Moksha  – An Arcade Style Hindu Based Game

Last month, I received an email with a request to review a game called Moksha. Initially when I saw the email I thought the game was probably one that was (as is mostly the case) some kind of game that was named moksha simply for the sake of novelty. There are many games out there that have Hindu philosophical words such as avatar, karma or maya, but have really nothing to do with the actual concept of these words except perhaps for some really far fetched connection to the concept. However, with Moksha - The Game I was pleasantly surprised, because the game actually teaches the concept of moksha. 

The game is not sophisticated graphically, compared to what you can find out there in this multi billion dollar industry. The controls are rudimentary, the basic move right and left, move up and down and shoot to destroy obstacles. It is after all an arcade style game. The main character of the game is you, the player. Your main goal is to become free of the cycle of reincarnation on earth (the meaning of moksha) and reunite with God, which occurs after you have gone through all of the game levels and successfully answered the quizzes on Hindu teachings at the end of each level. Before you attempt the quizzes the teachings are presented after end of each level.

The arcade game itself has characters such as different gurus (Paramahamsa Ramakrishan, Swami Vivekanada, Sri Krishna etc). There is a temple which the main character of the game needs to get into in order to get to the next level. The doors to the temple only open after you are able to collect some coin like article and touch the gurus that appear occasionally. When you touch the guru, you get extra powers and are able to vanquish the monsters, which represent maya, using firepower. It is all very symbolic of course, teaching that one has to ultimately overcome the temptations of maya in order to reach moksha. The game impresses the player on the need to acquire wisdom through learning in order to evolve to greater levels. The game has to settings, Primary - for children aged 7 to 12 and Secondary for youth aged 13 to 17. 

The real value of this game to me lies in the idea behind it. The game teaches Hinduism through entertainment. As a teaching tool this game is helpful. However, when I look at what youth expect from digital games nowadays they might not think much of it, but I can see the evolution of this game to a more graphically appealing one in the future. To me the idea and the effort behind producing this game is well intentioned and well placed and I see value in supporting the creator of the game so he will have the resources to continue his effort in evolving his line of Hindu digital games to greater levels. 

The game is the creation of a Malaysian Hindu, Guna Kanthan, who I met so I can understand his motivation behind producing Mokasha - The Game. It took him a good part of two years to create this game. It is marketed by Guna's 'one-man' company, Elektromedia and is very reasonably prices at RM 12.90. It is also available as a download over the internet for USD 5.00. There is also a trial version of the game, available on Elektromedia's website.

For more information on Moksha, the game and how to acquire it click here.