Duck Side of the Moon Review: A Charming but Flawed Cozy Adventure

Crash-landing your spaceship in a peculiar asteroid belt teeming with overly cheerful rock people might initially make you want to leave—fast. But spend a little time there, and the place starts to grow on you. That’s the charm of Duck Side of the Moon, Starbrew Games’ debut cozy adventure.

In this game, you play as Doug, a lost duck on a quest to find a home. You’ll hop between asteroids, assist eccentric locals, and pass the time with a steady stream of mini-games. It’s a short, easygoing throwback to old-school, family-friendly adventure games—light on challenge but packed with enough charm and variety to make the journey worthwhile. However, a few rough edges keep it from fully taking flight.

Gameplay and Exploration

Space isn’t empty in Duck Side of the Moon. Much of the gameplay revolves around collecting Bolts, a currency used to repair your ship and unlock upgrades. These upgrades include a storage room to expand your painfully small inventory, a closet for changing Doug’s appearance, and even a basketball hoop to unwind.

Beyond Bolts, the asteroid belt offers a variety of resources to mine, such as brightly colored materials like Gold, Rubies, and Ferrite. These can be used to craft items and upgrades for Doug, allowing you to pick up items from further away, dash quickly, and mine tougher materials.

Progression and Crafting

It didn’t take long to earn enough Bolts to unlock every ship upgrade, but that’s part of the problem. Many upgrades are purely cosmetic, with only a handful meaningfully impacting gameplay or progression. Most upgrades went unused, and large sections of the crafting system were ignored entirely. In fact, several resources and higher-tier mining tools aren’t required to complete the story, making the entire system feel more optional than rewarding.

Movement and Interaction

Despite its underdeveloped progression system, Duck Side of the Moon excels in its movement mechanics. While exploring, Doug can seamlessly switch between flying and walking. Flying makes traversing the asteroid belt quick and flexible, while walking keeps you grounded—literally—when precision matters.

Low gravity can be frustrating, especially when trying to interact with NPCs or objects and drifting right past them. Being able to toggle movement modes with a button press is a smart and welcome feature. This flexibility pays off in exploration, making it rewarding rather than frustrating to poke into every corner of the asteroid belt’s floating rocks.

Rewards and Secrets

From bow ties and frog costumes to music tracks you can play back at your ship, there’s a steady stream of loot that makes checking every nook worth your time. Perhaps home isn’t as far away as it seems.