At a glance...

Moon Diver review

Are you bored of mowing down enemies in your first person shooters, taking daring jumps in your adventure games, and overtakes in your driving games? Or even waving your hands like a hyper clown for crazy colours and rhythms? Well, perhaps you should try out Moon Diver, a hectic anime side-scrolling Xbox Live Arcade beat 'em up from Feelplus.

I absolutely love side-scrolling brawler games, such as Streets of Rage, Golden Axe, et al. I also love Japanese anime, the crazier the better. Two feet tall demons singing love songs? Awesome! Moon Diver is a fine blend of the two, with extra manic. Taking the shape of the die cast cut by Castle Crashers, Moon Diver is a one to four player side-scrolling beat-em-up, but without the Z-plane.

The whole game is thinly veiled behind the storyline; Earth, at the far reach of the twenty-second century, no longer fears the end of the world. Faust, a lone boy desiring Earth for his own, uses supernatural powers to create necromachines to destroy every living thing. Saviour lies with the Moondivers, an elite team of specially trained ninjas set to reclaim the world from impending doom.

The player gets to choose to take control of one of the four Moondivers, each of a distinct colour reminiscent of Teletubbies, holding, initially, a single 'MoonSault' Combination. Aside from the regular one-button attack, often used in combos, the MoonSault Combinations are powerful moves collected throughout the game which provide an additional assault on the oncoming waves of enemies. These take on many forms, such as increasing your defense stat temporarily or inflicting damage to all enemies on screen (my personal favourite), and each one featuring four stages of improvement when you find them scattered throughout the game. The clever part is the ability to share your MoonSault Combination with other players. Holding the special attack button allows other players on screen to take part, which increases the power of attacks, or affects all players for defence or healing. This is a great mechanic when one player has the MoonSault Combination that replenishes health.

Armed with combo attacks and MoonSault Combinations, you are ready to take on the twelve stages in the game. Twelve may sound like a small number, but each stage is impressively long, and is broken up into smaller segments, taking a good 30 to 40 minutes to complete each stage - if you complete it. Zero checkpoints means death takes you back to the start of the stage, forcing you to rely on the levelling system. Levelling up provides better combinations and a chance to increase health or power capacities, allowing you to retry those difficult stages with advantage. It is a daring game play mechanic, but pays off as a fine balance between length of stage and enemy difficulty.

Enemies are quite varied in the game, and provide frantic behaviour through sheer numbers and their movement on screen. It is easy to get lost in the action and mistake control of another character. Taking down mannequin-esque simpletons brings the kill count up, but you have to keep the kills coming, otherwise your count resets. Other enemies can have interesting patterns, such as the gold, long armed men who, on death, explode horizontally and vertically like in Bomberman. Then there are giant mosquitoes and the lasers. Oh, how the lasers can quickly take you out. The wide variety keeps the game fresh and the routines are tough enough to keep you coming back just to learn their weak points. Like Sonic the Hedgehog took level repeats to learn the pitfalls, Moon Diver needs repeats to learn enemy behaviour.

If you happen to die in the game, and are unfortunate enough to be alone, the game ends. However, playing with friends (or strangers, I won’t judge) locally or online brings the advantage of revival. Fall foul of the big head raining down bombs (seriously) and your teammate can revive your floating body with a quick sword play on the sarcophagus bubble, and then you’re right as rain once more. Unfortunately this means playing the game solo can be very tough, especially in the latter stages; it is highly recommended you get cosy with others to help you out in this game.

Fortunately the visuals of the game compliment the crazy atmosphere the gameplay provides. Each enemy has a distinct, artistic look and behaviour in a consistent manner that makes the game have its own unique look. Sure, it may be a little busy on the screen, and you may lose your Moondiver in the mix of the bodies and mecha, but the effects of destroying all enemies on the screen enhance that immensely.

In the end, this is a game that provides spectacular gameplay that will last a long time. Depending on your skills and the difficulty level, it will last from about 8 hours upwards if you happen to falter often, especially alone. You'll need to bring friends along for the ride to get the maximum benefit, and be prepared to retake some stages to allow you to learn enemy behaviour and clear the stage on the repeat.

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