Space Moth: Lunar Edition Reviews

Bad game with a few cool scoring mechanics. Stages are REALLY boring, there are multiple sections where, for over a minute, the same 1 or 2 basic enemies appear in ~5 second intervals and shoot a very simple basic shot until you kill them. At least in the last stage (5th) it gets a bit harder, but it doesn't really make up for the other four. The bosses have nice visual designs but the attack patterns are not good. I got the impression that when the developers were testing this and they got the feedback that something was "too easy", their solution was to just add more projectiles and clutter rather than making fun to dodge patterns. Every static shot is easy and every random shot has a ton of clutter, neither variant looks good nor feels fun to dodge. The thing I am shocked by the most is that no one in the reviews bothered to bring up that throughout the entire game only ONE SINGLE SONG plays on loop. For a genre that is known for its great soundtracks, having a single song play throughout the stages and boss fights - and one that isn't very good (... or fitting, for a laser-moth-shooting game) - is awful. So what is left for a shooting game with unfun stages, boring boss attack patterns, a single song playing throughout the entire game, no dialogue and no story? A bit of nice visual design and a few neat mechanics related to scoring. Is a game like this worth trying to land a high score in? No. *Unrelated to the actual game, but I wanted to investigate some of the positive reviews. Let's start with the three listed in the store description: The first one, by "Two Beard Gaming", is hosted on a website that is now for sale (review unavailable). The second one, by "Xbox Tavern", has the author say: "[...] my limited skill set has only let me get to the third boss out of five so far[...]" while also saying "If you’re a fan of the genre or just curious to try a title like this out, you won’t find much better than this.”. So he got halfway through the game and says its one of the best ones. lol. The third one, by "Six One Indie", leads to a dead page, but the site is still alive (review seems unavailable). Continuing on that "can't beat the game but says its really good" trend, let's look at the positive reviews on steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/Sysg3n/stats/1570500/?tab=achievements Used a continue on stage 1, beat stage 1, beat stage 2, died. Positive review. https://steamcommunity.com/id/blackholeartist/stats/1570500/?tab=achievements Used a continue on stage 1, beat stage 1, died. Positive review. https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198136975055/stats/1570500/?tab=achievements Used a continue on stage 1, beat stage 1, beat stage 2, beat stage 3, died. Positive review. Calls it "One of the best SHMUPS on PC". These are 'only' 3 examples, but there are also 'only' 20 positive reviews, and not everyone has their game details public. "Person who hasn't beaten the game leaves a positive review" is, in most cases, pretty normal, especially for longer games. However, this game is only twenty minutes long, and I can't really figure out what otherworldly things happen in the first half of the game that can compel people to claim that this is one of the best SHMUPs ever made when there are hundreds of games in the genre that will generate more excitement in you within their first stage than this game will generate throughout its entire length.