Official Score
Overall - 60%
60%
Moonleap’s day-night premise has merit, but this puzzle-platformer is far too simple and short to make a lasting impact.
The world of daylight and nighttime are at the players’ disposal with the release of guselect’s new title Moonleap. A puzzle-platformer that lets players choose the time of day, should players set out to recover shooting stars and save the day?
Moonleap Review
Holding firm that life is a changeable thing, players will take control of the cutest little moon you’ve ever seen. Players are tasked with traversing its small worlds to collect star fragments in this dynamic world. There are a few in each world to collect, with victory in each bite-sized stage as simple as collecting them all.
However, being a moon, he has the ability to change things from day to night. This isn’t just an aesthetic choice; it also affects when hazards and elements appear, disappear, or move. The protagonist doesn’t have many tools in his platforming repertoire; just a single jump and the ability to climb.
That’s not to say that Moonleap is a walk in the park. Spiky snails, moving creatures, and looping worlds that transport players from one side of the screen to the other lead to sticky situations. Death isn’t the end of the world; players can just as quickly pick things back up with infinite lives. However, it does mean that players will start each of these different stages at the very beginning once more.
As a result, Moonleap lives up to the puzzle name of its puzzle-platformer hybrid. Timing is absolutely key, along with the order players collect the star fragments. There are some particular situations where players need to be on the brink of death before coming out on top and moving to the next stage.
The end result is something that is a bit too simple. Moonleap has an interesting hook, but it is a bit too simple at its core. There’s no wall-jump, double jump, or anything else that makes this platformer any more complex. There is the ability to finish levels faster, but it ends up being too one-note for its own good.
The same goes for Moonleap’s challenge. These worlds are absolutely bite-sized. Don’t expect to be stumped for an extended period of time; what you see is what you get. Something at a bit of a larger scale would have come a long way at a way to stimulate the ol’ grey matter.
Just be warned that Moonleap’s 50 levels can be breezed through fairly quickly, with us clocking in at a little more than an hour in our playthrough. The ending is a bit anticlimactic too, with the credits and “The End.” (note the period) when all is said and done. There are people speedrunning the title, but the replayability is limited.
Moonleap’s day-night premise has merit, but this puzzle-platformer is far too simple and short to make a lasting impact.
