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Moon Crystal is a 1992 platform game for the Famicom by Hect, who are more known for their puzzle games. The game was released in Japan only, though it was advertised as a coming release in the U.S. In this game, you play as Ricky Slater to retrieve the moon crystal and rescue your father and other people from the local nobleman Count Crimson. The game is known for both its amazing animations (which make the game seem akin to Prince of Persia) and its detailed storyline.


Video game-related tropes of Moon Crystal:

  • 1-Up: One of the items you can collect.
  • Anime Hair: Ricky's hair is spiky and green.
  • Astral Projection: Rosina turns out to be just a projection to replace already dead real Rosina.
  • Bottomless Pits: Bottomless pits are present in most levels. Falling into them is instant death.
  • Collision Damage: Colliding with enemies damages the player, unless having invincibility powerup.
  • Conspicuous Electric Obstacle: Laboratory has node pairs in hallways that shoot out electricity.
  • Defeat Equals Explosion: Every enemy explodes on death.
  • Dem Bones: As the fifth stage's skeleton enemies make clear, Crimson's already putting the Lunasystem to work.
  • Directionally Solid Platforms: One should not worry about hitting their head against a branch they are trying to jump on.
  • Double Jump: It's possible to double jump after getting a boots powerup.
  • Everything Trying to Kill You: Aside from count's minions, wildlife like birds are also after Ricky.
  • Evilutionary Biologist: Crimson is perfectly aware that the Moon Crystal doesn't just revitalize the dead, but also amplifies the qualities of the living. His plan is to use the Lunasystem to constantly irradiate human beings to turn them into superior life forms. His first attempt with Merle fails on account of Rosina disengaging the Lunasystem. His second attempt involves himself.
  • Fake Difficulty: The smooth animations of player character make controls a bit awkward, as unlike other platformer games where your character will instanlty change his direction or duck upon the press of a button, here he will do it with a noticeable delay, which makes the whole game a bit harder than it should be, especially boss fights.
  • Flash of Pain: Hitting bosses briefly whitens up the entire screen.
  • Fireballs: One of the enemies is a ball of fire which you can surprisingly destroy with a sword.
  • Floating Platforms: Many platforms levitate mid-air. Some even move up and down.
  • Gangplank Galleon: The fourth stage takes place in a pirate ship.
  • Giant Spider: One of the enemies that is encountered early on.
  • Heart Container: One of the items you can get.
  • Hearts Are Health: The health of player and bosses are represented with blue hearts onscreen.
  • High-Class Glass: Count Crimson wears a monocle.
  • The Igor: After the second level, it's shown that Count Crimson has that kind of assistant.
  • Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: These are encountered in the stage 5, often over bottomless pits.
  • Inexplicable Treasure Chests: A lot of careless people just leave treasure chests in the middle of forests, on roofs, in mines and other places.
  • Invincibility Power-Up: A gem (presumably diamond) powerup gives temporary invincibility.
  • Kid Hero: Ricky, the protagonist of the game, is still in his childhood years.
  • Knockback: Ricky gets knocked back when hit.
  • Malevolent Architecture: Most of the levels, but especially laboratory are filled with traps and spikes.
  • Magma Man: One of the enemies found in third stage is a man made of lava. He stands around, sometimes letting off smoke.
  • Mercy Invincibility: Ricky is invulnerable for a short period after getting hit.
  • Necromancer: Crimson, of course, although via Mad Scientist methods.
  • Necromantic: Although never really stated, the cutscene where Rosina disengages the Lunasystem, implies that Crimson's Start of Darkness was, bringing back his long dead daughter — the same Rosina. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough for him. Considering his boasts of creating life superior to humans, it's very possible that his ultimate goal is, to completely remove from the world the mortality, that once stole Rosina from him... No matter what life looks like afterwards.
  • Mercy Invincibility: After getting hit, Ricky gains a brief period of invulnerability.
  • One-Winged Angel: When Crimson draws upon the power of the full-moon-affected Moon Crystal to empower himself, he transforms into a demonic horror that spews fire and poison.
  • Post-Defeat Explosion Chain: Regardless of whether the boss is made of flesh or metal, it gives off a chain of explosions upon running out of hearts.
  • Reverse Grip: Brown hopping enemies hold their dagger that way.
  • Schizo Tech: At first blush, the setting and characters appear vaguely Victorian. However, you've got Amazon warriors with bows and arrows, pirates with scimitars, sailing ships, mooks with machine guns, high-tech turret guns, an electrically-powered laboratory, and robot drones. It's not really clear when this game is supposed to take place.
  • Sentry Gun: Pirate ship has guns that turn around and shoot on their own.
  • Ship Level: Stage 4 takes place entirely on a ship.
  • Spikes of Doom: Present in all levels, including being part of the town's architecture. In laboratory, a gigantic periodically retracting spikes are encountered.
  • Steam Vent Obstacle: Stage 5 has metallic floor. Sections of it periodically shoot out damaging steam.
  • Super Drowning Skills: It becomes apparent in Stage 4, that Ricky Slater cannot swim in water.
  • Sword Lines: After getting sword upgrade, your weapon leaves them whenever it's swung.
  • Temporary Platform: They're here and there. Most commonly in first stage where they take form of 4 rocks. These platforms start falling immediately after stepped on.
  • Treasure Is Bigger in Fiction: The aforementioned gem power-up is the size of half a Rick.
  • Turns Red: The final two bosses become more aggressive once their first life bar is drained.
  • Visible Silence: Dr. Slater says: "........." during the end of a cutscene, after the second stage.
  • Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: Some weird floating enemies give out yellow electricity.

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