I’m not sure what brought me round to playing 6180 The Moon. The naming certainly wasn’t a part of it, with the name only being semi-descriptive as to the games purpose and nature. I suppose it was just blind luck that I happened across it, which is indeed lucky considering my Steam library has over 640 games. Regardless, the fact of the matter is I’m glad I happened across it, as 6180 is one of my favourite puzzle games I’ve played in a long while.
Simple but hard.
That one sentence is one of my favourite game mechanic philosophies of all time, and one that 6180 the moon pushes perfectly. The premise is simple; get to the end of the stage using traditional platforming mechanics but with one huge twist: jumping off the top of the screen or bottom will make you reappear on the opposite side instantly. What seems simple soon becomes a nightmare to overcome, with obstacles and level design pushing you to your wits end.
Playing as the moon, your objective is to find out what’s happened to the sun, as there seems to be a never ending night. Making your way left to right, from the moons current position around the Earth to where the sun’s supposed to be, you’ll make your way through 49 increasingly challenging and fantastically made levels. Upon your travels you’ll encounter the Earth, Venus and Mercury in your quest for the Sun, with each planet having it’s own unique personality. These segways between each set of new levels seem a bit trivial, but a little bit of a story between gameplay sections can never hurt.
It’s always amazing to me how far a simple premise can be pushed. 6180 the moon genuinely is amazing at keeping each and every level refreshing and new. Nothing ever feels over-used, even when you complete the game and have to redo every level in reverse, it all still feels authentically fresh. Every single level constantly feels original; from the simple levels that require a different perspective, to the hard ones that require avoiding obstacles and timing your jumps correctly to get past a long canyon filled with spikes; it’s all just fantastic.
The graphics are simplistic, and that’s quite alright. For an indie game with a relatively tiny budget, you have to make the most with what you have, and for that, the game’s simplistic graphics helps to not detract from the games fantastic mechanics. Not only that, but like Thomas was Alone from all those years past, the graphics actually help in telling a story, with nothing getting in the way of the lovely story of a Moon trying to make the world right again by finding the sun.
The music was fantastic throughout my playthrough, with brilliant orchestral moments interspersed with relaxing background music, it made for a fantastic experience throughout. Don’t get me wrong, you’re not going to be coming to the game purely for the music alone, but it’s good, and helps really make the game enticing from start to finish.
So, I know this is a shorter review than usual, but my god, there’s not much more to say other than the game is a fantastic platformer than truly feels original and refreshing. If you need something to play for a few hours, you cannot go wrong with 6180 the Moon. I enjoyed myself so much that I even completed the mirror mode, something that doubled that amount of time I had with the game.
4/5
