Moo-ve On Over For A Moo Lander Preview

Forgive the title, but I wasted an earlier opportunity for cat puns, so saved them for the upcoming Steam game, Moo Lander – from The Sixth Hammer.

• A Q&A With imaginarylab, Creators Of Whirlight – No Time To Trip
• The Best Of Two Worlds In Shin Chan: Shiro And The Coal Town

In Moo Lander, you’re an extraterrestrial that’s crash-landed in search of an infinite supply of milk as fuel for his people. The demo’s objective is to locate your missing parts (not yours, the spaceship), navigating through some strange and wonderfully illustrated cave systems.

Moo Lander Preview

Accompanied by your AI, Hamilton, you can engage with them for intel on your surroundings, also choosing some dialogue paths along the way. But the gameplay is essentially navigating around environmental hazards, solving a few door puzzles and combat.

You start with nothing, then quickly acquire a directional milk shield that can fire back projectiles at enemies, a milk cannon for ranged attacks, and an awesome milk sword melee attack – also directional – which gets the win for win the best weapon. 

It looks like there will be a skill tree and further customisations on offer further down the line as each attack and parry awards XP. Because this Moo Lander preview is based on the demo, other than the features above, there are no other options for unlocking new gear.

Udder Than That…

The illustrations in the game are very nice and look like you’ve been whisked away to some fantasy world from a kid’s storybook. Placing you bang in the centre works well, and the little spinny components of the spaceship look great as you explore the area.

Combat and defending with the milk shield are very satisfying, and you could deem this a twin-stick shooter of sorts. Only two gauges are present throughout – your health and milk gauge – both refillable and in abundance in this 20 minute or so playthrough.

I use abundance as there was never really an issue of death as there are so many health and milk spots that are even featured in the final ‘boss’ battle where you take on Bertha the cow. Said battle was a little underwhelming with some button mashing going on, and as stated, health was on hand should I need it.

The music, while… pleasant, felt out of place. I was a bit confused with the overall tone of Moo Lander as I assumed it might be a bit more toilet humour based, but it’s a mixed bag and quite inconsistent. At the start of the demo, a cow greets you with its anus and lets out a stale fart, yet soon after, it’s all so serious.

Hamilton’s AI tones were amusing at first, but soon got old – sounding very much like that Oh…Sir! The Insult Simulator, and about as entertaining. But that’s pretty minor. The presentation, and more importantly, the gameplay, outweigh the minor imperfections, and this is a game now on the wishlist for the Spring 2022 release. I’m just curious where it goes in terms of the comedy.

Wishlist it now, but even better, try the demo for yourself with the link below!