Moon Ranger
System: NES
Release Date: 1990
Developer: Odessey Software
Publisher: Bunch Games
Genre: Action
Save Earth and the rest of the solar system by proving you’re the hero, Moon Ranger! An ancient alien race seeded the moon with technology to strip the solar system of all its resources. With Earth in its path, it became imperative to find a solution. The Moon Ranger must collect four pieces of the Gamma Bomb and then destroy the alien craft. Can you guide him to success?
You’re thrust into the control of your spaceship, and must go through a horizontal scrolling section. There are enemies that you can shoot for points or to save yourself from taking damage. The asteroids that look like they are part of the background can cause you to become stuck, which was annoying until I figured out what was going on. The end of the stage puts you up against a boss that takes a ton of hits and constantly spawns extra enemies. You have to ignore the little guys as best you can to get clean shots off on the boss.
Afterward, you disembark from your ship and enter a base. This turns into an action platformer where you have to jump your way from one room to the next. The jumping physics are quite awful. I tried to explain it away by saying that I’m in space, but that should make the jumping more forgiving, not dropping me down into pits because I went too far on a platform.
Enemies in the base are pretty relentless and will chase you down, despite you not having much maneuverability. Luckily, you can take multiple hits as indicated by your power meter. In space, you can recover your power by picking up blue blob looking things. These seem to stack beyond the visible meter, which is nice. On the platforming segments, you restore health by picking up potions. There are also alien weapon pickups that show up on occasion. The plasma shot turns into a wave shot, a lightning bolt, a flame tornado, and the ultimate IT gun. Sometimes my gun would transform down a level, making me think they might be on a timer.
The surface of the moon had the hardest boss I encountered. The level itself was a mixture between platformer and shoot ‘em up and not a big deal, but maneuvering the Moon ATV around became a challenge. Inside the moon base is a maze full of doors that drop you to your doom, enemies that want nothing more than to make you dead, and jumps that will test your mettle. The final boss was a pushover and just involved jumping and shooting. As long as you have enough health, you should kill it, collect the final piece of the bomb, and be the hero you knew you could be. Congradulations…
Graphics: 1.5
Nothing is pleasant to look at. The sprite and screen scrolling is not smooth.
Sound: 2.0
The music and sound is a mixed bag. I kind of liked it sometimes and it got on my nerves other times.
Gameplay: 1.5
The shoot ‘em up portion isn’t really interesting and the platforming physics are bad.
Difficulty: 1.0
There are a crap ton of cheap deaths in your future if you play this. Play it somewhere you can rewind the things that you had no control over.
Fun Factor: 1.0
I didn’t enjoy myself very much, but it was relatively quick, so I kept pushing through.
Overall Rating: 1.4
Moon Ranger earns a D+. Another poor unlicensed game that I can’t recommend in the least.