Blue Moon

The Good
Merlin Software is yet another company I haven’t heard of back in the day, but according to the MobyGames database, they only made titles for the Commodore 64. Most of the games released in the eatly Eighties, are clones of popular arcade games made by smaller game companies, yet Blue Moon distances itself from these clones by offering multiple levels with different objectives.

The main objective is to shoot aliens that appear from nowhere, but these aliens vary between levels. You deal with comets, blue bouncers, and Tecom (the game’s boss), and these aliens are quite big. However, before the fun begins, you have to attach a module to your spaceship so that it can shoot. This is a little tricky, given that the controls are quite sensitive. Providing that you get through the three shooting stages, you then have to land your ship on one of the three landing pads, with the smaller ones giving you the most points. Once you have successfully landed, the game goes back to stage one.

Graphic-wise, your ship is well designed, and as I mentioned, the sprites are huge. The animations are well done. I like how Tecom spits out funny red aliens at you. I also like the loading bars that appear when you lose one of your lives. As for sound, the short loop that plays on the title screen draws you into the game, and Merlin’s rendition of “God Save the Queen” as the British flag is raised is quite nice to listen to.

Blue Moon is the type of game that gets the adrenaline pumping. The aliens move quite rapidly across the screen, requiring fast reflexes if you want to get through each stage. Before the game starts, you can set the difficulty level, and the higher the level, the more hard the game will be. Assuming that you set the game at the highest level, for instance, you will be dealing with about 15 blue bouncers on stage three instead of just two.

The Bad
I don’t like how in the last level, you will lose a life even if you land on the landing pad, but not in the exact center.

The Bottom Line
Blue Moon is like any of the shooters made from the many small companies like Merlin, but what sets it apart is that you have to attach something to your spaceship before it can start shooting. The game also consists of multiple objectives rather than a fixed one similar to Galaxian. The graphics and sound is neat, and the addictiveness is there.