Review: Duck Side of the Moon is an adorable game, but it has a few quacks in the foundation

Quick Verdict: Duck Side of the Moon has left me with complicated emotions. It’s safe to say that I adore the game, but there are bugs present at this moment that keep it from being recommendable. I ran into two game-breaking bugs and a minor one that locked me from engaging with a mini-game. The good news is that not everyone has had the issues I have and the devs are very responsive to getting fixes out for issues.

A code was provided for Duck Side of the Moon by the publisher and it was played on PC.

Game:	Duck Side of the Moon
Developer(s):	Starbrew Games
Publisher:	Starbrew Games
Review Score:	7
Cozy Score:	7
Price:	$19.99
Pros:	The art is adorable, the world is magical, and the freedom to explore at your own pace is such a cozy experience. The team is responsive and quick to address issues.
Cons:	The game has a lot of bugs that need to be worked out still. Plus, it’s a shorter game with a higher price point.
Platforms:	PC
Genres:	Exploration, Adventure

The cozy score merely reflects how relaxing a game is and does not impact the review score.

Duck Side of the Moon | Get it or forget it?

Duck Side of the Moon is an exploration adventure game where you play as a duck-stronaut named Doug who has crashlanded on a new world. You must explore the new place in order to find resources and find the missing parts of your ship. Along the way, you’ll meet new characters, upgrade your ship, and complete quests.

Duck Side of the Moon is, at its core, the perfect game for me. It has a cute art style, you more or less have the freedom to go where you want, and there are short tasks for my squirrel brain to complete for a dopamine drop. So, let me just make it clear that I am delighted by the game. However, there are a lot of bugs in the system.

My first two hours of gameplay were smooth sailing. I had no concerns, no issues, no notes. Unfortunately, the last half of the game is where things really started to fall apart. I ran into one issue that seems to have dominoed into many others. At this point, I feel like my save file is likely corrupted because others have managed to play and finish this game with no issue.

I don’t know what I did, but something got borked in the system somewhere along the way.

At first, I had an issue with train tracks where I was tasked to rebuild a section that had been blown apart when I crashlanded. I was able to use my gravity beam tool to fit the tracks together, but I went a little too far and was unable to pull them apart. This created an issue where I couldn’t move forward and my tools were glitching out.

I put in a report and the bug got fixed. I’ll stop for a moment to say that I felt the team was responsive and they put in a hotfix that solved my issue. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that things started falling apart again, not too far after that. I had an issue where one of the minigames locked me in place and the only way to regain mobility was to restart the entire game. Theoretically, that was fine because I didn’t need that mini-game for progression.

However, the next issue I ran into is game-breaking. I am unable to finish Duck Side of the Moon until a patch is loaded.

There is a volcano in the game that erupts and you’re tasked with putting out fires that spawn from it. There’s a river that runs alongside the volcano that spawns water bubbles. I was able to use my gravity beam to put out one fire, but then the water didn’t spawn again.

I logged out, I explored the area, and not only did I discover that there were no more water bubbles, but that a forcefield is around the area, so I don’t have full access to all the areas of the game until I solve the issue with the fires.

At this point, I can’t even run around doing other things while I wait for a fix. I’m locked in.

I can’t make progress on quests, I can’t collect from treasure chests, and I’m not even sure I can return to my ship because I didn’t test just how far the force field traps me. At least with the train tracks issue, I had other things to do while I waited.

So, all of that said, there are some issues. I still would recommend Duck Side of the Moon because I genuinely enjoyed the first half of the game. However, I wouldn’t recommend it right now. Wait for more fixes.

Also, the game is $20 and from start to finish, it’s about 3 hours of content, perhaps about 5 if you want to 100% complete it. So, I’d definitely wait for some kind of sale before diving in.

Duck Side of the Moon has left me with complicated emotions. It’s safe to say that I adore the game, but there are bugs present at this moment that keep it from being recommendable. It’s cozy when it works and since I can’t guarantee yours will work, give it more time before you decide you want to grab it or not.

If you want to grab Duck Side of the Moon, you can get it for $19.99 over on Steam. And, if you want to see my first bit of gameplay that I posted, you can check that out over on the Comfy Cozy Gaming YouTube channel.

If you’re interested in checking out some of our other reviews, you can find those under our reviews tag.