Moon

January 20,2009 - With the holiday season passed us, the DS has once again helped Nintendo shatter sales records and has now become the best selling system to date. Even after being released for five years and in the midst of a recession, the DS is showing no signs of slowing down, especially now that Moon—the first must-play handheld title of 2009—is ready for liftoff.

Developed by Renegade Kid, the same folks who brought us the thrilling Dementium: The Ward at the end of 2007, Moon takes place in the year 2058.  The United States is on the moon attempting to make an explorable base similar to what they have on Mars. You play as Major Kane, a the leader in the Extraterrestrial Encounter Organization to check out strange happenings on the moon. Upon exploring the area next to the main ship and finding an assault rifle, creatures suddenly appear out of nowhere killing everything in sight. When Kane goes out to explore, he comes across a peculiar hatch. Like any game would have you do, you enter the hatch, and the real fun begins.

The game’s presentation of the story is sort of a combination of the way the stories of Metal Gear Solid and Meroid Prime were unfolded. While it doesn’t the hour-long cutscenes MGS had, the game does have most of the communication from allies via com-link; and while there’s no “scan” ability in Moon, there are still a bunch of “shiny” artifacts that you can examine in the game that definitely give you more of a history of the operations that are being undergone in the depths of the moon. Everything in the story ties together nicely, and Renegade Kid has once again runaway with smiles on their faces.

Unlike Dementium before it, the main emphasis is on exploration. There still is a fair share of running and gunning to do because there are enemies about as you enter every room, but it’s kept to a minimum because the enemies don’t respawn as they did in Dementium. This makes exploring a lot more enjoyable because there aren’t too many enemies to be worried about, especially when you have to backtrack to get some health—which is also made easier due to the fact that dropped items won’t disappear. Also, unlike Dementium, the game has save rooms thoughtfully spread out, so you don’t have to worry about having to start over from the beginning of the chapter if you die.

While the game’s basic enemies like flying security robots are pretty easy to kill, Moon has its fair share of tough bosses. We admittedly had trouble with the game’s first boss because it seemed like it was way too smart. But the game also has a sort of Metroid and Mega Man-like feel to it, because usually before you face a boss, you come across a new weapon that makes things easier. In the case of the first one, the Moon Blaster was readily available and it definitely was a useful tool against the first boss, even though it only had an eight-count of ammunition in it. Aside from the sometimes overly aggressive difficulty of the bosses, another problem is the fact that some of the bosses are repeated, which leaves things quite repetitive and doesn’t add too much of a thrill when deciding how you’re going to kill it.

The controls are basically the same as the other first person shooters before it. You can move around using the D-Pad, while the stylus would hold your aim. Shooting is done with the left shoulder button. For the record, hand cramps can be avoided if you play using your right pinky to support the bottom of the DS while still maintaining the stance of your stylus with your thumb and index finger. The main problem with the controls is that nothing is adjusted for lefties, which is a totally questionable move—especially considering they could be re-mapped in Dementum.

Since the game has an emphasis on exploration, it’s not surprising that the game’s puzzles aren’t so bad either. Early on in the game, you’ll come across the RAD (Remote Access Droid) which kind of doubles up as a sort of partner for Major Kane. When selected like any other weapon, you’re put behind the shoulders of the RAD and you can explore the hatch’s depths through smaller tunnels and clear pathways for Kane that would otherwise be unreachable due to force fields and locked doors. The RAD comes equipped with a stun gun to temporarily render some enemy robots useless, and as stated, it’ll help clear pathways for Kane to get through. The most interesting factor about this item is that even when in use, Kane is still in play, which still makes him vulnerable to attack. This creates the stress of having to make the RAD do what it has to do quickly, or else Kane can easily be killed. While RAD can’t actually kill any of the enemy robots, he can also double up as an assistant by stunning them, and having Kane kill them with whatever guns he has, so this little robot definitely adds an exciting and interesting little twist to the game’s solid yet stale gameplay.

If you thought RAD was cool, you’ll also come across a vehicle (called the LOLA 4x4) in the game that comes equipped with a turret gun. This allows for quicker exploration since gunning down anything becomes easy, aside from the fact that everything moves a lot faster.

Moon’s hardware presentation really is top-notch. Little things like details on the actual walls rather than just making flat ends really help bring the environment to life. That may be hard to believe especially considering that this is the DS, but everything really looks good. If there’s one thing to complain about with the game’s visuals that has nothing to do with the lack of variety in the maps and enemies, it’s the fact that there’s too much “bouncing” while traveling in the game, and players who easily become motion-sick will definitely feel those effects. On top of that, the music really gives you the feel that you’re alone on the moon, and all you can really do is survive and look for answers as to why everything turned out the way they did.  There's voice acting in the game, but it's really blocky.  It's unknown whether the purpose was to fully emulate the way radio communication is on the moon, or whether that was a just a lack of effort, but either way, Renegade Kid outdid themselves with Dementium’s presentation, and they did it once again with Moon.

Moon has a lot of interesting features that make the game that much more of a joy to play, but that isn’t to say that the game is perfect. Both early on and late in the game, Moon can feel really repetitive, due to the fact that the game is very linear and there is almost little to no diversity with the game’s enemies. This is somewhat relieved by the game’s great arsenal of weapons at your disposal and the game’s great story. One thing’s for sure, if Renegade Kid were to do a sequel to this game that featured even better weapons, it would be something to lookout for. Moon is a good start at something great, and while it’s not quite at the level of first-person console games, this game is worth your attention because it’s damn close.

Games, News, Reviews, Media and More