The best Moon appearances in video games

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, which resulted in our first triumphant hops across the lunar surface. The last landing was that of Apollo 17, on December 7, 1972; ever since, we grew tired of the place, lacking as it is in local amenities and proper parking facilities. Even Sandra Bullock couldn’t motivate herself all the way there, in Gravity, opting instead to float, stressed and stranded, just off Earth’s shore. It’s all eyes on the Martian prize at the moment, as we seek an extra 78.3 million kilometres worth of distance from the Sun and its flaring appetite, but video games haven’t forgotten the Moon. To celebrate 50 years of Moonwalking, let’s recount the many fruitful voyages that video games have undertaken to the dark-sided cheeseball in the sky.

Wolfenstein: The New Order

One of Wolfenstein’s decidedly more zanier stretches was when its hero, B.J. Blazkowicz, blasted off to the Moon, only to encounter a rockbound base loaded with Nazis. It was the perfect flourish to properly demonstrate the lunacy of Hitler’s forces, driving home the hopeless scope of the Third Reich’s domination. Besides, you could also clatter about the surface in a cosmonaut suit and fire laser bolts at Nazi heads.

Gran Turismo 6

Who would have thought it – one of the world's most realistic driving simulators making a sojourn to the milky motorways above? But it happened. In Gran Turismo 6, not only could you drive on the dusty surface of the moon, but you could do so in a genuine Lunar Roving Vehicle LRV-001 ‘71. The ingenious stroke to this is that no one, outside of a handful of humans, could possibly argue that it wasn't a perfect simulation. In a way, the inclusion of the Moon and the rover makes perfect sense; ‘Gran Turismo’ translates to ‘great tourism,’ and what’s that if not the very definition. Not even Branson or Musk have managed to Moonify our holidays yet.

Super Mario Odyssey

Super Mario Odyssey gave us the delightful side of the Moon. The Moon Kingdom was the sight of Bowser’s Moon Wedding, and its clutch of levels offered us the opportunity to rove about the chalky plains chasing Power Moons and Star Bits. Not only did Mario – with his sprightly collection of flips, leaps, and pirouettes – make Armstrong and Aldrin look in need of NASA-issue walking sticks but he also wore a white top hat and tails. This highlights an important point: it seems that NASA, in its quest to push interplanetary boundaries, has neglected to push the boundaries of spacefaring fashion. For shame.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

The Moon made a celebrity appearance in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. It was imaginatively called Luna, and it was, of course, the sight of some high-velocity violence. Its description in-game reads, ‘The Moon is the Earth’s only natural satellite. It is the home of The Gateway – the main port for people, products, and resources being transported to Earth from across the solar system.’ How depressing that the Moon be trampled on by the routine demands of people wanting products at fiercely regular intervals; that’s enough to make someone grow weary of anything.

Moon Tycoon

If you’ve ever been bored of monopoly and harboured a cruel, capitalistic wish to dominate the lunar wastes, then Moon Tycoon is the game for you. The campaign sees you mining the Moon for helium, the better to avert an energy crisis down below on Earth. It soon becomes about corporate battle, as you have to deal with troubled living conditions, spaceborne epidemics, and pesky rivals. Moon Tycoon is ideally suited for those with a crater where their conscience should be. Well, who needs guilt in zero gravity? Get colonising!

Deliver Us The Moon

The same moon, the same energy crisis, the same mission, a different genre. Deliver Us The Moon doesn't delight in the tycoon mentality, preferring thrills and suspense to economic domination. You play as a lone astronaut – plus a bobbly, drifting droid, by the name of ASE, for company – on a mission to secure humanity's future. We have come to depend on a lunar energy source; when all contact is cut off, you are sent to investigate. This isn’t quite what's suggested by the title, which sounds more like some sort of delivery service – for customers with unreasonably high expectations, by the sound of it.

Mass Effect

The only BioWare RPG I’ve played – and surely the only BioWare RPG one needs to play – is Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. Nevertheless, I am reliably informed that the Moon featured in Mass Effect. Curiously, it was also mined for its helium – as it was in Moon Tycoon – and according to the Mass Effect Wiki, the population living there is 4.1 million, indicating that colonisation has long been achieved. It seems that, in some sense, Mass Effect acts like post-game content for Moon Tycoon, portraying the sort of shadowy future befitting of the latter game's cosmic corporatisation.

Destiny

Lest we forget, that wizard came from the Moon.