Another day, another attempt to replicate the Metroidvania titles of yore. Moon Raider is an attractive, yet wholly unremarkable game with barely a sliver of originality. Taking place on, well, the moon, you take on the role of Ava, whose mother has fallen ill. In a brief, rather poorly constructed introductory cutscene featuring largely static images and accompanying text, it turns out Ava’s mother is Queen of the Selenites, a hostile race that inhabits the moon. In order to save her mother, Ava must travel there and locate the cure.
Almost everything about Moon Raider is achingly average. It’s not a bad game, by any means, but there’s unfortunately nothing here that stands out amongst its peers. Graphically, it's cheery and colourful, with decent environmental design and animations. However, the character design falls completely flat; the enemy Selenites look like what a toddler’s vision of an alien would look like, with bulbous heads and big, black eyes, and Ava herself is a bland protagonist with no unique features.
Right from the start, there’s something about the gameplay that feels a little… off. The controls are relatively typical of 2D action titles and actually feel quite similar to Mega Man (albeit with an added double jump ability), but a distinct lack of polish makes the moment-to-moment gameplay feel rough. There are moments where Ava will freeze in place for a fraction of a second, and it’s as if the game can’t quite grasp the concept of performing two different moves at the same time. So basically, if you try to jump and shoot at the same time, Ava will essentially throw a miniature tantrum and just stop. These occurrences don’t last long enough to break up the gameplay, as such, but they’re absolutely long enough to become an irritation.
The game is split into levels — or zones — that largely feel fairly linear, despite numerous branching paths that lead to secrets or collectibles. The cure to your mother’s ailment is fragmented and scattered throughout the levels, and the game encourages the brand of exploration you'd expect from the genre, which works well enough. You’ll also come across various unlocked doors, and these can be opened by pulling the plug in a nearby location, killing the power supply and opening the doorway. This can also be used in other scenarios like disabling a gun turret or freeing captured creatures.
Despite some reasonably pretty visuals, the game’s sound design and audio falls disappointingly short. Every enemy gives an annoyingly unrealistic yelp upon death (think of the Wilhelm scream, but take it down an octave), which you can imagine becomes intolerable after a while. The music is consistently forgettable, with no standout tracks, and nothing that elevates the gameplay or setting. If you’re playing in handheld mode, you’ll want to crank up the volume in the settings, as its default setting is way too low, even with the hardware’s volume cranked up to maximum.
To an extent, we feel we’re being hard on Moon Raider, but compared to the plethora of excellent Metroidvania titles on Switch, this title is just 'all right'. It’s not bad, but its various flaws mean it's certainly not great, either. At around three hours in length, there are absolutely worse ways to spend your time, and the game does also include a neat co-op option to increase its longevity somewhat. Ultimately though, if you’re after a thrilling, memorable 2D action title with a dash of originality, this sadly isn’t it.
Comments 14
So it's a 'Meh'-troidvania.
Well probably may get it on a sale then.
I think I'm just going to look up fanart of this character.
@Lordplops I'm furious I didn't think of that.
@Lordplops me like, good job with the joke haha
I can live with merely competent, or average, if there are no glitches or long loading times or anything like that. What I can't stand is a short game, especially a Metroidvania. I want to spend time exploring the world and digging up secrets. I don't want to beat a game like that in three hours, might as well have made it linear and level-based.
Bad controls are a turnoff too. Sorry, pass.
Does that cover art remind anyone of another game, I think it's called 20XX or something like that? Speaking of that game cover art, it always looked janky to me, anatomy ain't right, but I digress.
The co-op option does sound intriguing, maybe one to get in a sale!
backed this on kickstarter so will be getting it regardless
Wow. What a shame. I was interested in it since it releases on my birthday, but...reading this review? I guess I'll hold onto my $10...
Well, as much as love the Friday 13th franchise, if you say a game goes Jason X, that's a no for me
Disappointing, but that's kinda par for the course nowadays it seems. Looked cute and I kinda got Shantae vibes from the trailer (ALWAYS a good thing), but I guess I'll just wait until it inevitably gets a deep discount.
Played it on PS4, it's not the worst thing in the world but yeah, it has the same problems: controls lockup for no reason and the occasional trial and error bulls**** plague the game kinda hard. There's just better metroidvania Titles out there. Wait for a sale if you ABSOLUTELY want to play this one.
Now it's 49 cents! Lol.. Is it worth it now?
This is on sale in the eshop now for like £1.85. it's defi worth a try, it's defo not a bad game but yes, it's a budget title that will give you a few hours of fun! The graphics are awesome and remind me of the Amiga games of the early 90s. Defo recommend to anyone interested in those type of platformer
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