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It's time to fly to the moon on your DS, and thanks to Dementia: the Ward developer, Renegade Kid, it's a fun trip. The latest first person adventure from the developer is a remarkably solid shooter exploration game, and easily the best example of a FPS on the DS since Metroid.

The Name's Kane ... Major Kane

You are Major Kane, a fairly non-descript space marine type sent to the lunar surface to help investigate a subterranean structure of alien make. Your team has disappeared during a routine recon run, and you're sent in to find out what's going on down there. Kane is a one-man show through the game, as usual, but the overall story and level design is remarkably well paced.

With that said, Moon is definitely an old-school affair. The graphics and level design have a mid-90's Build engine look and feel to them, as do the enemies--most of which consist of annoying flying drones. Still, the frame rate is fast and smooth, and the color scheme is distinctive. The graphics look good overall, thankfully, and many of the levels are quite large.

Robotic Disarray

Enemies don't vary much through the game, with an array of flying drones, spider bots, and similar robotic opponents. Boss fights are frequent, however, and these mechanized creations are much more creative--ranging from turret, tank-like droids to huge, multi-armed androids. Weapons are diverse as well. You start with an assault rifle with infinite ammo, but the farther into the complex you delve, the more alien tech you'll encounter.

Aside from run and gun first-person shooting, Moon offers up plenty of puzzle solving and exploration. The game is exploring more than combat, and once you clear an area out it stays clear. You'll use a remote droid to get into tiny areas, circumventing force fields, and then use the droid to shut the fields down from the other side. There are also some outdoor vehicle sequences that let you check out the lunar surface.

Moon keeps its control scheme simple. You use the D-pad to move and strafe, and the stylus to look and aim. The L-button shoots. There's no jumping, and although some of the obstacles take unfair advantage of this, the game works so well because the controls feel very precise.

Moon Mission!

Once a level is completed, it becomes available for quick play, but unfortunately, there are no multiplayer modes. Other than that, there's not much to complain about here. Moon makes good use of the DS's abilities and provides a distinctive mix of action and adventure. The game wouldn't make it on the PSP, or other more powerful machines, but you'll be hard pressed to find a better recent shooter on the DS.

Article Written By: Jason D'Aprile