Shhh...I have a secret. Our very own Cort is going to get some hands-on time with MadWorld! I think that's happening on Thursday. As soon as he gets back, I'll pester him for all the details. We will have those on the site as soon as we are allowed to post! That's something to look forward to for later this week! I think I'll send myself to sleep with the sweet dreams of chainsaw-arms, and the voiceover work of Greg Proops. See you all in a few, short hours. Have a wonderful Tuesday morning!

Renegade Kid knows their stuff when it comes to the DS. I guess I should be more specific and say that Jools Watsham knows his stuff. He's the big brain behind Renegade Kid...the man that brought us Dementium: The Ward, as well as the just-released Moon. Dementium was outstanding for a first title, but it wasn't without its downsides. I loved the game for what it managed to do right, and hated it for what it did wrong. Overall, the experience was a fun one, but at times, a painful fight to get through.

The successes of Dementium were more than enough for me to keep a close eye on Mr. Watsham and the future projects he had lined up. That next project turned out to be Moon, which is another first-person shooter for the DS. Dementium did a fantastic job at bringing a first-person experience to the DS, all while making it look and play well. I just knew that this go around, Moon was going to fix some of the issues that Dementium had, all while improving on the high points of the previous title.

I've only put about 2 hours into Moon thus far, but I can already see that my hunch was correct. Moon is a much more polished experience than Dementium, and that polish mostly comes through on the gameplay side of things. Jools and the Renegade Kid team are going to work themselves into a corner if they keep creating great DS titles that best their previous efforts!

Moon is absolutely oozing with atmosphere. That's a pretty big achievement when you consider just how many games take place in the setting that Moon does. If you haven't guessed the setting...take another look at the title. Yes, we've all played titles that put us on moon bases, but Moon manages to make you really feel isolated. I honestly feel the heaviness of the situation, the loneliness of the experience, and the worry of what awaits in the next corridor.

It may actually be the power of the DS that contributes to the atmosphere in Moon. The game looks fantastic for an FPS, but you do have to keep in mind that this is a DS FPS. You can't have 20 enemies on screen at once. Your enemy encounters are usually 3 or 4 enemies at most. I've been in a couple situations that topped out at 6 enemies, and there was only one slight dip in framerate. I have to wonder if Renegade Kid looked at the DS and its power, and built a universe and story that worked hand-in-hand with the hardware limitations. While Dementium made you feel like you were playing an FPS that simply appeared on DS, Moon feels like a game that was tailor made for the platform.

While the voice acting in the game isn't really that good, the actual story has me hooked. I'm dying to see what is going to happen next, and learn more about just what's going on. I don't want to ruin anything about the story, considering how it's motivating me through the game. While the dialog can be a bit simple at times, I am yet to feel like the situation I'm in is an unbelievable one. There have been stories like this in games before, but this time around, the atmosphere and story really mesh well. It's a truly believable game world, in a game where nothing should be believable.

The only area that really lets me down is the music. I am a big fan of game music, but the soundtrack to Moon doesn't seem that good. At times, I can tell what the composer was going for. Moon's music gives off a vibe of iconic 80s sci-fi movies. Low-tech, minimalist, but intriguing. You can just tell that those films were the inspiration for the music, but the composer fails to achieve that style most of the time. There are a couple tracks that nail the creepy, robotic theme...but overall, I find the music rather grating. I'm going to pop in some headphones for my next play session, just to see if that pulls me in more.

Quite honestly, I wish I were playing Moon right now. If you own a DS and you don't mind a stylus-based FPS title, you should at least rent Moon. I think it's worth a purchase, even though I'm only a couple hours in. Sure, the Moon bases may have familiar designs from time to time, but since it plays into the story, it really doesn't bother me. I can see how some might find it repetitive, but I believe that the story/atmosphere (thus far) make up for that shortcoming.

FPS titles are king on the 360 and PS3. Moon shows me that FPS titles can be done right on the DS, and if more developers took the time to pour this much care into their FPS DS outings, the entire genre could grab a nice bit of the DS software sales charts. I mean, come on...do you really want another pet simulator?