Astraware Releases Moonfighter Game

Astraware and Pazzazz Games have announced the release of Moonfighter for Palm OS. Moonfighter is a fun gravity-based shoot-em-up that challenges players to pilot their spacecraft around lunar terrains and blast aliens whilst collecting energy spheres to extend their mission time. Players can progress through thousands of Moonfighter levels, each one offering more challenging terrains and more enemy attacks. More...

Moonfighter for Palm OS"This is the kind of spacey game I grew up with - careful maneuvering, rotate and thrust just enough to stay in place but not too much..." said Howard Tomlinson, CEO of Astraware. "Great for practising and getting my dexterity back!"

Moonfighter offers three types of alien enemies: Turrets - static units placed at strategic points around the terrain; Spiderbots - walking units that climb the cavern walls and Saucerbots - anti-gravity platforms that can float around. Enemy attacks take the form of Guns - unguided laser bolts with unlimited range; Missiles - medium range guided torpedoes; and G-weapons - short range gravity distortion fields that either attract or repel your craft. As players fly around the alien terrains they will encounter narrow valleys, lunar peaks, and underground caverns many of which are protected by heavy-duty blast doors.

Moonfighter is developed by Pazzazz Games, creators of the award winning GTS Racing Challenge and Hellfire: Apache vs Hind, and exclusively published by Astraware. The game is priced at $19.95, with a free demo available.

Article Comments

 (10 comments)

The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. PalmInfocenter is not responsible for them in any way.
Please Login or register here to add your comments.

Start a new Comment Down

Yeehar

KultiVator @ 1/5/2006 6:01:04 PM # Q
Old timers like me, who were children during the Space Invaders / Asteroids / Gravitar era should definitely check out this fine slice of retro-gaming action.

Nicely done piece of software that shows off the capabilities of any decent OS5 Palm.

Highly recomended.

KultiVator

RE: Yeehar
SeldomVisitor @ 1/5/2006 8:23:34 PM # Q
> Old timers like me, who were children during the Space
> Invaders / Asteroids / Gravitar era...

Old timers like me who were grad students during the same era appreciate the retro games, too.

RE: Yeehar
KultiVator @ 1/6/2006 1:30:38 PM # Q
Guess that makes you an 'older timer' !

;-P

KultiVator

Reply to this comment

$20...?

just_little_me @ 1/5/2006 8:53:11 PM # Q
Hmm, is it just me or are games getting more and more expensive... is this to prop up the exhorbitant costs Palmgear etc charge developers? Or is that just used as an excuse to gouge consumers...

Compare the complexity of this game with something you can get on a PSP - sure the PSP games are a little more expensive (the new titles anyway), but they are far more complex in terms of bang-for-buck.

Nice little game - too pricey for my blood.


JLM.

RE: $20...?
Alsicole @ 1/6/2006 6:35:30 AM # Q
Hi

Alison from Astraware here. If you pop on over to our site, you'll see we have a substantial release discount on Moonfighter right now.

Kind regards
Alison

RE: $20...?
batteries4ever @ 1/6/2006 6:53:00 AM # Q
Thanks just_little_me and Alison:
just got the game for $11.70 (incl. VAT - Netherlands)
I agree with just_little_me: for impuls buying, $10 is about the top.
Only if I REALLY want something, I'll pay much more.

Garmin 3600 iQue
RE: $20...?
ackmondual @ 1/6/2006 1:20:39 PM # Q
Make no mistake about it. I've gotten up on my soapbox bef about this, and might as well do it again since it's part of the topic now....

AFAIK, pOS games were pretty much always this 'expensive'. People say games like Warware Inc. are justified in being $30 since it's fun and offers alot of user replayability through user submitted maps. While I won't really argue that, there are many critics that counter to say it could've gotten away with charging only $20 or $25.

Speaking of which, yes PalmGear charges quite a lot. IIRC, 30% of the cut, while 40% if your game is featured (on the 'front pages'). IIRC, if not Handango, then other places charge up to 50%! Many of these ESD sites have policies that you're *NOT* allowed to advertise on your own site for cheaper if u advertise with them. Many of them don't even have links to the dev's sites on their own, that's how much they want you to buy through THEIR site rather than the devs' or some other ESD so they can pick up the commission fees. There were even reports that these ESD sites take their sweet time in repaying the devs' cut. Read more about this down here

http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=7048
http://msmobiles.com/news.php/2960.html
http://www.esd-union.com/

You need to keep in mind that while some PDA game devs like Astraware and PDAmill are relatively large, the majority of games were created by 1 to 5 man "ma and pa shops". For those who could make a living doing this, great, but they need all the $$ they could get. For those who rely on a day job to pay the bills and make games and software in their free time, they don't have as much time to devote. Either way, there's no way in hell they can compete with the real "AAA" titles that come out from Electronic Arts, Nintendo, M$ Games Studio. Those companies have big man power and lots of resources.

Those companies also develop games for PC, PSP, GBA, and nex gen consoles. Those gaming markets (each one let alone all of them put together) are HUUGE compared to the pOS gaming market. Why is this important? Games can be sold for great profits cheaply if you make lots of sales, and a big market is helpful in just that. That's how big game developers can pay off the millions of $$ it takes to create games like Starcraft, Grand Theft Auto, and so on.

And yeah, GBA, DS, and PSP games, while clearly being more expensive are better bangs for the buck. I remember a complaint on a forum where a pOS puzzle game costed $15. A GBA adventure game costed $30. You got at least 25 hours of gameplay on the adventure portion alone, but there were many side quests and side games. One of those side games turned out to be that very $15 pOS puzzle game.

In the whole scheme of things pOS gaming (and to a lesser extent PPC gaming) just can't compete with GBA, DS, PSP, and laptop PCs. Tapwave made a decent attempt with the Zodiac, but with $100 GBA, $150 DS, $250 PSP, and $600+ laptops that are bigger but are nearly full fledged PCs, it did well among PDA users but poorly among gamers. Not to sound like ObviousMan here, but if you want better graphics, sound, fuller gameplay, and replayability, get one of the other popular systems.

My conclusions, I will digress I am among the crowd. I have bought pOS games that were certainly worth their $15 to $20. But for some cases of those great titles, as well as for "lesser" titles, I try to wait for sales so that it wouldn't hurt as much if a game turned out pretty lame (even beyond the demo). I do that same thing with $60 PC games as well. I often wait till they hit the bargain bins at < $25. I COULD afford it, but it's still useful for me to be saving $$ however possible. If possible, support the pOS gaming community by buying direct (not through an ESD) and donating $$ for freeware games you think were great and worth their value.

RE: $20...?
KultiVator @ 1/6/2006 1:33:10 PM # Q
Hi Alison,

MoonFighter marks a bit of a change of direction for Astraware. Is this a flavour of things to come - e.g. other nicely remade/reworked arcade games, rather than the more traditional puzzlers that have become a little too common on the Palm?

MoonFighter IMHO really steps things up a gear! Would like to see more games as ambitious and playable as this from Astraware and partners (not just Pazzazz).

Many thanks for the gravity (and anti-gravity) fix - well worth the $10+VAT I paid for the license.


KultiVator (a.k.a. Jon Souter)

RE: $20...?
ackmondual @ 1/6/2006 3:31:31 PM # Q
It's a flavor that's already here as far as I can tell. Many games out that weren't conceptualized by AW, but instead ported to PDA by them like Broken Swords 1 (forgot who made this games) and My Little Tank by BinoTeq.

I can understand why there are so many puzzle games for Palm. They're easier to implement and have bene very popular with AW, but it's nice to see games like Ultimate Bowling Fighter, My Little Tank, and MoonFighter.

Reply to this comment

Footage anyone :p

jammy2049 @ 1/8/2006 6:07:21 PM # Q
Great game this.

IF you've yet to check it out, here's some footage from jammy :) -
www.plankfilms.com/zodiac/clip_moonfighter.wmv

www.plankfilms.com - Plank Films Mobile - For your Palm gaming needs :P)

Reply to this comment
Start a New Comment Thread Top

Account

Register Register | Login Log in
user:
pass: