To be honest, when I saw the game "Black Moon", my first reaction was that I was a little confused. The days of playing "Cangshenlu" and "Blazing Snow" on Saipan ten years ago are still vivid in my mind. In the blink of an eye, mobile games have evolved to this point. This is not an exaggeration. As a side-scrolling action mobile game, "Black Moon", placed at the time point of 2024, does allow old players like me to see something different.
Let's talk about the game itself first. The setting of the invasion of nightmares and the arrival of the black moon is not actually new, but I can feel that the production team has worked hard on the plot and atmosphere. The protagonist group fights side by side in Black Moon Academy to resist the invasion of the Nightmare, and also to uncover the mystery of the disappearance of the witch - to be honest, the main narrative is more solid than many "drawing cards to support your wife" routine mobile games. The combat system is an old-school side-scrolling combat, with a decent sense of strike, and the fluency of combo moves is above average among similar mobile games. The character development system is a bit weak, but compared to those mobile games where "you have to wait until tomorrow after you finish stamina", it at least gives you enough playable content.
What I really want to talk about is the development trend of mobile games reflected behind "Black Moon". In today's market, what is everyone fighting for? Fight for pictures, fight for IP, and fight for social networking. But "Black Moon" opened my eyes to another possibility - returning to the gameplay itself. To be honest, it doesn't have AAA-level picture quality, nor does it have the publicity that big companies spend money to buy, but its operating feel, level design, and world view construction are all trying to regain the hard-core feel of early arcade and stand-alone games. This is quite rare for an experienced player in his thirties.
The charging mode is 0 yuan for downloading, and the in-app purchases are mainly some appearance and auxiliary props, and there is no link that cannot be passed with krypton gold. This reminds me of the "buyout" stand-alone mobile games on Symbian in the past. Although the mainstream of mobile games now is free + in-app purchases, at least "Black Moon" does not make the gold points too disgusting. This kind of restraint is really a clean slate in the mobile game market in 2024.
Of course, the game also has its flaws. The novice guide is a bit lengthy, the social system is weak, and the PVP balance needs to be polished. But considering that this is the work of a small and medium-sized manufacturer, I think it deserves respect for being able to achieve this degree of completion.
One final word of emotion: Ten years have passed. From Java games to Unreal Engine 4, from stand-alone RPGs to strong social MMOs, mobile games have gone too far in the technical and business chains. But no matter how it changes, what really impresses players is always the word "fun". "Black Moon" may not be the kind of phenomenal hit, but it reminds us that games can be very simple and pure. I hope that in the next ten years, we can see more works with such careful gameplay. 😌