Unfortunately, though, Super Motherload becomes monotonous before very long. In this sense, Super Motherload has all of the trappings of something addictive, especially when you combine it with its rudimentary story – complete with passable voice acting – and pleasing soundtrack. You can increase your fuel capacity, better your drill bit, strengthen your armor, and much, much more. Bringing these back to service checkpoints, of which there are several as you move your way deeper and deeper, allows you to exchange your findings for money, which can then be used to upgrade your rover’s capabilities in fairly granular ways. The X button is used to float and fly back to areas above you, making sure you’re never stranded in the bowels of the planet.Īs you dig, you’ll encounter metals and precious gems of all kinds, from cheap silver and gold to pricey diamonds and rubies, which makes you want to keep digging, since the further down you get, the more common valuable rocks become. Controlling your rover is simple, with movement mapped to either the directional pad or left analog stick, and digging is as simple as moving in the direction you want to excavate. And that’s okay, because on a mechanical level, it does what it does very well, even if it looks old and, on the periphery, quite unimpressive. It’s at this point that – from the very beginning - you see virtually everything Super Motherload has to offer, from graphics to gameplay. After selecting your character, you’re given a mining rover that can be used to dig ever deeper into Mars’ randomly generated red soil.

Super motherload smelter