Developer: 1CC Games
Publisher: Black Shell Media
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Space Moth DX – Review
Space Moth DX is the perfect game for when you are absolutely frustrated, annoyed or enraged. No, that state of mind won’t get you any further in the game, but it’ll save you the hassle of becoming frustrated, annoyed or enraged. That being said, the best way to succeed at Space Moth DX, is to stay cool, about as cool as a laser shooting giant moth.
Story
The life of a moth starts off in caterpillar form. That’s where it lives off the biggest part of its life. After a brief moment in cocoon form, it’ll immerge a beautiful winged creature, feeding on wool and in this case, shooting lasers. So you won’t be playing in caterpillar or cocoon form nor will you be wasting time feeding on wool, you’ll be taking down the opposing moth armies.
Graphics
Space Moth DX is nothing if not very colourful. When thinking about moths, most of them are very dull and brown, but not in this game. Colours are splashed all over the screen and the least that can be said is that the game is very vibrant. Enemies have been given a damage indicator, at least the stronger enemies, as the smaller ones die in one hit, the bigger ones will wilt away. As their life force is depleted, so are their colours.
Their wings turn to black right before they they die. Space Moth DX is very hard on the eyes. This becomes apparant as you progress in the levels. More enemies spawn, bullets flash across the screen in various sizes making it a bullet frenzy. Space Moth DX can become a burden on the eyes as you play for longer periods of time.
Sound
When it comes to sound, Space Moth DX is surprisingly smooth. The background music is strangely soothing and this goes well with the frantic gameplay. The score slowly builds up to a point and stops building up right up to the point before it becomes too frantic. This makes it easier for you to concentrate and yet still keep the gameplay from turning stale.A mistake would be to make the soundtrack equal to the gameplay and cause an sensory overload.
Gameplay
Space Moth DX is a bullet hell top down shooter. What this means is that you go around flying and shooting the bejeezus out of everything that moves and not getting shot yourself. One hit and your fragile winged butterfly of death becomes a speck of dust. When this happens over three times, the game gives you the possibility to either stop playing and return to the main menu or start up from a save state. This means that you’ll either start over from the start of the level or you’ll start at the start of the boss battle.
The moth is equipped with 3 weapons. One is wide spread fast firing lasers, a giant laserbeam which slows down your movement when you use it or bombs, of which you have three.
If you make it past the swarms of enemies, and their orbs of death, you’ll be able to take on the boss of the level. Boss battles are not only difficult because of the onslaught of death it rains upon you, it ‘s also against time. Finish off the boss in time and you’ll get a bonus, fail to do so and the bonus goes down the drain. Either way you’ll progress to the next level.
The damage window on your moth of death is small, maybe a couple of pixels worth of it, so dodging bullets isn’t that much of a chore, but even so, the bullets come from every direction and there is no way for you to take down the gunfire coming at you. Your bullets are stopped only by other enemies, but luckily goes through the enemies gunfire. The pattern enemies emerge often makes it so the weaker enemies shield the larger ones. This way you’ll not only have to dodge the fire from the bigger enemies, but also from the weaker ones.
After every level you’ll see how many points you’ve scored. For every kill you’ll be awarded points bonus points are awarded when you pick up the fruit left behind by some enemies. Picking them up is done by flying over them, but the size is equal to the part that registers damage to your moth. This makes it rather difficult to get the extra points. Then again if you aren’t that good at bullet hell games, making it to the end of a level is reward enough and the score might seem detrimental to you.
Conclusion
Space Moth DX is a bullet hell shooting game where you play as a fragile moth of death and you shoot other bugs, which are somehow often more resilient than yourself. If you are fond of these game you’ll love this one, but if you are new to them you’ll need to remember: practice makes perfect.
Space Moth DX - Review,
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