Moons Of Darsalon Review (PS5) – Lost & Found In Space

When it comes to roaming planets and exploring the vastness of space, sci-fi has gone towards a more serious angle recently with the likes of Interstellar and The Martian. Whilst exciting in their own right, sometimes we need some silliness to balance it out. Something pulp-y and nostalgic, and thankfully, that’s where Moons of Darsalon crash lands in.

A space adventure so rooted in retro charm that it wouldn’t surprise me if it did release on the Commodore 64 too, Moons of Darsalon wears its influences sown on to its spacesuit’s sleeve. A survival game evoking the likes of Lemmings and Abe’s Odyssey, but space-y, it’s so hard to dislike the charm.

Does this tale of daring space adventure boldly take us to fun places, or should it disappear into a black hole created by its own ambition? As it finally lands on consoles, watch the catchy trailer below and then continue reading to find out.

Graphics That Are Out Of This World!

I’m going a little out of sequence from my normal review structure, where I normally put story first to talk about the visuals. It’s also why I put the trailer above, because it needs to be seen to be believed. Immediately, Moons of Darsalon gives me Toejam & Earl Vibes, or Earthworm Jim: all bright colours and a silliness to space that we know see in the likes of Rick and Morty.

That vibrant, pixel style of old overlayed with the occasional 3D asset, like a spaceship or platform, it’s such a throwback I was grinning throughout. Now, that’s purely a subjective/age thing, I get that. I haven’t actually played on a Commodore 64, but I’ve seen them in action. But for me, and those that like their retro charm, this is ticking the boxes.

Even the sound design is on point, with tinny, chiptune recreations of classical/familiar pieces. All the sound effects are fuzzy and “authentic”, as if they’re coming through the family’s old CRT TV speakers.

There’s even some options to mess about with, adding a static-like overlay and rounded corners for that vintage feel. The voiceover itself is pure Speak and Spell; that grating little electronic monotone that is either praising or mocking in equal measure. Yes, I’m having a little gush about the style, and it’ll be lost of the younger generation, but for old heads it’s a nice take on what used to be.

Daring Deeds In Deep Space

Right, back to normal structure. The gameplay of Moons of Darsalon is, on paper, simple enough. It’s a search-and-rescue… in spaaaaace! Alright, I’ll stop doing that. Anyway, the gist is you, the player character are tasked with saving your fellow Darsanauts. This is done by hop, skipping, jumping and jetpacking across levels on a mission of rescue.

I’ll get on to the tech shortly, instead first we’ll go over the “save those souls” element. The levels, as far as I can tell from replaying a few, aren’t actually rogue/randomly generated, presumably keeping with the old school aesthetic. Across these bumpy, craggy and oddly-shaped courses are your fellow Darsanauts. Despite supposedly being qualified space-farers, they haven’t taken it upon themselves to think independently.

This is where you, the “head” Darsanaut (I presume), will lead them. This is done through commands, funnily enough, that are mapped to the directional pad. They’re simple enough, much like Abe uses to direct Mudokons: up for following, down for stopping, whilst left and right do the obvious. On their own, it’s an area of effect thing, but done whilst pointing the right stick will make it a more refined, conical affair. As in, if you want to move one specific ‘naut, rather than all of them.

Fortunately, they’re fairly smart. They won’t ‘Lemmings’ themselves off of ledges, and will jump and climb to follow. But the caveat is they won’t do anything dangerous, as such, or get panicky if their way is impeded by darkness.

Space-Tools Of The Space-Trade

As mentioned earlier, it’s not as simple as just rambling over some hillocks and taking the Darsanauts to a base within view. No, this is Darsalon, where geometry throws a hissy fit to common sense. Fortunately, we have some nifty bits of kit to help us.

The most basic is a flashlight, or “torch” if you’re normal, that helps guide the way for you and your followers. Shortly after, there’s a laser rifle, which will soon be put to use against the offensive blob-monster aliens. So far, so… action platformer, in a traditional sense. There’s even vehicles too, but the less said about them to not spoil, the better. I will say, however, remember when you all thought the Mako in Mass Effect sucked to drive?

But then it gets interesting, with jetpacks and a ground-forming “gun”. These work in tandem, as Darsanauts don’t also get jetpacks, but they do need to get to safety. The ground former makes what I can only describe as “earth Twiglets”: tube-like bridges that’ll connect A to B, then C to F and whatever convoluted gantries that players can think of.

And in a similar vein to Abe’s Odyssey, it’s not long before the challenge ramps up. Trying to keep an eye on four Darsanauts, creating a pathway whilst battling aliens soon becomes an exciting/frustrating level indeed, depending on how calm you stay.

No One Can Hear You Scream, Thankfully

When it comes to negatives or issues, I’m happy to report that Moons of Darsalon is actually a pretty smooth experience. Granted, this is probably due to being out already on PC, and time and patches have done their thing. So whilst I have no early comparison, I also have no complaints.

In terms of the aforementioned challenge… yes, it can get difficult. But only in the sense of “Hey, this is inspired by older games” and there’s not much in the way of hand-holding. There are two difficulty options; fixed or adaptive. I had it on the latter and it is pretty much that, it’ll keep you in check if you start going all Flash Gordon. The message is “Don’t get cocky and save your men”, emphasising the rescue element of the game. But that doesn’t mean it’s not fun, it’s just proportionate.

I could quibble that the controls are a bit fiddly at first, with L2 being jump and then another press to grab ledges. But then, it took a few looks to realise that all buttons are remappable (I don’t think that’s a real word) in the options. So this was a redundant sentence, really.

In terms of performance, I suppose it’s damning with fine praise to say “It plays like an early 90’s platformer”. That is to say that Dr. Kucho! Games have crafted something so simple that it just works, it doesn’t have any bloat or unnecessary systems that would crash it.

Dash Off To Darsalon!

In summary, Moons of Darsalon is a cracking little space adventure. Everything about it screams retro, and I’ve said before, this will scratch that nostalgic itch to those of a certain age. Being able to add CRT scan lines and rounded corners as a graphical filter, that kind of thing is a nice little nod.

The caveat, however, is it has that challenge of the previously mentioned Abe’s Odyssey, or Lemmings, in that it does get hard quite quickly. Yes, I get that “hard” is subjective, don’t come for me. What I mean is that if players are used to modernised simplicity, the game might be a challenge. But, and I cannot stress this enough, we need more of this. Games should be engaging and fun, and Moons of Darsalon is both of those things.

From the presentation to the sound design, the little pop culture references like “Cyndi Lauper is dead” when a Darsanaut dies coming through the controller, these are all great. Again, I know who Jimmy Somerville is (no, not that guy) but someone who thinks Prime Energy is a viable source of vitamins probably won’t.

So this review is for you, the ones with the date of birth from the last century. This is the kind of game you need if you long for the days of something retro, something kitsch, to fall back on. As I said, to me it hits that early 90’s platformer vibe, when companies took daft risks on potential mascots. That Dr. Kucho Games! have made something that feels so old yet new is a testament to the love of the craft.

Now get out there and save those Darsanauts!

Moons of Darsalon is available on console from 6th February, on PlayStation 4 & 5 (reviewed on latter), Nintendo Switch and Xbox One and Series S|X. The PC version is available now via Steam.

Developer: Dr. Kucho! Games
Publisher: Astrolabe Games

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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