Lunar Lander Beyond Reviews
Lunar Lander Beyond is a solid recommendation for fans of the lander sim genre. It performs well on the Switch with no discernible frame rate issues and looks great. But as it stands, its missions too often feel abbreviated at around three to six minutes and too tightly sandwiched between narrative. The issue is not its gameplay mechanics, but the strictures of its campaign structure. It's a problem the developers could solve by staying the course and creating a mode focused squarely on what made the original compelling: flying, landing, and scoring better than everyone else.
Lunar Lander: Beyond is a loving reimagining of the Atari classic, with some seriously cool mechanics and a whole lot of variety.
Lunar Lander Beyond updates the 1979 classic with success, introducing more ships, abilities, objectives, and situations, as well as a backstory and neat animation sequences. It has aspects that I have loved, such as stress, although others can be desperate, such as difficulty spikes. 45 years later, it's still something different.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Let's be frank: an evolution of Lunar Lander must do Lunar Lander's job, and Lunar Lander Beyond fulfills its task. Do you find the gameplay too simple and repetitive? This is a 1979 game repurposed in a deliberately faithful manner, for better or worse, adding some features typical of modern productions but aiming above all to preserve the spirit of the original. Nothing to object to in this respect then, but more effort could have been made in terms of aesthetics, with some elements looking too amateurish that almost makes you regret the vector graphics of the old arcade.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Lunar Lander Beyond is an extremely difficult arcade action game aimed squarely at those who prefer a steep (and I would argue unfair) challenge. OK. The problem is that, aside from some great design work, that challenge is pretty much all it offers.
Lunar Lander Beyond is a fairly agreeable experience, with nice build variety and some intriguing nods to the rogue-like genre, but it feels only partially realized.
Lunar Lander Beyond is an excellent example of an updated classic that keeps players hooked.
Lunar Lander Beyond shows that you can take the simplex gameplay of the '70s, give it a modern look, mechanics and story, and the result is an addictive game that will keep you entertained for those few hours.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
While Lunar Lander Beyond requires a delicate touch, the feeling that comes from mastering a perfect run and ship-shape crew cannot be beat. For the management fiends and skill-driven fans among us, get ready to kick the tires and light the fires during this Cosmic Event.
Lunar Lander Beyond is a great example of how to modernize a classic game from the early days of video games without, however, detracting from its essence. With great controls, an art style full of identity and originality of purpose, the game surprises, entertains and addicts... Very much.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Although I love the original and most of the games that it inspired, I found Lunar Lander Beyond to ironically be a step back. Yes, it can still be a rewarding game but the sense of accomplishment will often only come after much frustration. 🚀
I don’t usually appreciate physics-based titles. They drive me around the bend and I normally give up far too easily. Luckily, I invested a fair bit of time, patience, and effort and the reward far outweighed the stress. Moreover, the story was interesting and I loved each mission. Consequently, I recommend buying it here! Will you become the next big thing at the corporation? Choose your pilot, pick a ship, and complete every mission.
For those who were used to the Recharged templates that Atari's classics had been using in recent years, Lunar Lander Beyond came with a new and very good proposal, revitalizing an icon in gaming history. However, the game focuses too much on a story mode, leaving the arcade roots of its original source a little aside.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
We have a game that does a better job of making the lander feel just weighty enough, than the original Arcade game it was based on, while still providing plenty of fun challenging tasks to complete for those who master the techniques of the Lander.
I can recommend this one for anyone looking for a unique challenge that will keep you busy for a long while, and for those that like reimagining of classic games. Another solid release for Atari!
As with Atari’s previous revivals and reinventions like Mr Run and Jump and Haunted House, this is a game that elevates the ideas that made the company’s releases in the 1970s and 1980s so beloved and looked back upon so nostalgically while introducing new ideas that don’t necessarily change it up, but add to what made them so entertaining in the first place. Lunar Lander Beyond is undoubtedly a safe bet, but one that makes sense in keeping the brand alive and well and not simply cashing in on the rose-colored memories of old school players and arcade goers alike.
Lunar Lander Beyond was a mixed experience for me. On the one hand, I liked how the game maintained the control scheme from the original, requiring patience and careful control to succeed in missions. The different ships, upgrades and pilot perks also add some satisfying variety to keep you interested till the end of the game. The reasonably short mission structure would also appeal to busy gamers who can only fit a few short sessions in here and there. Features I wasn’t so fond of was the stress meter which felt more like a nuisance than a rewarding challenge to overcome. Also, the missions, while showing some variety, felt a bit repetitive at times. Do I recommend the game? Yes. Lunar Lander Beyond is different from a lot of games on the market, and so long as you go in with a patient mindset, I think you’ll have fun with it.
Lunar Lander Beyond offers a modern take on a retro genre, making it possible for a new generation of gamers to enjoy a classic genre with new accessibility options and visuals. However, the game's physics make this title an ordeal to go through and revolves around trial and error at times. If you need a throwback to the Atari classic, it's a solid effort.
Bear in mind that I appreciate the attempts at spicing up a Cretaceous-era gameplay loop with elements like the stress meter and a (forgettable, but still extant) story, but all in all, Lunar Lander Beyond is best enjoyed, and then forgotten, in 15 to 20 minute bursts. There was nothing about it that irritated me, but rarely did the game wow me, very rarely did it impress me. It’s a very honest attempt at reviving another Atari IP without the need of turning it into yet another Recharged title, but there’s just so much that you could do to update something that was already quite limited in scope even back in the 80s.