Chris InglisMoons of Darsalon, developed and published by Dr. Kucho! Games, is a retro action platformer that originally launched on Steam in April 2023 and saw its console release on February 6. The game seeks to revive the essence of classic puzzle-platformers, drawing clear inspiration from titles like Pikmin and Lemmings, while forging its own path.
The game introduces players to a series of levels where the objective is to guide a group of darsanauts to an exit. These darsanauts start moving in a pre-determined manner however are not on rails like in the classic Lemmings. They rely on you giving them radio commands such as wait, move left and right, or to follow the player. It’s our task to lead the darsanauts to safety over various hazards including large gaps, dark caves and shooting aliens. The game features an addictive core gameplay loop, with level designs offering varying challenges that require creative thinking and effective use of available tools and vehicles.
Moons of Darsalon goes out of its way to recommend playing it with a controller, but I persisted with keyboard/mouse just fine. You will need to move crates, terraform land bridges, and defend your crew from alien attacks. It can get frustrating at times when the astronauts will jump to their deaths, or you will forget they are on follow when you attempt to jump a wide gap. You can hold the right mouse button and then release to extend your jump; however I learned the hard way that the other astronauts aren’t as intuitive. Once you obtain access to vehicles, traversal becomes much more challenging requiring you to manipulate the terrain to enable to vehicles to climb high peaks and cross vast gaps.
While the gameplay and mechanics are the primary focus, the game does weave a simple yet engaging narrative. The story revolves around the protagonist, a brave astronaut leader responsible for rescuing their fellow crew members stranded on the treacherous moons of Darsalon. As players progress through the levels, they uncover snippets of the backstory, revealing the astronauts’ mission and the challenges they face in hostile environments filled with alien adversaries.
Visually, Moons of Darsalon adopts a retro pixel art style wrapped in a CRT monitor-shaped UI which enhances its nostalgic appeal for me. I played the game on PC though I can see the appeal of playing it on a smaller screen like the Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck. The visuals are relatively clear, making it easy to distinguish between different elements on screen, though it will depend on your scaled resolution. I ran the game with 2K resolution and it was fine, though smaller screens would have made the game ‘clearer’. The sound design includes 8-bit music which was excellent and complemented the game’s visual style, however the 8-bit voice work was quite grating.
Overall, Moons of Darsalon captures the essence of classic puzzle-platformers while offering a challenging and rewarding experience with clever level design. There were a handful of frustrations with the darsanauts AI behaviour, but you learn to adapt pretty quickly. This is Lemmings mixed with Pikmin, while also adding some new elements to the puzzle platforming madness and would be great to play on the Switch or Steam Deck.
This review utilised a Steam key provided by JF Games PR and Moons of Darsalon is available now on Steam, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.
#roundtablecoop
