With the launch of the Xbox Live Arcade, there was an opportunity for lesser-known developers to get their name out there without the sometimes-prohibitive costs of releasing a disc-based game. And sometimes, XBLA is used by larger, more well-known developers to get a game out the door which they dont deem necessary to put on a disc. Either way though, the experience you can get in a Live Arcade game is sometimes hit-or-miss. But every so often a game comes out on this platform that really makes you sit up and pay attention, not by virtue of the experience in and of itself, but moreso the way that it feels like a familiar old friend of a game that you remember playing on Saturday morning in your pajamas. It connects with you in a way that you have not experienced in a good long while, and it reminds you of a classic game or games of your youth. This is the experience that I have had with Moon Diver.

For those who do not know, Moon Diver is a game developed by FeelPlus, Inc. and Published by Square Enix. The general story-line is that humanitys inventions and machines were brought to life by an evil force and turned against them in the beginning of the 22nd century. Mankind is facing extinction and an elite force of ninjas, code-named Moon Divers, is called into action.

You can play as one of four characters, and have up to four people on screen at once in either couch- or online-cooperative play. Each character has different ways that they progress in building their skills, akin to other games where youd have a brawler who cant really use much magic, a spell-casting pro who isnt very strong with a melee weapon, a balanced character, etc. Though as I was playing through with each character, at least initially, the differences between them were negligible. Not so negligible that it felt like just pallet-swapped characters, but just not hugely different either. Perhaps as you get each character further leveled-up the differences become more apparent, but nothing really jumped out at me as I played through.

The game-play is very reminiscent of Strider, and to me that is a great thing. One reason this comparison makes sense is that Kouichi Yotsui of Strider fame had his hands on this project. Moon Diver isnt a sequel in any way, but I feel comfortable using the term spiritual successor here. There are other comparisons to be made here too, in that any fan of NES, SNES or Genesis-era side-scrolling platformer action games will see things that make them nostalgic. Were talking about Ninja Gaiden, Shinobi, Castlevania, Legend of Kage, Contra, etc. You run and jump from location to location while hordes of enemies, fodder for your blades and magical abilities, do their best to come at you and drain your life bar until you are no more. Occasionally barriers form at either end of the screen, boxing you into an impromptu arena of sorts where you have to dispatch all your foes before proceeding. You have the always-handy double-jump to get yourself up and out of the fire if things are getting too hectic, and there are a bevy of magical abilities you can use and level-up in addition to your trusty blade.

So the main question is – how does the game fare? Very well, in my opinion. The action is frenetically-paced at times, the controls are simple but have a decent amount of depth in that you can change your magical abilities after each level. Graphically-speaking the game is very bright and colorful. It can be hard at times to keep track of your character with enemies flying everywhere and blowing up and so on, but that is not enough of an issue where you get frustrated. The Anime-inspired art style is crisp and comes off really well.

Turn down your volume before playing!

The sound design is a bit of a mixed bag. The sound effects are really good – you hear some really nice metallic-clashing sounds when you shove the business-end of your blade into the torso of an enemy, and explosions have an awesome sci-fi futuristic sound to them (just watch out for the yellow guys who blow up like BomberMan when you hit them a couple of times!) and all that. But the music in the game, in my opinion, is kind of repetitive and doesnt really stand out as being anything special.

So the bottom line is this: If you are looking for an action-packed game that is reminiscent of some of the best side-scrolling action games of yesteryear, you can do far worse than Moon Diver. If you can get past a slightly-repetitive soundtrack youll find a great experience that is well worth those aforementioned hard-earned MS Points. Well done, FullPlus and Square Enix.