On a lonely road near an isolated lighthouse, two doctors enter a ditch beside the case. They are hired to rewrite the memories of an old man named Johnny Wyles to fulfill his dying wish to go to the moon. This is not an easy process, and as the doctors go down into Johnny's mind and re-look at some of his most important memories, they successfully restore his life. This month may be easy for gameplay, but it's also a repository that explores themes of love and remorse, and finally, I felt encouraged to consider some of the most important relationships in my life.
In 2011, designer Kan Gao released the Moon and entered the PC. For Gao, her development was a way of applying some of the existing questions she encountered when she learned of the life-threatening situation facing her grandmother. That original release of 2011 used RPG tool maker Maker XP, which gave Moon an old school target, but Gao's harrowing news is the real reason for Moon to be featured in a pixelated interactive pack. Almost a decade later, To the Moon is on a switch, and the entire game has been rebuilt on Unity. The visual refinement is small, but it keeps the old school library from being released.
Fortunately, the narrative has never been completely revealed, as it remains a powerful force even ten years after its release. As players explore Johnny's life on occasion and often sadly, they encounter several strange mysteries. For example, why is her house full of origami rabbits? Why does his wife seem to be suffering from flashing lights? And why is Johnny's mom calling him Joey? The revelation to these little mysteries is often as shocking as the heartbreaking. You spend most of the game reading and clicking on text boxes, but the dialogue feels natural, and I was really curious to see how the big events of Johnny's life would be played. Overall, Month Story goes really well and keeps me sluggish on my Switch screen until I roll up the credits.
While these experiences are largely ignored by the narrative, there are a few moments of gameplay. As you jump from memory to memory, you collect a series of Johnny's health conditions. You do this by examining the key elements within the environment of each memory. It's hard to find these mementos, but collecting them sometimes sounds like a chore because the process is so easy. Once you have collected all five mementos in a given area, you complete a simple puzzle before jumping to the next memory. During this time of photos, you wrap columns or rows of tiles until all the tiles are demolished and complete the picture. I have been reserved for one of these puzzles, but for the most part, they are offline experiences that don't add much to the whole package.
Fortunately, the story of the Moon is so heartfelt and heart-wrenching that its best puzzle has not diminished the adventure. Up to the Moon forced me to reflect on my own life and my regrets and asked me what I would change if I could. I might have a machine that could rewrite my memories, but once I did, I didn't want to forget the game.
