When I first saw Moo Lander in the Xbox store, I just had to try it, what’s in a name right? Not expecting a lot, I was pleasantly surprised by this rather original Metroidvania. Let’s jump right in!
Time to score some milk
In The Sixth Hammer’s Moo Lander, you’ll take control over an alien Lander that’s searching for milk in every corner of the galaxy. Their society thrives on milk and without it, they can’t survive or develop the way they want to. During the last big war, the species lost their supply of milk and are now looking for a new, hopefully, an endless stream of milk to rebuild everything that was lost. Together with your ship Hamilton, you’ll set foot, or rather float over, distant planets. It looks like you hit the jackpot on a planet inhabited by alien cows, who provide a rather fulfilling amount of milk if you manage to capture them. The catch? It won’t be easy to take those creatures home…
A Metroidvania pur sang
In order to capture the mythical cows, you’ll need to learn how to maneuver over the mysterious yet familiar planet you landed on. Just like in any other Metroidvania, you advance by upgrading your ship. Paths that were previously inaccessible will open up with the right kind of upgrade. Exploring the planet and discovering all its secrets is one of the game’s biggest charms. I’ve played a lot of Metroidvania’s in the past and yet none did with Moo Lander does. Since you’re controlling a floating spaceship, you aren’t always as accurate or precise as you would want to be. Mastering the controls of your ship is crucial if you want to survive. The planet is filled with deadly environmental traps so you better watch out where you’re going. Some might say the controls are a bit game-breaking since it really isn’t easy to float over the planet with great precision.
In my opinion, however, it’s a feature and not a bug. You can best compare it to the clunky controls of the original Resident Evil games. These controls were made that clunky to disable you to run away from the zombies easily. The controls in Moo Lander reminded me of my first Resident Evil games. Since it’s harder to control a floating ship, the level of difficulty automatically increases a lot, which is a big plus for the genre. After spending a couple of hours with the game, I mastered the controls but surviving was never just a walk in the park. If you want to advance, you’ll need to become really good at controlling your ship.
Bosses and upgrades
A Metroidvania wouldn’t be a Metroidvania without some challenging bosses to defeat. In Moo Lander, you’ll face off with a number of cows. Before you can beam them up and take their milk, you’ll need to defeat them. Fighting a cow sounds funny but don’t be mistaken, they won’t go down that easily. Every boss has its own style and pattern, learning this pattern and countering it with some well-timed attacks is your key to victory. I really liked the challenge of the boss fights and together with the design, the boss fights certainly are very memorable.
The more bosses you defeat, the more upgrades you’ll receive for your ship. The upgrades are divided into several categories, all with the main focus of making your ship more powerful, agile, or resistant. Messing around with the upgrades and figuring out what works best in certain situations is fun and extremely rewarding. If you finished the entertaining singleplayer, you can also jump into the Mooltiplayer for some extra hours of Moo Lander madness.
Conclusion:
Moo Lander is a great Metroidvania with some challenging controls and original bosses. It’s one of the more original games in its genre and definitely worth playing if you’re looking for a challenging yet rewarding game.
