Moon Patrol 1982

Is it still worth playing?

Irem's 1982 arcade shooter, in which a police officer in Luna City drives a six wheeled rover across the moon's surface in Sector Nine. That rover keeps moving forward and you control only its speed, with one cannon firing ahead, another firing upward at flying UFOs, and a jump. On the ground, rocks can be shot or jumped, craters and mines have to be jumped, and bombers overhead make new craters. Along the way, the course is divided into 26 checkpoints named A to Z, and reaching them quickly earns bonus points. It is often credited with introducing full parallax scrolling in side scrolling games, with three layers of background. With only speed, two cannons and a jump to manage, a short session still gets you a full run today.