Renegade Kid has revealed Moon Chronicles, a reimagining of portable FPS Moon, for the 3DS.
Moons was a critical and mildly commercial hit on the 3DS’ predecessor, the DS. Released in 2009, it took advantage of the console’s full capabilities, with full 3D environments, stylus touch support for aiming, and with a lot of narrow corridor action and puzzle based gameplay.
The story is vintage bona fide sci-fi atmospheric horror, in the mold of a Half Life, Alien, or The Dig. You are Major Kane, leading a special task force headed to the moon, towards a scientific expedition to investigate a newly discovered and mysterious hatch. Without getting into spoilers, the story was definitely atypical for a DS game, and was definitely a notch above Metroid Prime Hunters in terms of adult themes.
The rights were owned by Mastiff right until two weeks ago, when the five year agreement with Mastiff Games expired.
Jools Watsham revealed that Moon Chronicles will serve as both a remake and a continuation of the original game. Now, the game will have an episodic release structure, with a season coming out this year and then the next one.
This year’s season will have four episodes, each containing three chapters each. This season will be a complete retelling of the original story. Jools says Renegade Kid has a real interest in making their games episodic, and conceived of Moon as a story that would work released sequentially.
Improvements include consistent 60 FPS, 3D support, and Circle Pad Pro support. The game will be 60 FPS whether the 3D is turned on or off, and as Renegade Kid outlines on their official site, they will offer complete left-handed controller support.
For better or worse, this is slated to be one of the biggest Western games on 3DS for 2014. Heck, it will be one of the biggest Western exclusives. We’ll keep you up to date on how Moon shapes up in the following weeks.
