Moon Raider is a 2D action adventure platformer set in the diverse and dangerous underworld of the moon.
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Fun to play through with my wife
A pretty generic 2D action game that lacks a bit of shine in most of its elements. Clearly competently made, but doesn't have anything going for it to stand out in an overcrowded genre.
ultra fds
"A Fairly Generic And Monotonous Space-Themed Platformer"
"Moon Raider" takes a lot of retro elements from older platformers and attempts to blend them together with a neat looking visual aesthetic. Unfortunately, the game suffers from incredible monotony and painful level design that left me, a huge platformer fan, unimpressed.
The best thing going for this game is its visuals. There is a cute pixel-theme going on here with a nice variety of color, with many blinking lights and effects occurring on the screen. At times, it is nice to look at. However, there seems to be a stark difference in the FPS for the player sprite compared with the background visuals, which made my eyes strain a bit when playing the game. I'm unsure as to if the game itself runs at different FPS for separate locations (unlikely), or if there is something going on with the visual settings mixed with the parallax scrolling of the background environments, but it was very distracting for most of my time with the game. Unfortunate since this was the game's strongest piece.
The music is okay, but fails to vary form stage to stage very well. It doesn't really form its own identity, and just seems like another space-themed song that could be found in any other platformer game such as this. Nothing was very memorable nor fun enough to stick to my ears. it wasn't awful, but it surely won't raise anyone's eyebrows with intrigue.
The gameplay and level design are decidedly where the game takes a nosedive in quality. The gameplay is very similar to the original Mega-Man , except there is not a variety of powers that you can use to your advantage. All you get is a very bland and crummy blaster that is unrewarding to use. There are some health and energy powerups to collect, but they don't make any of the combat sections exciting. The game's movement is also pretty floaty and unprecise, and there aren't many interesting platforming challenges that shake up level design or provide any thematic highlights. The levels are incredibly similar, save for a few sections of lava or lasers, but enemies and bosses failed to make a lasting impact on me. Most enemies follow boring movement/attack patterns that are easy to manipulate, yet the game counters this by putting instant-death traps around the levels in increasing frequency. After a while, the game just got stale and I grew tired of even playing it after less than an hour.
Also, there really isn't any semblance of a real story here, contrary to other reviews. It boils down to - "oh no your mom is dying, go to the moon and kill aliens and get some collectibles to save her please!" It's very tacked-on and honestly didn't need to be there at all, since as far as I know the game didn't add anything noteworthy during my gameplay time. I assume there's some ending cutscene that adds a bit more, but that really isn't a story at the end of the day. If anything, its a very poor one at that.
In conclusion, I think this game needs a lot of work in order to justify its $15 price point. There is very limited gameplay and story to experience here, and there's nothing that really differentiates this one from the rest of the platformers pouring onto Steam right now. I would Not Recommend picking this title up unless there are some huge updates/reworks put into the gameplay/story.
Final Verdict: 2/10 (Bad)
"Moon Raider" takes a lot of retro elements from older platformers and attempts to blend them together with a neat looking visual aesthetic. Unfortunately, the game suffers from incredible monotony and painful level design that left me, a huge platformer fan, unimpressed.
The best thing going for this game is its visuals. There is a cute pixel-theme going on here with a nice variety of color, with many blinking lights and effects occurring on the screen. At times, it is nice to look at. However, there seems to be a stark difference in the FPS for the player sprite compared with the background visuals, which made my eyes strain a bit when playing the game. I'm unsure as to if the game itself runs at different FPS for separate locations (unlikely), or if there is something going on with the visual settings mixed with the parallax scrolling of the background environments, but it was very distracting for most of my time with the game. Unfortunate since this was the game's strongest piece.
The music is okay, but fails to vary form stage to stage very well. It doesn't really form its own identity, and just seems like another space-themed song that could be found in any other platformer game such as this. Nothing was very memorable nor fun enough to stick to my ears. it wasn't awful, but it surely won't raise anyone's eyebrows with intrigue.
The gameplay and level design are decidedly where the game takes a nosedive in quality. The gameplay is very similar to the original Mega-Man , except there is not a variety of powers that you can use to your advantage. All you get is a very bland and crummy blaster that is unrewarding to use. There are some health and energy powerups to collect, but they don't make any of the combat sections exciting. The game's movement is also pretty floaty and unprecise, and there aren't many interesting platforming challenges that shake up level design or provide any thematic highlights. The levels are incredibly similar, save for a few sections of lava or lasers, but enemies and bosses failed to make a lasting impact on me. Most enemies follow boring movement/attack patterns that are easy to manipulate, yet the game counters this by putting instant-death traps around the levels in increasing frequency. After a while, the game just got stale and I grew tired of even playing it after less than an hour.
Also, there really isn't any semblance of a real story here, contrary to other reviews. It boils down to - "oh no your mom is dying, go to the moon and kill aliens and get some collectibles to save her please!" It's very tacked-on and honestly didn't need to be there at all, since as far as I know the game didn't add anything noteworthy during my gameplay time. I assume there's some ending cutscene that adds a bit more, but that really isn't a story at the end of the day. If anything, its a very poor one at that.
In conclusion, I think this game needs a lot of work in order to justify its $15 price point. There is very limited gameplay and story to experience here, and there's nothing that really differentiates this one from the rest of the platformers pouring onto Steam right now. I would Not Recommend picking this title up unless there are some huge updates/reworks put into the gameplay/story.
Final Verdict: 2/10 (Bad)
I originally backed this game when it was on Kickstarter.
The story isn't really that important to the game. I wish they would give some of the bosses some lines or a reason to exist to give the game a bit more depth. The controls are great. You can run, jump, shoot and also dash in any direction. There's hidden bonus rooms to find and hidden collectibles to power up your weapon or health.
The boss fights themselves can be insanely easy or a bit more difficult. Sometimes after beating a more difficult boss, the next boss will be insanely easy and effortless. The level design is pretty straightforward and it's not hard to get lost. But, because of that there wasn't much incentive to really explore.
The biggest thing that bothered me about this game is the music itself. The actual songs are great. But, they gave the music WAY TOO MUCH BASS. I had the game turned down alot and the bass still gave me a small headache after listening to it for 3 hours straight. There's no way to only turn the bass down. The only option you have is in the main menu and that option is to turn all the sound down, including the sound effects. This means if you're in a level and want to turn the sound down through the game, you have to quit and go to the main menu to do it. There should be a way to do this while you're in a level.
I would still recommend this game to people because its still an enjoyable game. But, the music kindof made me irritated because of how bass heavy it was. I know I could've just turned the music off, but music and sound effects are a big part of experiencing a video game.
The story isn't really that important to the game. I wish they would give some of the bosses some lines or a reason to exist to give the game a bit more depth. The controls are great. You can run, jump, shoot and also dash in any direction. There's hidden bonus rooms to find and hidden collectibles to power up your weapon or health.
The boss fights themselves can be insanely easy or a bit more difficult. Sometimes after beating a more difficult boss, the next boss will be insanely easy and effortless. The level design is pretty straightforward and it's not hard to get lost. But, because of that there wasn't much incentive to really explore.
The biggest thing that bothered me about this game is the music itself. The actual songs are great. But, they gave the music WAY TOO MUCH BASS. I had the game turned down alot and the bass still gave me a small headache after listening to it for 3 hours straight. There's no way to only turn the bass down. The only option you have is in the main menu and that option is to turn all the sound down, including the sound effects. This means if you're in a level and want to turn the sound down through the game, you have to quit and go to the main menu to do it. There should be a way to do this while you're in a level.
I would still recommend this game to people because its still an enjoyable game. But, the music kindof made me irritated because of how bass heavy it was. I know I could've just turned the music off, but music and sound effects are a big part of experiencing a video game.