That’s no Moon

Lunark is a new sci-fi action-adventure game from developer Canari Games. Lunark follows the story of Leo, as he uncovers one mystery after another throughout the world of Albaryne. Lunark is quite unique as it’s a throwback to the 90’s, itself being a cinematic platformer the likes of Prince of Persia or Flashback which Lunark heavily evokes the latter in presentation and gameplay.

MSRP: $19.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $19.99

The gameplay is going to take gamers some getting used to, especially those of the younger generation who may not be used to this style. Movements and actions all have a purposefully heavy feel to them, and that is to evoke a sense of realism, I am guessing. What that means in practice is that Leo doesn’t jump on a dime, he will not start the jump animation until his feet are set. Furthermore, forgot about just falling from infinite heights with no conscience because in Lunark players will need to lower themselves down carefully as heights kill. When Leo pulls out his gun the whole animation of pulling it from the holster, raising it level all needs to complete before a bullet can be fired. As I said this can feel stiff and will certainly feel odd to those of a certain age, especially because the game doesn’t give any sort of warning; but I assure you that players will get used to it as it’s just a matter of timing.

Combat in Lunark is much like platforming and will require a little bit of practice as well. Most enemies can be finished off with a few shots, but it will take learning attack patterns. Also footing is important as Leo can use a dodge mechanic that miscalculated can send him off a platform and into the waiting arms of death. Therein lies the issue, though because checkpoints can be few and far between which means players will have to replay sections but the benefit is players will have the layout memorized. I didn’t mind the ‘trial and error’ approach to the combat, most of my deaths came from missing jumps which comes with the territory with these games. But unraveling Leo’s mystery aging among other things kept me pushing forward.

Truly the only thing I didn’t really like in Lunark was the graphics, usually I am a fan of pixel graphics but for some reason the ones here seem….I dunno…. ‘extra pixely’. When I think of this genre of game from my youth its Flashback that comes to mind, the bright colors and clean lines were something to see back on the Sega Genesis. One of the better things the game does graphically for me is when Leo interacts with an object the scene is animated in a really cool way and evokes those Flashback memories. I don’t want to make it seem like I hate this games graphically style because I don’t, it just seemed to go the extra mile when it came to the pixels not my jam but it wasn’t ugly.

Lunark was a blast from the past for sure, I enjoyed my time with the sci-fi adventure game. As I said Flashback was one of my favorites and playing Lunark I was smiling the whole time thinking back on the fond memories I had as a youth. The more I played the more I really liked Leo and enjoyed seeing his story unfold, while there are issues with checkpoints and controls to get used to at the end of the day Lunark tells a great sci-fi story that fans of the genre will surely enjoy.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.