Moon Raider Review

Moon Raider tells the story of Ava, the young daughter of the brilliant-but-aging scientist Dr. Cavor, and Selene, a selenite who happens to be the former Moon queen. Selene’s life depends on special energy only moon gems can provide but time is running out. Dr. Cavor asks Ava to raid the moon in order to bring back as many gems as possible in order to save her mom’s life.

Moon Raider is a 2D “semi” Metroid-vania platformer where players will navigate a huge interconnected world covering different types of environments such as an underwater level, and ice level; among others. Our little heroine can jump, double jump, and shoot her way through each environment to reach a boss before proceeding to the next area.

I wanted to use the wording semi because while the areas are all interconnected, there’s no easy way to revisit previous areas unless you backtrack through each areas’ levels. Each level will also have a hidden bonus area that can be found when exploring every nook and cranny. This can either reward players with additional gems or even health upgrades.

The game will also allow players to obtain new skills such as a dash move which allows players to zoom through enemies and over life-threatening pits. As you’d expect, you can’t use it willy-nilly. You need to collect gems by killing enemies and destroying crates. The dash allows you to destroy specific walls and harder crates impervious to bullets.

Nothing wrong with this game’s presentation. Enemy diversity is commendable, sprite movement is well-detailed, and each area looks great and very distinctive from one another. Each area has its own unique color palette and theme making feel quite impressive for the level diversity in the bigger, vast region of this Metroid-vania. The soundtrack is fair, reasonable and fits the game’s environments, but it is quite forgettable.

There are a few things stopping this game from being near perfect. The first is one of the dumbest decisions I’ve seen in a game in a while. Every time you enter a boss room, the big baddy will suck out all of your gems meaning you cannot use your special skill. The other little nuisance falls on the Xbox Series controller. While the character can shoot upwards, using the uniformed d-pad, if your finger is even a half of an inch touch the up direction, the character will remain in that position. Additionally, if you do a double jump, you can’t shoot. The last little nugget of frustration is that sometimes is hard to distinguish small enemies and certain hazards from the game’s background.

Moon Raider is a fun little addition to the platformer/Metroid-vania genre. Each area takes about 10 minutes to get through; there are a few secrets to find for the completionists. Despite its shortcomings and uninspired boss fights, this is definitely a little gem to experience. It’s also ideal to play in short bursts to make it last. There are definitely worst ways to spend time and money.