Moon Base Commander

""Your turn, commander.""

If you think of or watch Moon Base Commander, the last thing you're going to think of is Humongous Entertainment. Yes, that Humongous Entertainment. The same company that specialized in all the children's titles we all know and love. As they were declining in popularity struggling to get any profits, Humongous had their last chance to save themselves. Desperate to make a comeback, they finally decided it was time to make a game that wasn't made for young children. And thus, Moon Base Commander was born.

Moon Base Commander is a unique turn-based strategy game released in 2002. You play as a specific side, though they are only cosmetically different. You continually build on your base, and every building is connected with dotted wire. You cannot cross over this dotted wire, so you need to be careful about your placement. The goal is to get rid of everyone else, but keeping your base alive. It's very simplistic and you should learn it very quickly.

Despite being a great game, it had no marketing whatsoever, had very mediocre graphics for its time (by this time, everything was 3D), and generally looked very low-tech. It was still using the SCUMM engine, which should have been obsolete several years before this game was released. Due to being a little too far behind its time, the game ended up selling exceptionally poorly. It still gets a small share of praise though, and it even won IGN's "Best Game No One Played of 2002" award.

A demo of this game can be downloaded from Infogrames.

Tropes in Moon Base Commander:

 * Color-Coded Multiplayer
 * Command and Conquer Economy
 * Construct Additional Pylons: The entire game focuses around it.
 * Fog of War: Optional, but it exists.
 * Non-Indicative Name: You do command a base, but on other planets, not on the moon.
 * Wrap Around
 * You Require More Vespene Gas: All structures either cost 1, 3, or 7 energy. You only have a limited amount of energy per turn, but can increase it by building energy collectors near energy pools.