''Moose Life'' is a forward-scrolling

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of chara ...

game for Microsoft Windows developed by Llamasoft. Similar to past Llamasoft titles like ''

Tempest 2000 is a tube shooter video game originally developed by Llamasoft and published by Atari Corporation for the Atari Jaguar in North America on 13 April, 1994 in video gaming, 1994. It was released in Europe on 27 June and in Japan on 15 December of ...

'' and ''

Polybius Polybius (; grc-gre, Πολύβιος, ; ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , which covered the period of 264–146 BC and the Punic Wars in detail. Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed ...

'', the title incorporates influences from classic arcade games of the early 1980s, along with

psychedelic Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science ...

visuals and electronic music to create a trance-like effect. It supports

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...

using Steam VR and

PSVR The PlayStation VR (PS VR, known by its code name Project Morpheus during development) is a virtual reality headset developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, which was released in October 2016. It is fully functional with the PlayStation 4 an ...

Gameplay

The player controls a moose traveling on a forward-facing path with two planes of gameplay at the top and bottom of the screen. Players can move in any direction, but may only shoot forward, and can switch between the two planes of gameplay with a button press. Players can collect sheep, released by destroying a checkered ball, to gain temporary invulnerability and a bonus if they are successfully brought to the end of the stage. Enemies may drop power-ups in the form of pills that grant new abilities or perks. The game consists of 50 stages, with pre-defined waves of enemies that appear in a semi-random layout. Like many other Llamasoft titles, it saves the "best" state when a new level is reached, based on the highest number of lives, and allows players to restart from any of these points, rather than starting over every time.

Development and release

''Moose Life'' began as part of a planned follow-up to ''Minotaur Arcade Vol. 1'', using the same

voxel In 3D computer graphics, a voxel represents a value on a regular grid in three-dimensional space. As with pixels in a 2D bitmap, voxels themselves do not typically have their position (i.e. coordinates) explicitly encoded with their values. ...

-based engine and framework. It was planned as a companion or "

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

" to a new version of '' Super Ox Wars'', but after some promising development Llamasoft decided to shelve ''Super Ox Wars'' and focus on ''Moose Life'' as a stand-alone title. The title was teased by a screenshot release on creator Jeff Minter's twitter on August 21, 2019. Its release was announced shortly before its release on July 30, 2020.

Reception

Hardcore Gamer rated the title 4/5. ''

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson. Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EGX ...

'' gave a positive, unscored review, saying "This is a joyous game... As the levels pile up and the gimmicks flow, ''Moose Life'' makes me happier and happier."

References

{{Jeff Minter 2020 video games Virtual reality games Indie games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Llamasoft games Oculus Rift games Valve Index games Shoot 'em ups Video games with voxel graphics Windows games Windows-only games