Little Kitty, Big City
Little Kitty, Big City
Game
Game2014
Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager
Developer Polar Motion
Space Program Manager (SPM) is the ultimate game of space exploration. It is the mid 1950s and the race for dominance between the US and the Soviet Union is about to move into a new dimension: space. From the Steam store page
192 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy) · newest Sep 26, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
76
LovedLoved
143 positive · 46 negative
95% range 69–81%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 143 | 46 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
3 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
384 of 500 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 192 · most liked firstPros: - Unique game play - Realistic space racing smell of the cold war era - Very historically aligened with certain reasonable hypothetical missions. - Lots of management but no tedious micromanagement - Nice looking UI - Well balanced diffculty levels - Devs keep improving the game even after one year of its release Cons: - Some details like salary management could use polishing - Learning curve can be a bit steep (because space projects do have so many aspect to understand before you can…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a fun and charming game about the race into space. The equipment is all historical, and the race between the US and USSR is compelling, on both sides. Replayability comes from having completely different hardware between the two nations, plus multiple pathways forward as you plan your missions and milestones on the road to prestige (and funding!) Even the low-budget graphics match the style of the day, which I found nostalgic. There are a couple of detailed guides on steam for when…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is far too much down to luck. Even if you have well over 90% reliability on all parts and you hire 3 tiger teams to try to fix your problem it feels like a 50/50 weather or not you will fail. And if the problem is solved another one will just come up straight after and it is repeated until you fail or run out of money. The game feels more like gambling than actual space managing.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gameplay step back from 1992 Can't estimate this game well having months of life behind spent on original Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space. It could be my subjective niggle but it just does not feel right and here is my remarks why. Lack in transparency of causes of the failure Most of the time you just get *Catastrophic failure*, *Crew perished* with no explanation whatsoever. Violent explosion? Did escape system fire or something got wrong after separation from the faulty rocket? You are…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game! Not for everyone but really reminds me of Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space that I had on floppy disks when I was a kid.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There's a good mix of good and bad elements in this management simulator, and it can be entertaining. There are some specific programming choices that just ruin the simulation for me which is primarily the routines/math used to determine mission success or failure. While true each game the success chances change, once set it's going to succeed or fail no matter how much research or time you put into it. For example, if you have a mission package researched to 95% and save that mission before…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very frustrating - based way too much on probability and very difficult to recover from crashes. The game would be much better if a failed launch led to a reliability increase as your engineers figure out what went wrong, rather than sending you into a death spiral of loss of reputation, lack of funds, and failures.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Would be nice for an update to include skylab and space shuttle
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is very much so a wonderful remake of BARIS! One of my favorite thing is that it allows you to do alternative missions, and if you play as the GSA, you can launch U.S. missions with Soviet technology, or vice versa! Another thing I like is that in sandbox, there's no end date! That really bugged me when I played BARIS. While there isn't much replay value short after finishing it, coming back to it after many months and doing it all over again is really fun. I'd give this game a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is an update of the venerable BARIS. The mechanism is probability- you increase the reliability probability of your spacecraft by assigning research staff. Sometimes you can get random failures that force you to purcase "Tiger Teams" that increase your probability of successfully beating the failure. Makes sense, right? Well, in this game I get multiple random failures on every flight, draining my budget on Tiger Teams and leading to catastrophic failure after catastrophic failure…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It gives you a percentage of success that isn't actually a percentage. If the game wants you to fail, you fail. 98% chance of success? Fails 100/100 times.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game, Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager, is described as the direct remake of the older PC game, Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space. And those who were fortunate to have played BARIS back in the day, they will immediately see BASPM as a more modern, improved iteration of that great game. To be honest, I haven't played BARIS in more than a decade, so my recollection of its contents is a bit rusty. But when first playing this game (BASPM), I remember being impressed that there were more space…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Think having a 90% reliability rating will get you a successful maned mission. HAHA! ♥♥♥♥ you! No it wont. Every mission even with 95% reliable space capsule and rocked will suffer a 90% failure rate!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Post-Tiger-Team patch, the game is practically a joke. The entirety of the game can be summed as a random number simulator. You can have a 99.5% effective equipment rating with veteran flight controllers, but God forbid you don't spend 20% of your current dollar reserve on Tiger Teams, then your entire space program goes up in flames! The game was entertaining and fun pre-Tiger-Team-update. Nowadays? Don't waste your time or your money. Please, for the love of God, spend your money somewhere…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Despite the goal of this game - running a space agency - and the delight of hearing sounds from flight operators, this game is actually following historical paths on the road to putting men on the moon. Although it is set up as a management game, the choices you make don't represent dilemma's. You simply have to choose the dominant strategy which is to make choices to finally create a situation where the Reliability factor is above 95%. Your mission has multiple steps, so each step reliability…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like it. the game plays very much like the old race into space version back in the day. Although I do appreciate the sandbox feature in this iteration. A more relaxed pace with a fresh new look. Since I started playing I have been watching movies that inspire. Such as Apollo 13, Space cowboys, etc... Not for everyone, but many of the old BARIS guys will love it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not as fun as the O.G. B.A.R.I.S. I loved playing BARIS as a kid and still play today. I was looking for a more modern version of the game. This game feels like a cheap remake with just more details. Tutorial is awful and way too much reading. the Text is so wide its hard to read and gives a headache. The UI feels very cheap as well. This might be fun for number nerds however and if you have never played BARIS and already like click management games it might be worth a shot. I got it for $8 on…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An educational game for kids While this game has some educational material and helps to get a jist of a space race, as a game it falls severely short. You can't make your own path. Game feels more like a puzzle than a management game. Enemy AI seems more like a very slow milestone completion than trying to win against a real opponent. Core of this game is RNG which are rigged and extremely frustrating. It is not a game which you would want to play more than once and even then you might not…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Overall, rather disappointing. I played the original 8bit BA Race into Space, as well as lots of KSP, so I am a keen space nerd, but this game is a dispassionate, unfinished slog. It's a little glitchy (but not much, mostly QoL stuff), but you have no control over backup crew (unlike BARIS). There is no modding capability, and the devs are hostile to the idea. There are very little alt-history/sandbox stuff (in fact only ones that were ported from the original like the PKA spaceplane or…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →'MURICAH! Now, seriously, I am biased, I like space themed games. This is "a bit" like Kerbal Space Program minus the manual designing/buidling and operation of vehicles. The focus of the gameplay in on decision making & stats (a.k.a. scarce resources). Also... the music is... well... a bit too much of 'MURICAH, but I like it nevertheless. Something that made a bad impression was the fact that the age of some of the employees is in total discord with their faces. E.g. a white haired dude with…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This could be a really great game.But there are some things that often make it frustrating. It's not the challenge that's at fault. It's because someone decided to include a penalty in some of the launch scnarios. If you have a problem durning launch the game extorts a huge amount of money from you to "fix" the problems. These charges sometimes amount to many times the cost of the launch and can quickly drain your reserves. The developers could have inserted the variable in some other way but…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Neat and fun, but not very replayable. Once you win once you're pretty much done. Get it when it's super on sale and have fun for half a day.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good game that transcribes well the technology race between USA and USSR. The atmosphere is excellent, I learned a lot of things about space programs... But the game is too short for $30. Buy it when it's sales.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I loved Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space. I was hoping for a graphically more up-to-date version of BARIS. However, I find this version of the game is not nearly as much fun. In the new version, you must manage the abilities and morale of not only your astronauts, but also your researchers and managers. I find this makes the game much more tedious and takes away from the scientific and engineering focus of the original board game and BARIS.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I tried to like this game. I played BARIS back in the day and I am a huge fan of the space program. My problem is--I wish it had historical astronauts and engineers like BARIS did and not names of doners or whatever it was. I really could not get past that so I refunded it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I kinda like this game but it plays like a cheap port. You lack the ability to do common things like going back in the menus to assign engineers and the interface is often confusing or doesn't work right away. On top of that the gameplay is unbalanced, I breezed through the U.S. campaign on easy and tried to play the Soviet on easy and kept failing just short of the moon, it was like I was cursed even with every component above 90% reliability. To succeed on the higher difficulties must…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is a dice game and not a fun one. You upgrade in game peace of equipment until for ex. 75% reliability and it's like 90% chance this equipment didn't make it. And near 80% reliability you can't doing anything to encrease reliability. So with 80% reliability you can only launch and pray. After 5-th fail in a row it begin to look like dice is rigged, and rigged hardly against the player. Of course you can save/load A LOT until this rigged dice will roll in your favour, but it's not look…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An interesting and incredibly addictive game (of the 'just one more turn' variety) about the early days of space exploration. It's basically a remake of the great 'Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space', but adds recruiting, training and organizing your Mission Control and R&D teams. On the other hand, BARIS offered more flexibility in how to get to the Moon and team dynamics between the astronauts. None of which lessens the fun of this game significantly. If you have any interest in this sort of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So glad to see that they brought back the original DOS game from many years back. Although challenging, at least this one actually uses the percentages of success displayed unlike the original which was brutal. A second chance to resolve issues once they appear is also a great addition. This game is not for everyone as its more of a management sim and the U.I. could be better but space geeks will love it I think...
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Less of a business management game and more of a puzzle game. If you want to play this game properly, you will have to plan everything several turns ahead. The thing I enjoyed most about this game was sitting down with pen and paper figuring out how many researchers and mission control experts I'd need and in what fields, and when I'd need them. You can learn loads about the history of the space race, including many proposed projects which never came to fruition. It may not look like it from…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I can't bore this game. Or actually I can, of course, because the road to the Moon is not too long (or not enough long), but I just pick this game again and again (over a few month) and replay it. The gameplay, the game mechanism is outstading. The player can feel and enjoy the golden age of space science through a very exciting game. But the whole game is focuse to the "Moon race", so you just try to jump the steps to reach the Moon first. So you don't care the side missions (eg the early Mars…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good game if you like space history and managing space programs. A bit too short for $30/£23, so wait until sale.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't review many games, although there are several that I really do enjoy playing. This Buzz Aldrin Space Program Manager (BASPM for future reference in this post) is a very addicting game to play. BASPM is not anywhere near as interactive as Kerbal Space Program, so keep that in mind; and the grapics are 2D images of 3D renderings without animation (Just X,Y translation through the frame), however it is an extremely good and rewarding strategy/management game to play. BASPM combines a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Worse his money for discount sale. Game hardly coded and i think there is no random at all. If You got a 90% reliability apollo with 90% reliability rocket it will explode, you will lose reliability then explode again, and again. Bash head at wall, blame stupid americans engineers that can't do a safe start of max reliable missile with top crew and ground crew, calm, breath a few minutes. Think about Korolev who does better work at the other side of the Earth. Load. Same ♥♥♥♥. Never look at…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game puts you into a NASA program manager role -- this is less about running missions yourself but rather about making the hard decisions on how to accomplish the goal of landing on the moon. Starting in 1955, you build your facilities and undergo the research to work your way up to greater and greater accomplishments. It actually features a lot of the real decisions that had to be made back in those days at NASA -- there were different approaches to getting to the moon (direct ascent or…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ok, I'm a fan, and love this "game"! Jjust beware, it's not for everyone. It's repetative and has very little action. But when you finally land safely on the moon it's all worth it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →great remake of classic space race
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is the unofficial successor to Buzz Aldrin's Race to the Moon for MS-DOS which I loved to play because as a space-enthusiast there weren't enough games about the race to the moon on the market. So I like to compare today's gameplay with the prior game. Generally does it look better, but it's sometimes unorganized. The space center is a bit chaotic and buildings like the headquarter, VEB, SET, mission control and co. are less visible on a first look than earlier. The game reduces the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Maybe too simplistic for what you're looking for, but [Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager](https://store.steampowered.com/app/308270/Buzz_Aldrins_Space_Program_Manager/) allows you to do some of it. It's based on an older title IIRC, and it's a game more tuned towards education with relatively few graphical elements. You won't be flying missions directly, nor do you have sandbox capabilities, but for mission planning / R and D / mission control, there is some fun to be had. I go back to it…
unlabelledView post →As a lifelong aficionado of space exploration, and many strategy games, I found myself immersed in how this little gem merges the two in a delightful package. From the outset, I was struck by the game’s authentic representation of the space programs from the thrilling days of the Space Age. The attention to detail and the commitment to historical accuracy transported me back to an era where every launch was a leap towards the stars. What truly stands out is its reverence for the intricacies of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is a ton of friends. I know it wasn't originally meant to have multiplayer, but I am so happy that they added it. There really is no other game that offers the same multiplayer experience. My only gripe is the price. $30 is pretty good if you already have friends that are wanting to play with you (the PBEM system is incredibly intuitive and compliments the gameplay well), but I find it a hard recommendation if someone isn't wanting to play multiplayer or is not into space history.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm recommending this game with qualifications. The game basically plays out like Kerbal Space Program without actually controlling your spacecraft. You decide what technologies to research and build, train astronauts and staff, manage your budget, etc, as either NASA, the Russians, or a fictional space agency. The ultimate goal being to make it to the moon first. The lack of flying makes the game much easier than KSP, but also limits the gameplay and replayability. Further limiting replay…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Played Race Into Space to death decades ago. This might be a "spiritual sequel" or something but its not a seemless sequel or reload at all - I can't find my way around it. Not only is the UI not the same, its unintuitive and everything just seems wrong... Back to Dosbox and RIS for me. YMMV.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I almost let the most prominent Steam review here dissuade me from buying this game. It's a shame that one so well written review completely misrepresents what this game accomplished and what game it really is. The reviewer really missed the point, or else it was before some updates and long since invalid. The game and its developers deserve better. Puzzles just have one solution. This isn't a puzzle. But it is much like chess, and there's lots of ways to lose at chess when your opponent…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Management screens are too chaotic and messy - you can't find anything and there is a lack of a general view of the whole managment system.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Excellant game. Not heavy on graphics or anything, but a great management game giving you an idea of the race to the moon and beyond!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Starting the 1950's you have to beat the Soviets (or the US if you are playing the Soviets) to the moon. This is absolutely a management game with a hard science spin to it. You have to to carefully manage the agency's budget by opening programs, R&D, recruiting personnel and launching space missions. There is a sandbox mode, but the challange is in beating the computer. Develop the X-15 Space plane, the Sputnik satellite, the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecerft. You are not limited to the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Interesting game, and first one where I got all achievements :D In campaign mode game feels like rush to the moon as fast as possible and achievements give you some changellenging goals, which feels really exciting. In game are some moments where play on high stakes. For example trying to make launch of not properly tested rocket or use of untested Module in more advanced mission cause you have to do it right now or you'll lose(in terms of achievements) which results in success percentage…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What a cool simulation really enjoying this one
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Well... Hard for me to make up my mind about this game, but it was on sale. What is it about? Well it is a remake of the old Buzz Aldrins race to the moon, and that is the whole story about this game and if I am not mistaken that was a board game back in the days for 2 players. Now I am not familiar with "manager" games (this is my first one) but when it comes to gameplay it can be frustrating when your 89% success chance mission fails (my mouse be the witness of that) but also very rewarding…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Im enjoying this game even thou I'm not so good at management games. My play through has reached the year 1980 and i haven't even landed on the moon yet also apparently Richard Nixon is still the president! now comes my complaints - the tutorial could be better and the text is more of a horizontal format than vertical making reading it tiresome. - the UI isn't very intuitive and has taken me about 1 hour to get a full grasp of how to use it. - the animated videos of the missions are like…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Let's start saying that the game is pretty broken. The real space race had 5 missions that ended in loss of life and here you can have the highest possible reliability and still you get a catastrophic failure in one out of 3 missions, no matter the Tiger teams, or whatever. Apart from that, the game is entertaining. Honestly I liked BARIS way more than this, as it was more historically accurate, but let's face it, BARIS is abandonware and even the open source version available in Github…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a decently fun game of early Space Race management in which you need to balance your resources and personnel with your objectives. Failure may be an option but not to those who provide your budget! The tutorial is simple but not enough to drive you forward quickly in a campaign, and as such I suggest a sandbox game of both US and Soviet programmes in order to familiarise yourself with the mechanics, and the proper time and effort you need to put in to succeed. The game is frequently…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you are into the historical aspects of the space missions from the early years, you should take a peek at this game. It has 3 campaigns of which 1 of 3 are the USA (Nasa) and the 2nd - the Soviets, and then a 3rd that is a mix of the 2 called GSA - Global Space Agency. It has all the real life missions from Mercury on thru the Apollo programs and allot of programs that never made it off the drawing board, but are included here for you to see what they were all about. It also has all the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I played the dos version. this version is way better. MUCH MUCH MORE BETTER
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Buzz Aldrin's Race into space was way better. Even without the nostalgy bonus. I don't care much about good graphics. They're nice to have but at this games not necessary. But this modern portraits are really killing all of my immersion. At the original game I had the feeling of beeing in charge of an space organisation, with the freedom to make an alternate history. But in this game, you have to follow the one path, that leads to succsess or you will drive your space organisation into the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Whilst this game is good, I do find some parts of it highly annoying. You can spend ages researching things and have the best crew in the world and yet you still will get a bad random event. This would be ok if it only happened once or twice, but when playing the soviets, it happened all the time. I think the game is bias towards NASA, which it really shouldn't be. I might be wrong, but certainly feels like it. Other than that, I do like the whole research, training and then launching your…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Surprizingly Interesting and exciting, full of important choices and strategizing - otherwise you won't make it to the Moon. I'm not often playing such turn based games, but this is really cool. (Also great opportunity to try due to the anniversary this weekend)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Its ok but its basically a mobile game. Get it for ios instead and save yourself some money too
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Go into space and make your country proud!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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