It is the month of Zenith's Blue moon, a title that is showily reflective of how rarely classic games of this niftiness chance upon before leaving a pawprint on the ZZT gaming world.
The storyline is not a difficult one to grasp, but its simplicity works for itself. In a nutshell, you play the game as Simon Groves; a prepubescent lad who, with his friend Fred, unwittingly shoulders the hefty task of saving the world from the Sigmas. The Sigmas are somewhat self-explanatory, being a horde of megalomaniac aliens shaped like the Grecian Symbols of the same name.
The game begins in Simon's room and a dialog reveals to the player the enigma of the 'Blue Moon' (the plot crux around which the rest of the game moves about), an odd entity that had appeared in the earth's stratosphere approximately 6 weeks ago. After a bit of wandering around his house and some abusing of small furr'd animals, Simon realises that his immediate family, as well as the other of the Coaster residents, are acting quite out character. He takes the obvious action of finding Fred, the only other individual that seems unaffected, and together they decide to get to the bottom of the mystery. From here on in, the scenery changes and plotline advances occur quite rapidly, with even The Kave making a radioactively trippy appearance.
Although Blue Moon is of the action genre, it makes use of simple mini-puzzles on each board to advance the player. Later on, it also features a segment of rather neat mini-games which do well in adding variety to game play. The graphics and music within the game are of decent quality (view it within its timeframe, people), and give some insight into Zenith's evolution as a programmer and artist. The humour within the game also has his name scrawled all over it in bright crayon marks; Nadir's psychopathic wackiness alone proves entertaining enough to keep any cynics at bay.
Though somewhat quaintly endearing ("HI MOM!") in parts, I guarantee Blue Moon to be a satisfyingly solid play with a good deal of replaying value. Indeed, it is definitely a worthy CGotM awardee and a rather cute example of one of Nadir's classical era games. There is no more to say. Go play it, fools; and be amused!
