Moon (NDS) – Official Site
Moon (NDS) – MetaCritic
Recently, there ‘s been a huge influx of First-person shooters for the DS. This particular game was developed by Renegade Kid, the same company that made the great horror survival shooter, Dementium: The Ward (also for the DS). The publisher is Mastiff Mastiff, the same company that published Major League Eating, and Easter Bunny’s Big Day. Err… yeah, Mastiff aren’t exactly known for quality. Luckily, Moon breaks the trend of sucking major ass, and delivers on being one of the best FPS titles the DS has to offer!
The story isn’t exactly movie material, but it’s good enough for a game. It’s set in the future, where the Government has research bases on the moon where they learn stuff about… the Moon, I guess. You play as Major Kane, whose the leader of a group of people working on one of the Research bases. Your team finds a mysterious hatch, then you’re sent in to investigate it, and your adventure begins (sort of like Lost, but it doesn’t drag on for 5 seasons).
The gameplay is almost exactly the same to every other FPS’s available on the DS. You use the D-Pad to move your character, the Touch Screen to move the camera, and the Left Shoulder button to fire. Everything else is done using the Touch Screen. For example, with the touchscreen you can examine in-game items, pick up objects, and change your weapon. The controls feel pretty damn tight, which is good because most of the games enemies are pretty small.
I’m not a graphics whore, but the main thing that attracted me to this game was the graphics. I must say, they are pretty impressive for the hardware available to them. It’s definitely one of the best-looking 3D DS games ever. Of course, if you run straight into a wall it looks really pixelized, but there’s only so much that the DS can do. If you play like you’re ment to (not being a douchebag), the graphics look amazing and you won’t notice many graphics glitches. The see-through laser doors look nice and detailed, and the characters themselves look pretty cool aswell. The game also runs at 60 frames per second, which is an absolutely amazing feat for a DS game, because the game looks ridiculously smooth while playing.
The characters in the game wear Astronaut suits, so they look remotely like Master Chief from the Halo series. There’s also apparently vehicles in the game (that I’m not far enough in to see what they are though), but according to some screens I’ve seen, they look a bit like warthogs. In some previews of the game, sites were even calling it “Halo DS”. Aesthetically it looks similar, but once you get into gameplay it’s VERY different from Halo. For example your gun moves while you shoot (though it doesn’t screw up your aiming), and also the setting is very different from Halo.
But like any game, Moon isn’t without it’s flaws. There’s actually at least 2 glaring problems with it. You can’t jump (which may be on purpose because the game is mostly indoors anyway), and there’s also no Multiplayer either, which is a huge bummer. Those are really the only 2 problems I can see with the game. But do ya wanna know something COMPLETELY FUCKING AWESOME about the game? ONE OF THE GUNS IS CALLED THE “SUPER ASSAULT RIFLE”! I mean, awesome! It’s Super, it’s a Rifle and it Assaults people! I CAN TOTALLY RELATE TO THAT! Could you get any cooler? I think not.
BUY IT, BORROW IT OR BREAK IT?
You should definitely Buy It. The controls are tight and the story could be nice for fans of the Sci-Fi genre. If you doubt the DS and just wanna see how far it’s graphics can be pushed, then pick this up and prepare to start feeling like an idiot for doubting the DS.
Moon, for the Nintendo DS receives an…. 8/10!
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