Friday, July 10, 2009

Moonlights Review

The tower building physics puzzle genre was one filled by only one game of any significance for a while, Tiki Towers. I bought it,  and I beat it somewhat quickly, within days. Ever since then, there has been a gap in my gaming library. Once I bought Moonlights for this review, I have been entertained for weeks, and still have not beaten the game.
In Moonlights, by bonuslevel.org,  you build towers out of small circles, and try to make any part of the tower reach and remain in the moon for three seconds. There are various objects that affect the structure, for example, pink circles destroy the tower, and ice circles freeze the entire structure. There are 42 levels, and a level editor is soon being added in an update.
Once you open the app, you can choose to select a level. You scroll down a list of the 42 levels, and tap one to start it. To start building your structure, simply tap near two of your other circles, and a new one pops up, attached to them. Keep building, and scroll around or zoom with two fingers. To delete some of the circles, make a box around those pieces by dragging with your finger. You can influence how a tower is balanced by tilting your device back and forth. There is an arrow in the lower left corner of the screen showing how much the gravity is affected. To pause the game, shake the device, and you can restart the level or quit to the main menu.
This game is better in some ways then World of Goo, a game in the same genre on WiiWare, and vice versa. In World of Goo, there are different types of Goo-balls, which in Moonlights, are just plain circles. However, Moonlights has more special additions, like accelerometer control, and the different colored circles that affect your structure. However, if you look at the games, overall, they are about as good as each other. Sure, Moonlights has simplistic graphics, but that is just a decision that the developer made which works well with the game. It comes down to the price. Are you going to get a $15.00 WiiWare game, which you can only play at home, or a $0.99 game that is just as good that you can take everywhere? The latter of the two is the most logical choice. That is why I highly recommend Moonlights, more than any other tower building game I have ever played, on the Wii, iPhone/iPod Touch, or any other platform which this applies to.

Pros:
42 Levels and a Level Editor Coming Soon
Intuitive Controls
Perfect Difficulty

Cons:
A Bit Hard to Delete Circles Accurately

Bottom Line: 
If you liked World of Goo or Tiki Towers, get Moonlights. If you're interested in an engaging game that's cheap, you should also put this on your buy list.

Scores:
Graphics: 4/5
Gameplay: 5/5
Controls: 4.5/5
Replay Value: 4.5/5

Overall: 9.5/10 (not an average)


To Win Moonlights for FREE:
Follow the directions on the Moonlights Promo Code Giveaway linked below:

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