Moo Lander

Backlog Impressions (Demo) - Moo Lander.png

Milk, it does the body good. Or so those old commercials used to say anyway. The jury is still out these days whether we should still be drinking cows milk or if we should continue to milk all the other weird, typically non-milkable things like almonds or hemp. Nevertheless, for the alien species in today’s game, cow milk just so happens to be an infinite and powerful source of energy worth scouring the universe for.

That’s right we’re taking a look at Moo Lander, an upcoming release from The Sixth Hammer, where got milk is the name of the game…or at least the objective anyway. We got a quick taste of what Moo Lander has to offer, but did this dairy themed space odyssey leave us feeling a-moo-sed or udderly defeated?

Let me start out by saying that the art direction for Moo Lander is fantastic. I loved the hand painted look of the backgrounds, and all the little details within the stage we played. There’s plenty of eye-catching colors everywhere and altogether it really sets the stage for a fun experience. It reminded me a lot of the Rayman games where the painting-esque scenery in the backgrounds and whimsical design of your ship and the enemies manage to fit together nicely, despite the contrasting art styles.

The gameplay definitely takes inspiration from other games though since it’s solidly in the 2D action/adventure genre. Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet comes to mind for sure, but with a whole lot more color obviously. Both games have you driving around in a little spaceship, avoiding environmental hazards and fighting enemies in creative ways. However, the problem with Moo Lander arises when you try to control your weapons, which feel a little too sluggish. Which is made even more apparent when the enemies are zooming all over the place or respawning at a rate you eventually can’t combat.

We were only given one cow boss to fight, but the battle was a doozy. The difficulty for the game in general is on the slightly higher side where it’s by no means impossible to bulldoze your way through but there’s definitely a learning curve when it comes to utilizing those weapons. Also, it would have been nice if somewhere in the tutorials we had been told we could stun the boss with the dash move, which ultimately made hitting the boss with our bombs a whole lot easier. We struggled quite a bit getting a handle on the unpredictable timing of the boss’s moves while also fending off the flying guys it summoned in, not to mention the awkwardly placed traps that we kept hitting when trying to heal.

The demo did a good job showing what you could eventually expect from the full game. I’d say we were given the equivalent of an entire stage which showcased a good bit of the exploration, how to open doors by solving a variety of puzzles, and of course what fighting enemies was like. Ending with, as you would expect, a boss fight. We also got to experience the upgrade tree and were allowed to upgrade our character a few times to see some of the different types of abilities we would have access to. One of the most interesting things was we also got to learn about the ship upgrades and how defeating certain enemies will unlock different looks as well as enhancements for your ship. That menu seemed to have some pretty fun looking prospects!

Overall, I’d say our experience with Moo Lander had some minor frustrations that might deter us from jumping on a day one release, but it’s a game we’ll definitely be keeping our eye on in the future. From what I’ve seen in a few other trailers, there seems to be some pretty cool looking environments and bosses in store for the finished game so I don’t think players will be disappointed upon giving this a try for themselves. It is supposed to be a 12 plus hour game so depending on their set price point I’d say you can’t go wrong if you're in the market for some goofy milk-tastic action.

If you’re interested in checking out Moo Lander for yourself, the demo is available right now on Steam and the Xbox Store, with a full release scheduled for the Spring of this year on all consoles and PC!