To The Moon Review

To The Moon

creator: Kan Gao and founder of freebird games

To The Moon, in its simplest explanation, is a bittersweet and humorous game. 

The game is a story about Dr. Watts and Dr. Rosalene providing a wish fulfillment service. By using high tech mind gadgets on their clients. Clients like Mr. Johnathan Wyles. John's wish is that he wants to go to the moon. However, providing John's wish before he dies is a lot harder than Dr. Watts and Dr. Rosalene thought it would be. 

The characters of To The Moon are all memorable people. The first people we are introduced to in the game are Neil Watts and Eva Rosalene. These two people are interchangeable characters that we play the story through. Dr. Watts is the comic of the two, making puns and references to nerd culture like Anime, Dr. Who, and Marvel. Dr. Rosalene is the straight man as she is the most focused on the task at hand and chastise Dr. Watts antics with sarcasm. The next character you are introduced to is Lily Quinn, the caretaker of John and the mother of two mischievous children. Ms. Quinn and her children relay to you the information that you need as you progress through the game. Finally the third introduction is when you meet Mr. Johnathan Wyles. He's a kind, old man waiting for death to take him but he can't for the life of him, tell you why he wants to go to the moon. You don't have long to wait to find out why he wants to go to the moon when you go through his memories.

The game design is a simple 2D,16-bit animation. Only deviating from this design only once. The artwork is beautifully done with the simplistic animation. The warm colors balancing the cooler colors, making the game feel home-y. I especially praise the ingame lighting. The way the moonlight and sunlight stream through the windows, covering the characters in light and shadow, just completes the look of the game.

The most notable thing about the game is the music. It's sweet and heartwarming listening to the main theme. Making you feel like you are in a dreamland of fulfilled wishes and that your ears are being hugged warmly by a mother figure. The other background musics are all appropriate for their assigned scenes as well. From the piano music For River to the bouncy background music when Dr. Watts starts horsing around. The music was produced by Kan Gao and co produced by Laura Shigihara.

The game play of the To The Moon is a roleplaying, adventure game with puzzles to solve. It's necessary to go adventuring in this game as you can't proceed without what you are needing to find so you can go into the next level of John's memories. The puzzles are simple enough and are great for the casual video gamers but might be disappointing to hardcore video gamers as they are not that difficult. But the point of the game is to unfold a story, not to be challenged so much that the game makes you rage quit.

You can find this game on Steam for your PC and Windows computer for $10, GOG.com for your PC, Windows, and Linux for $10, and on the Samsung Play Store App for your phone for $4.49. These are only a few places that you can buy this game from.

I give this game a 5/5 stars. I hope you enjoy this game as much as I did.