’s in your advantage to do so, too: Skilled astronauts will be able to view their high scores via the games OpenFeint scoreboard system.

Max Astro Max Astro

Players even somewhat interested in this colorful adventure will be happy to hear that Max Astro will be using a demo-style payment system (one of our absolute favorites). Players can explore through seven stages (and two arcade stages) before deciding if they’d like to purchase the game’s additional 30 story stages.

Max Astro is a first mobile effort for Execution Unit, but with over 18 years of experience developing for various console platforms, you’d never be able to guess that yourself. The colorful visuals and quirky music show all the signs of a great mobile game. Mark your calendars: Max Astro will be blasting into the App Store on June 14th.