Space Station Silicon Valley is a platform video game developed by DMA Design and published by Take-Two Interactive.
When this deal fell through, the development team turned their focus to the Nintendo 64, which allowed for a more advanced environment and model processing.
Upon release, Space Station Silicon Valley was acclaimed by many reviewers, with praise particularly directed at the intuitive mechanics, innovative level design, and comical concepts.
[8] The game is set on a space station—the titular Silicon Valley,[6] which consists of four environments: Euro Eden, Arctic Kingdom, Jungle Safari, and Desert Adventure.
[10] However, the Nintendo 64 version contains a glitch which prevents the player from collecting the souvenir from the level Fat Bear Mountain, meaning the special bonus round cannot be accessed normally.
Despite this, Evo is unable to stop the space station from spinning out of control; it collides with Earth, landing in New York Harbor.
[12] Manual text writer Brian Baglow said that the game's music provided freedom to the team, as it "doesn't necessarily have to fit the action on the screen".
[12] Unlike those games, Space Station Silicon Valley does not take place in an open world; "they're a bugger to make", explained creative director Gary Penn.
[12] The original concept for the game was that players would eat robots and become increasingly larger, retrospectively described by creative director lead artist Jamie Bryan as being similar to Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest (2002).
[19] A 2D remake was released for Game Boy Color in Europe in late 1999;[1] IGN's Tim Jones was critical of the port, criticising the gameplay and level design.
[8] GameSpot's Lauren Fielder felt the puzzles were simple to decipher, but noted the game accomplishes its goal of entertaining and amusing players.
[8] IGN's Casamassina found the music "very well executed" and "very entertaining", likening it to "'futuristic space pop' and elevator-like tunes", and named the sound effects "equally satisfying".
[27] Conversely, Electronic Gaming Monthly's Hsu found the music irritating[24] and GamePro's Wes Nihei considered it 'barely alive".
[26] Next Generation felt that the game "doesn't push Nintendo 64's hardware to the limits", and noted some occasional frame rate slowdown, but appreciated the "cute" and simplistic design.
[29] Jon Storm of Game Informer called the graphics "lame", criticising the lack of detail in the environments and characters.
[5] In a retrospective feature, Craig Owens of Nintendo Gamer wrote that the game's "chunky, angular" art style conveys the "experimental, unpredictable tone".
[8][28] Electronic Gaming Monthly presented Space Station Silicon Valley the Silver Editor's Choice Award.