Moon Watch mixes up the bullet heaven survivor genre with time-stopping and deck-building into something strategic

Moon Watch is a new release now in Early Access from developer Jaspel, who also made Backpack Hero, and they're mixing genres together again into something new. Note: their publisher sent over a key.

Taking inspiration from all the recent bullet heaven survivor-like games but turning it into something slower, more tactical that requires a bit of planning. This is because you control the flow of time, where the action only happens as you move. So instead of fancy finger-work on your keyboard or gamepad testing your reflexes, it's a lot more about that big beautiful brain of yours.

You get as much time as you want to decide how to approach the waves of enemies. From where you're going to run, to what cards to put into play that form all your attacks and abilities. However, each card uses up a certain amount of power that you recharge as you move, so even though it's slower and time-stopping, it can still remain a bit frantic and challenging. I really do love the idea of this one.

On each level you have a certain amount of time you have to survive, that only ticks while you move too. So you're constantly thinking about just surviving.

After each battle you then get a Slay the Spire style little map to pick a node to travel to which could be another fight, a defence mission where you have to defend an object and other types of events to go through

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A really fun idea that I can't wait to see expand. It's already fun and has quite a bit of content, but runs often feel a bit too similar right now. The developer said they expect Early Access to keep going for 8-10 months, so they have plenty of time there to add more. Some of what they have planned to add includes:

• New Characters: More playstyles to master.
• Additional Cards & Relics: Expanding your options for deckbuilding and combos.
• More Enemies: New challenges to overcome.
• More Rooms & Events: Expanding the variety of encounters to keep every run fresh.
• Achievements: A way to showcase your milestones and progress.
• Performance Updates: Continued improvements to ensure smooth gameplay.

For the £8.50 normal price it's good fun and well worth looking into if you like the sound of the idea. It's incredibly promising!