Moon Chronicles: Episode 1 (2014) - Nintendo 3DS

Said game case.

Back when the Nintendo DS was the hot handheld on the market I would often see a title at local
game stores called Moon. Every time I saw the game case I was intrigued by the title. I had heard of the developer, Renegade Kid, and their other popular first-person titles on the DS, the Dementium games, but for some unknown reason I just didn't buy it! I can't even say why, because I saw copies of Moon all the time, often read the back and thought, "This sounds like a fun game!" I would always place it back on the shelf, though.

Flash forward almost five years and Renegade Kid, now a force to be reckoned with on the Nintendo eShop with games like Mutant Mudds, Bomb Monkey, and Xeodrifter (see my review here!), made the decision to remaster their handheld space shooter as Moon Chronicles. Now running at a smooth 60 frames per second, with upgraded graphics and effects, the game would be released in episodic "seasons" on the Nintendo 3DS eShop.

Season 1 would be the original Moon game, broken into four episodes. Episode 1 was released May 15, 2014 and included the first episode and VR training missions. On February 5th, 2015 episodes 2, 3, and 4 were released simultaneously. As of writing this Season 2 has still not been announced, but Renegade Kid has said that the second season, an all-new story for the Moon series, will launch in 2015 and that a complete package of Episode 1 will also become available.

Reeemiiiiix!

Moon Chronicles: Episode 1 begins as Major Kane, an elite US soldier, lands on the Moon. A mysterious hatch has recently been found on the surface of the planet and a team of Kane's contemporaries were sent in on a reconnaissance mission, but have gone missing under the surface. It's up to Kane and his special task force to find out what's going on down below.

The game plays and feels just like an old school PC shooter. The environment, music, and sound effects feel like they'd be right at home on a Windows 95 cd-rom. The walls even look slightly bitmapped!

The controls took a little getting used to. As I mentioned before, the game was originally released on the DS and used a control scheme similar to that of GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo 64. The player used the d-pad to move in any direction, the face buttons to aim your weapon, and shooting was relegated to the shoulder buttons (no Z-button here). In Moon Chronicles on the 3DS that control scheme remains, but thanks to the Circle Pad Pro players can now use two analog sticks to control Kane, which works much better than the d-pad/face button combination.

I still had some trouble with getting used to the controls for the game, because I found the aiming a little stiff and my hand cramped from using the Circle Pad Pro, but after a while I got used to it and was doing just fine in the aiming and shooting department. Note: if you own the New Nintendo 3DS, Moon Chronicles is compatible with the control nub, which may or may not be preferable to the Circle Pad Pro attachment.

No need for an unlimited ammo code.

You start off the game with a rifle that has unlimited ammo. It's accuracy and power are very weak,
however. At first I wondered if I was even hitting the various enemies, which are mostly drone-like objects, but I quickly realized that when my reticle went red it meant I was making a hit.

Unlike most first-person shooters these days, you don't regain health by hiding! That was a nice surprise. I think that gimmick gets over-used and can take away from the excitement of the game. In Moon Chronicles you have to retrieve vials from downed enemies, which will give you health.

That's basically it for the gameplay! I don't want to go too in-depth with it and ruin any of the story-line, but I will say that later in Episode 1 I did find a new weapon, which actually uses ammo (also dropped from enemies), and I got to ride around in a cool vehicle!

My major complaint about Moon Chronicles: Episode 1 is the length. I finished it in two sittings of less than an hour each. That included some backtracking, looking for secrets, etc. I think if you were just sticking to the combat and kept a good pace you could probably finish the entire episode in under 40 minutes.

The price tag on Moon Chronicles is initially $8.99, which includes Episode 1 and unlockable VR missions. If you include the VR missions you are looking at some extended gameplay, which makes the $8.99 price tag a little more palatable. Episodes 2, 3, and 4 were all released individually for $4.50 or you can buy a season's pass and get all the episodes for $9, which makes the whole package of Moon Chronicles about 20 bucks. I would say that looking at the length of the mission in Episode 1 $9 seemed a little steep. I felt like I paid to play a demo of the game.

So, in conclusion, Moon Chronicles Episode 1 might be an easy choice for any fans of the original title on the DS or anyone that just really likes vintage PC shooters. The initial cost of the first episode seems a little steep, so you might want to decide if you think the whole package is something you're interested in before you take the leap and buy.

Reviews for Episodes 2, 3, and 4 to follow!

Hope you enjoyed,
R

Xeodrifter (2014) - Nintendo 3DS

I've had my eye on Xeodrifter ever since I first heard of its release months ago, but I was on the fence about picking it up. I love "Metroid-vania" games, so I figured it would be right up my alley, but I have a bad habit of buying eShop games on my 3DS and leaving them un-played (an issue I'm currently trying to rectify).

8-bit glory.

Recently there was an eShop sale for Renegade Kid titles, however, and at about $5 I decided to take the plunge, put everything else aside, and finally play Xeodrifter.

Xeodrifter, as I've already mentioned, is an action platforming title that takes a great deal of inspiration from the NES classic Metroid. It boasts a pseudo 8-bit aesthetic, retro music, and non-linear gameplay, which all comes together in a wonderful nostalgia-fueled package.

The game, following its old school roots, is light on story, but follows an interstellar drifter who is exploring a cluster of planets when the warp core on his ship is damaged. You can only travel to the four planets in this tiny corner of the cosmos, but must find a way to repair your warp core to carry on your mission of discovery.

Bring it on, Boss Man!

You can travel to any of the four planets when you begin the game, but you will quickly realize that you require certain power-ups to access many of the areas in these alien landscapes. You can acquire these abilities by facing off with giant alien bosses located on one of the four mysterious worlds.

The drifter is equipped with a simple gun and the ability to jump when you begin playing, but as you battle your way and explore the four planets you'll find many power-ups that will give you more health and allow you to upgrade your weapon to take on the alien creatures you'll encounter.

The game is short, but sweet. I finished it in around three hours on my first playthrough. The pacing is great and keeps you enticed to play, but you can easily put the game down whenever you please. One problem I have with "Metroid-vania" titles is that I often lose my place. I legitimately keep a book where I record my steps as I play games in this subgenre so I know where I'm going between gaming sessions. In Xeodrifter, more than likely due to its simplistic nature, I never had an issue remembering what I was up to and having to backtrack significantly to figure it out.

My finished game file.

The controls are tight, the colours and retro-themed art style pop beautifully, and the music - although
at times a little repetitive - all come together to make for a really fun, accessible indie title. The only issue some people might have would be the length, as the game is a little on the short side. For a guy like myself, I enjoyed the short play time, but I can see where a title that's three hours long could be a problem for some. There is some inherent replay value to search out all of the health and gun upgrades, but I would say that I found most of them on my first playthrough, so that might not really flesh out the game enough for those looking for more bang for their buck.

All in all I can recommend Xeodrifter to anyone that likes a fun, retro-style indie game that doesn't break the bank and also won't take weeks to finish. You can pick it up on the Nintendo 3DS eShop as well as Steam for around $10.99 at full price, as well as a Special Edition on Steam for $16.99, which includes a download of the soundtrack and a development diary for the game. Xeodrifter is also slotted to be released on Xbox One, PS4, and Playstation Vita later this spring.

Hope you enjoyed,
R

No, thank you!

Top 5 Favourite Video Game Consoles

I'd just like to begin by saying that this list is inspired by both the Cartridge Bros. and Lo Burton. The Cartridge Bros. recently posted a video from their new weekly series Not So Deep Thoughts and the topic was their personal top three favourite consoles. Being the professional lister that I am it instantly piqued my interest. Not long after watching their video I saw that Lo Burton of And Then She Games fame responded with her personal top five favourite consoles. After reading her blog post I just knew I had to make my own list!

Yes this is a list of five, which might make you wonder why am I not posting it on Five-O-Rama? The reason is that it's a personal list, so I felt it more-so belonged here on Retro-Def. If I was, say, making a list of the Top 5 Best Consoles of All Time, regardless of my personal opinions, then that would definitely makes its way to Five-O-Rama.

Also, why a top five? I tried to just pick my top three, but I kept feeling like I was leaving something important out by not mentioning the other two consoles on this list. Also I like lists of five. And Lo broke the rules first!

Onward!

Sony Playstation 2

The big beast it all its glory.

I bought my PS2 the summer I graduated from high school and I instantly fell in love with it. I'm a big cinephile and the fact that it came with a DVD player built in was a huge selling point, but also I had a deep love for its predecessor, which I'll mention in a moment. It was an easy sell.

The PS2 continued to foster my love for game series like Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid, and also introduced me to different types of games that I had never played before, like Dance Dance Revolution. Yes, I played DDR... and I was damned good at it.

It also lead to my first foray into online console gaming. I'd done some modem matches in PC games up to this point, but the simplicity of the PS2's network adapter and hopping online while sitting on my couch was something I really fell in love with. I became obsessed with the SOCOM: US Navy SEALs series and a few of my friends and I would stay up until the wee hours of the morning eating pizza, drinking beers, and playing with our clan in SOCOM; all thanks to my beloved PS2, which remains hooked up in my house to this day.

Also I watched The Matrix on that thing like a kajillion times when I finally got it on DVD.

Nintendo 64

Look at that controller!

I had a really difficult time placing this console in the hierarchy of this list, but in the end it still lands in my top five so that's saying something!

The N64 makes the list because of all kinds of amazing solo games, like Super Mario 64, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, StarFox 64, and - my favourite Legend of Zelda title - Ocarina of Time.

Most importantly, however, it is because of the incredible multiplayer experiences I had with this system. I, like so many others, played countless hours of Mario Kart 64, GoldenEye 007, and Perfect Dark. I can't tell you how often I can recall staring bleary-eyed as the sun started pouring through an open window and not even realizing that my friends and I had been up legitimately all night battling each other in these incredible games.

Nintendo Entertainment System

The one that started it all.

Another system that I had a hard time placing!

The NES had to make the list, however, simply because it is the system that started it all for me in this hobby of video gaming. It houses in its library some of my favourite games of all time, like Super Mario Bros. 3, Mega Man 3, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I didn't really understand what an entertainment system gaming console was when I first received my NES as a Christmas present 25 years ago, but I quickly became attached to the concept and it has endured as one of my favourite pastimes all these years later.

What's even more interesting (for me) is that in the last few years I've actually been getting back into my NES. If I had written this list in the not-so-distant past I'm not sure where it would have placed, honestly. I had great memories of it, but rarely, if ever, hooked it up to play it. I started picking up some NES carts for games I'd missed on the console at flea markets - games like The Legend of Zelda, The Adventures of Link, and Hogan's Alley - and in a way it's almost like I'm falling in love with my NES all over again.

Sony Playstation

The only "revenge console" on the market.

Up until the PSX (yes I still use that acronym) gaming for me was something I occasionally did on my own free time, but I'm not sure I considered the hobby something incredibly personal. I mostly loved playing games with friends. There were some games that were released on the SNES and N64 that started me down that path, but the Playstation was where I really started to take this whole gaming thing to heart.

I first decided I needed to have a PSX when I began reading about a then upcoming game from Konami by the name of Metal Gear Solid. The graphics, the ideas behind the gameplay, the correlations with film; all of these bullet points, plus my fascination with its NES predecessor, had me dying to play the game. As a huge Final Fantasy fan, you would think it would have been Final Fantasy 7 that brought me over to Sony's "new kid on the block" console, but that just wasn't the case.

I got a PSX for MGS, but there were so many other titles that kept me clocking time in with it for many years to come. Titles like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Final Fantasy 9, Suikoden, Resident Evil, Parasite Eve, Final Fantasy Tactics... the list just goes on and on.

I feel like I developed my taste for games with the PSX. Before that I had played a few RPGs, and I knew that I loved Final Fantasy 3, but I wouldn't say that I was an "RPG fan". Like I just mentioned, I was interested in FF7, but I was just as happy to watch my buddy play it on his PSX. It wasn't until I had my own Playstation and started wading into the ever-growing torrent of RPG titles finding their way to North American shores that I became the RPG-hound that I am today.

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Finally, the games could top-load!

The SNES is significant to my gaming history for so many reasons. Before it if a game wasn't a side-scrolling action title, I didn't care if it existed.

Even writing that I realize that most of my favourite games on the SNES were the likes of Super Mario World, TMNT IV: Turtles in Time, the Mega Man X series, and the Donkey Kong Country series. That said, however, the SNES is where I began to cut my teeth on games of a different ilk.

If the PSX is where I cemented my love for RPGs, the SNES is where the love affair all began. I played ground-breaking titles on it like Final Fantasy 2, Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, and ultimately Final Fantasy 3.

I still find my SNES to be my most accessible system. It plays all of my old, favourite games flawlessly. Just plug them in and off I go. In a moment I can be whisked away to so many worlds that I loved visiting in my childhood, whether it be Dinosaur Island with Mario, time-hopping with the Turtles, or bearing the cold winds of Narshe with Terra and Locke.

I've tried to express my love for FF3 before, and I think I've failed to truly get that across, but that game alone would probably make the SNES my favourite console of all time.

And, for the record, I love those pastel purple buttons!

Hope you enjoyed,
R

My Bloody Valentine (1981) Commentary with Paul Kelman!

I had the privelege last night to sit down with my Sausage Factory brethren and do a live commentary for one of my favourite slashers of all time, My Bloody Valentine, with the film's star Paul Kelman, himself!

If you want to watch me nerd out like crazy, definitely check out the video. Make sure to cue up a copy of the film while you're at it!


Hope you enjoy,
R

My Favourite Games at Christmas

Our Christmas Tree this year.

The other day I actually got a few hours to myself and I decided I'd game for a bit. With a newborn son it's become increasingly difficult to find time to game (or do anything else, for that matter), so when I saw the opportunity I didn't hesitate. I put a few hours into Bravely Default and it was a blast.

It got me thinking about how one of my favourite things to do during the Holidays is play games. Not shockingly, of course, because when I was a kid that would have been when I'd receive most - if not all - of my new games for the year.

Although in the last few years my favourite Holiday tradition for gaming has been chilling by the Christmas tree with whatever game is currently in my 3DS, there are certain games that I like to boot up around Christmas, or have fond memories of playing at Christmastime, so I thought I'd share a few of those with everyone. 'Tis the season!

Battle the evil Kremlings for your lost Banana Horde!

Donkey Kong Country was probably my most anticipated title ever released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and in 1994 I was not disappointed when I found it waiting for me under the Christmas tree. I didn't even care about Donkey Kong from the arcade, or any of its ports and sequels on the NES, but the pre-rendered 3D environments that had been teased in Nintendo Power Magazine had me frothing at the mouth to play this game.

And it did not disappoint. Donkey Kong Country is one of the best platformers ever developed and really put Rare on the map as a household name in the video game market. The engrossing surroundings, tight controls, and plethora of secrets, coupled with the ability to switch between characters at will, made DKC a top contender for best platformer on the SNES. And this is in a world where Super Mario World is already on the system. It was also so accessible. My little sister (who is not a gamer) and I would play this - and its subsequent sequels - together and she could easily play along, even if I had to help out with the more difficult stages.

Then there's the music. David Wise's soundtrack is probably what made me love video game music to this day. Whenever I throw this game on around Christmas, and I hit those water stages, or the any of the levels in Gorilla Glacier, I'm blasted right back to 1994, feverishly tackling the challenge of DKC.

Take on the role of  Raziel the Wraith as he battles for revenge.

The Sony Playstation was such a surprise for me and really changed me as a gamer. All for the better, of course. I was a "Nintendo Kid" and had no intention of getting a PSX (my preferred acronym for Playstation), but after watching my best bud Cole playing his I eventually saw the benefit in owning one and I actually received my very own Playstation with a copy of Metal Gear Solid (the game that really sold me on the PSX) on a frosty Christmas morn. So why am I not writing about Metal Gear right now?

I don't really know how to explain it, but Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, always comes to my mind when I think of Christmas gaming memories. What makes it especially odd is that I've never owned a copy of Soul Reaver.

It was nearing Christmas one year and on the street I grew up on all the neighbours would get together and have this big outdoor Christmas party every year, where we'd drink hot chocolate (hot toddies for the adults) and light up a huge Christmas tree. I was a teenager during the PSX years and I remember I was being all angsty and didn't really want to join in on all the Christmas cheer.

As a sidenote, I went to the party and had a blast. You're never too old for Christmas!

Previously that day I had gone to my local video store (my Mecca) and picked up Soul Reaver to play for the weekend. As I awaited going to the Christmas Party (we called it the Light Up) I crunched a few hours in Soul Reaver and was just whisked away. I had played some of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, and it didn't really grab me, but the story of Raziel, the Elder God, and this gothic 3D-rendered vision of the world of Blood Omen was absorbing. I can remember playing hours of this game as the light of all those Christmas lights bored through the blinds on my bedroom windows, illuminating an otherwise black room; the perfect twilit ambiance for playing Soul Reaver.

Run free as Super Mario takes the jump into full 3D!

Everyone's seen the Nintendo 64 kid, and anyone that was into gaming in the mid-90s can remember the fervor surrounding the Nintendo 64 during Christmas of 1996. For me it wasn't as much about it just being Nintendo's newest console, but also the intrigue surrounding that strange new controller.

I had not yet seen a "3D controller" - even though I would play Nights Into Dreams with the Sega Saturn 3D Control Pad in the not-so-distant future - and reading about the analog thumbstick in Nintendo Power just had my mind hopping as to how it would work.

I can remember being in a Canadian Tire during that Christmas season and seeing that they had three kiosks set up; one with a Sega Saturn playing Panzer Dragoon, one with a Sony Playstation playing Battle Arena Toshinden, and a Nintendo 64 with Super Mario 64. The Sega Saturn I had seen; a friend owned one. The Playstation I had never seen before and I can recall my exact thought of testing it out: "The controller is funny. There are too many buttons on the top." And then I laid my hands on the Nintendo 64 controller, ironically the strangest controller ever conceived, and yet it just made sense.

I tenderly held the controller in my hand, and wiggled the analog stick just a little and saw Mario react on screen in full, glorious 3D. And that was it. Even at a young age I knew I didn't want to ruin what could be an amazing Christmas morning, if I were lucky enough to receive an N64.

And I was that lucky. Santa is such a badass. I got the Nintendo 64 and the game I'd wanted to play for so long: Super Mario 64.

The next few weeks were a blur. Another friend of mine got an N64, as well, and although we'd never spoken it aloud, we were heatedly racing one another to see who could collect all 70, and then all 120 stars, first. We'd call each other up each day and rattle off which stars we'd discovered, never giving quite enough information and giving away the secret. The tallies continued to grow, and then on New Years Eve 1996, as the world slowly turned another year older I collected my 70th star and took down Bowser one final time.

Over the next few weeks I took my time and savoured the game, finding those last 50 stars hidden around the beautiful and enthralling 3D world of Super Mario 64. I didn't know it at the time, but I was building one of my favourite Christmas memories, which lasts to this day. I'm not sure if there's any other game that makes me think more of Christmastime than when I boot up Mario 64. The two have become inexorably intertwined in my mind, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Hope you enjoyed,
R