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Out at midnight: Race the Ruskies to the moon in Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager

Spoiler alert: the US wins

Out at midnight: Race the Ruskies to the moon in Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager
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After a brief, baffling rejection from Apple, Slitherine's ingenious space-race strategy game Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager will be available on the App Store from around midnight tonight.

This turn-based iPad game is set in the mid 1950s, as the US and the Soviet Union race each other into space.

You can choose to lead either nation's space agency, and then manage your budget, open programs, improve hardware, recruit astronauts, and launch missions - all with the aim of beating the other lot to the moon.

Or, you can play as the fictional Global Space Agency which has short-term goals, issued by government. There's also a Sandbox mode which lets try out different approaches without any political pressure.

Space

You'll be able to develop programs like the X-15 and the PKA space planes; the Sputnik satellite; the Mercury, Voskhod, Apollo and Soyuz manned spacecraft; and the Mars Viking probe.

And you can try out concepts that were planned but that never left the drawing board.

The game was designed in consultation with Buzz Aldrin - Apollo 11 Lunar Module Pilot, the second human being to set foot on the moon, and all-round badass. The game is for iPad only and costs £7.99 / $9.99.

Mark Brown
Mark Brown
Mark Brown is editor at large of Pocket Gamer