Moon Raider

Intro: I got this title through my Steam curator a while back. Unfortunately, a slew of more interesting games won the random number generator game. Now that I have played it. Moon Raider is quite adequate, janky, and often mindless but mostly okay. Story: A brilliant scientist goes to the moon and discovers aliens. The queen of the aliens falls in love with the scientist and runs off with him. One daughter later, the queen is sick, and said daughter goes back to the moon to find a cure. There isn't much of a story to be found here. There could be some plot claimed from the context of fighting the King as you are typically his cheating wife’s bustard offspring but that's only when you think about it. The opening cut scene is there for context and little else. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s move on. Gameplay: Moon Raider is a basic 2d platformer and shooter. The levels are remarkable with only moderate exploration. There is nothing new to talk about here, most of its design is relatively competent. Wow. That was a loaded sentence! I can feel the asterisk hurtling towards me like a rogue shuriken. Moon Raider is at best a perfectly unremarkable titl…

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 …

The art is nice in the game, the levels are well designed and the boss fights are simple but fun. I have enjoyed playing the game, looking for the secrets and learning new tricks to complete the game!

Game plot makes no sense: [spoiler] "My father was explorer and first man on the moon. There he found an alien tribe. My mother was a queen there but her kingdom turned against her. She ran away from moon to earth with my father vand now she is close to decease. Moon holds the cure. Only I can save her" 1) Why is your father on earth and mom is a queen and was on the moon??? 2) How he did not know where she was? Did she ran away? Was she always there? 3) Why the tribe turned against her? 4) Why she is in bad condition? How did the moon affect her health? [/spoiler] Game: Found a gem. Dr. Covar: "We need 200 gems of this type to save mother https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3794137160 5) Who are you? If you are my father then say it. "Dr. Covar" was never introduced to me 6) WHY we need gems? Why 200? Explanation please??? If we need to build a machine then just say it. Why not pills or other medication?

To many instant death hazards.

As one of a lot of games I Kickstarted a few years ago then just sort of forgot, I wish I had given this one a chance, because it's already growing on me and I've only just got into it. For what it's worth, it's alright. I ran into a few odd control glitches here and there (a dash I couldn't cancel until I was pretty much out of power, a point where the double-jump just wouldn't execute right over an insta-death trap, and more than a few moments where I got stuck inside the level gateways) but having put up with far worse as a kid playing games that looked and played just like this one, I'm more of the "its flaws make it more charming than less" camp.