UFO 50 Retrospective Part 13 - Mooncat
Would you let this thing curl on your lap and purr
It is 1985, and while it’s important to note that Thorson Petters has worked at the company the entire time since he originally made Barbuta in 1982, he has not really headed a project SINCE then. He’s made all of the music and sounds for the past 11 games, but never has he directed his own specific game, since Barbuta. Why is that? Well, this game is the answer. Mooncats is the spiritual sequel to Barbuta, and Petters has been working on it for the past two years. The game has no credits, it kicks you right back to the menu after you beat it, so I assume Petters made it ENTIRELY by himself. Once again, Petters shows himself to be the Artist of the group, the weird one who created the weirdest god damn things. Like this.
Also, outside of the meta narrative of UFO 50, this game is one of those games that was released as something else before being put here. This game was made by Eirik Suhrke, the musician for UFO 50, in 48 hours for Ludum Dare 34. It was called “..and the mooncats”, and it got 8th place. I don’t know Mr. Suhrke, or anything about him other than that he solo made this, Barbuta, and all the music, so I imagine he’s a bit of an IRL Thorson Petters.
When I first saw the next game I had to play was called “Mooncat”, I was really excited, because I like cats, and I like the moon. Put em together! What greets you when you start the game is a weird little spotted sausage on legs, and the most CONFOUNDING controls you’ll ever experience. You’re floated into the first area, and with no prior knowledge, will press the D-pad to the right. This makes you walk left. You press the d-pad left. This ALSO makes you walk left. You try another button, pressing A. This makes you walk to the right.
Mooncat is like a video game from another universe, and not even the universe all the other UFO 50 games are from. Its controls are like nothing else I’ve ever experienced, like a universe where the d-pad was never invented. It’s extremely interesting. Mooncat is a two button videogame. And to simulate that, the entire d-pad is one button, and A and B are the other button. So you can just play it by pressing up and A for the entire thing. The left button makes you move left, the right button makes you move right. When you press them together, you jump, in the direction of the first button you were pressing when you pressed both together. You can press then together again in mid air to do a ground pound to hit enemies and bounce, or to drop through platforms. You can double tap a direction to roll and dash for a little bit.
Your goal is that you’re plopped into a level. Platform through it. You have your traditional exit through each level, but levels might have secret hidden portals as well. These can be found by looking for flowers, which will hint that a portal is nearby, or just looking for any platforms and paths that look out of the way and hard to reach.
There are a few other little tricks. You can bounce some enemies to other locations with ground pounds. Jumping over a skull on the ground can cause secret platforms to appear. Stuff like that. There are three endings you can reach, by going through different portals. They’re not difficult to find, per-se, but the exploration is part of the fun.
The other part of the fun is how god damn weird this game is. Nothing is explained. You press start, you’re thrown into it. What you are is not explained. What you do is not explained. Nothing is explained. You see yourself as a weird fetus at one point, and you’re going out hunting for eggs, which contain random things, like slime, a reference to Barbuta, or a red mantis, which will appear in later LX Systems games down the line. If you’re supposed to be like, a newborn baby, this game is BRILLIANT, because it fucking feels like it. Trying to learn how to control it is difficult, but you get your footing little by little, until you’re doing some complex platforming. The platforming is never like, fucked. It’s less than Mario 1. But it’s complex for a newborn, which is what you are.
This game was fucking weird as hell, but that is its charm, and it really grew on me. I think it succeeded in its mission extremely well. Just don’t ask me to explain the Lore of the Barbuta-verse to you.
9/10