Moon (DS) Preview

To us, the moon is a rock (no indigenous life). To Mastiff and Renegade Kid, however, it's a hot bed for alien activity. Thus, we have Moon, an impressive looking 3-D first person shooter from the talented guys that brought us Dementium: The Ward. Whereas that game is a survival horror romp through a hospital, this one takes you on a sci-fi adventure armed with a bevy of high powered guns. It looks great, plays wonderfully and should be one of the DS' best.

In the game, you play as Major Kane, the leader of a special task force that, along with some well-armed dudes, arrive on the moon to investigate the disappearance of a bunch of scientists that performed experiments in the hopes to (as Renegade Kid's website puts it) "construct a Mars launch facility"; it kind of sounds like Doom. When you arrive, you discover a secret hatch that leads underground, your buddies disappear and a bunch of alien robots attempt to cut your mission short.

What ensues is lots of frantic shooting, where you explore this underground facility blasting everything that moves. Along the way, you'll pick up new weapons, solve puzzles and utilize a small droid to explore places you cannot fit.

Controls are similar to Dementium, with you moving with the d-pad and looking around with the touch screen and stylus while firing with the shoulder buttons. It's clear by screen shots and movies, however, that Moon is on a different planet. Renegade Kid modified Dementium's engine and pulled off some neat tricks, including cool 3-D cut scenes with speech, speedy maneuvering and a whole lot of detail. Large rooms, menacing robots, tight corridors; Moon looks great.

We're desperate for another DS FPS, so Moon has us salivating. It's a shame we're battling robots (to us, aliens will forever be slimy and have razor sharp teeth), but we'll just have to deal with busting them into piles of nuts-and-bolts with a Super Assault Rifle. Moon crash lands on Nintendo's handheld November 18.