escape-velocity-nova posts

The mighty Ambrosia Software keeps churning out great games for the Mac, never resting on its laurels. However, there is one title in its roster that continues to iterate, and that's a genuinely good thing, because it keeps getting better with each pass. The Escape Velocity series, originating on the Mac for the now-Classic OS in 1996, has seen its third version drop in 2002, called EV Nova. It has only recently been made available as a Universal Binary, hence its inclusion here in Mac Monday. Even if it weren't for that, however, this game deserves to be brought to the attention of an audience who may not have had the pleasure of playing its earlier incarnations.

At its heart, EVN's gameplay hasn't notably changed from the first version. You take command of a low-level spacecraft, and attempt to rise to power by trading goods throughout the galaxy, indulging in some combat along the way. The graphics are still glorious 2D, which in this case is a welcome deviation from the typical trait seen in game series that run for a while -- the Ambrosia devs know not to mess with a winning strategy.