MOONPONG: Tales of Epic Lunacy bounces a ball around a round arena to smack starships and lunar debris in hopes of bringing the moon back home.
The Moon has started moving away from the Earth due to climate disaster, but NASA has a plan to bring our beloved lunar body back. I’m not super sure why that entails using colossal paddles to swat things around in space, but at least the plan is fun. You’ll have to guide this paddle around a circular track, launching a ball at the things flying around inside. If we can get rid of all of this space stuff out of the way, then maybe we can knock the Moon’s trajectory onto just the right path to bring it home. Although I can’t really blame the Moon for leaving in this situation.
The circular track really alters your consideration of how you would play a Pong-like game. I’m used to keeping track of one section of the screen, but here, any time you hit the ball, you have to figure out how you’ll go and intercept it. Or, more often, how it will bounce off of an enemy and where you’ll need to be to catch it. This results in a frantic bouncing game, but one that’s made a little bit easier with some of the tools and helpful abilities you unlock as you play. Although I tended to get sidetracked by the wild galactic beings that showed up periodically as I played. I could be doing well and suddenly a Space Nose distracts me so much that I lose my ball. It’s happened more than once.
MOONPONG: Tales of Epic Lunacy is that good kind of chaotic where it feels like your attention is needed everywhere all at once. Gauging trajectories and trying to guess where you need to go makes it hard to take your mind off the game. Adding neat tools and some roguelite challenge made it really, really hard to put down. Plus, Space Noses. I love games that embrace wackiness.
MOONPONG: Tales of Epic Lunacy is available now on itch.io.
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