Luna and the Moonling [Review]
By: Thunderheavyarm
In the last few months, games have been coming out with ever more violent and realistic games in the AAA market. Amidst the carnage and mayhem, Greyborn Studios takes a decided change in pace with their game, Luna and the Moonling. Everything is perfect and picturesque for Luna. That is until someone casts an evil curse upon her father turning him into a plant creature. With only one hope, the Potion of Light hidden on a chain of islands Luna sets off on a puzzling quest to find the tincture and save her father and kingdom.
Gameplay
As you’ve guessed, this title features a puzzle solving style of gameplay. Luna needs to gather moon shaped shards that are scattered across the map in order to open a portal to the next level. She’s joined by a companion a Moonling native to the islands. While not of impressive stature, it does play an important role in solving the many puzzles that await the player. Without gadgets, the players must navigate through traps and obstacles in order to reach the next level.
Overly simplistic the game does add in a few layers of challenge in the form of completion stars. Scattered in difficult and absolutely out of the way places picking up this up will neat you a single star. On top of that, speed running the course will net you one as well. And for those of you with a pedometer it’s time to break it out and count those steps as going below the stages maximum steps will neat you a third star. Of course there is always the option of just taking your time, running in circles and making as much of a beeline as you can for the portal. But after you get that first few levels with three stars, how could you resist?
Review
It’s a very simplistic game, especially for something that has such a great animation and background art. But it doesn’t come off as a trade, like gameplay suffered because they wanted to make their game look great. If anything the simplicity of the game allows the player to become immersed in the world. To take it all in and enjoy it...while dodging fireballs of course.
They made the game with simple levels for kids to just be able to play a cute and fun looking game. But just beneath the surface is levels of complexity for the more skilled player to enjoy. They’ve even designed it for people to perform speed runs since a star is directly involved with your score in each level.
While not one of the favorite games that I’ve played in the past, it does have provide a bit of stress relief for when I want to play a game that requires thought over brute force. I’d strongly recommend this game for anyone that enjoys puzzles, has kids who like puzzles and even you speed runners out there. Currently, it’s available on Steam, and wouldn’t you know it but Black Friday sales are going on as well.