Review: Moon Drop

Update Moon Drop just got the 1.1 update which adds Plus+. Now there are online high scores and 20 achievements using ngmoco's servers. Also there are even more hilarious astronaut sayings pushing the total over 100. The earth now appears and rotates in the background. The inclusion of Plus+ helps out this casual pick up and play game a lot, making it much funner, and giving more reason to play. Reading all of the one-liners on landing, and trying to get high scores and awards improves the rating. Moon Drop is now a should buy, and one of the better pick up and play games in the App Store. Overview In Moon Drop your goal is to colonize the moon. To do so you have to guide pods from space down to the base on the moon. To guide the pods you simply touch on screen, and the pods will steer away from that point. The base on the moon is like a bullseye, and you will score more points for landing in the center. As you progress there are more and more pods you need to land all of which start out in wider formations. When the pods first drop you need to have a lot of thrust to slow them down and try to group them together. As they approach the bottom a bunch of little taps are needed to maneuver the pods on to the bullseye. Features Moon Drop incorporates twitter to create their online high scores. After every game you complete a pop up asks if you would like to tweet your high score, and then you log-in to your twitter account. Once a tweet is posted it is then incorporated in to the game's online high scores (updated every 30 minutes). In the game you have three lives, and there are an infinite number of waves to land. Your score is based on three things: pods landed, target bonus, group bonus. Target bonus is plus 5 for each pod that lands on the bullseye. Group bonus is dependent on how many pods you land at the same time. Like Sky Burger there are bonus rounds, introduced by clapping, that provide uniquely designed formations and a chance to increase your score without worrying about losing a life. To control the pods you tap on screen, and the ships thrust away from the tap. Hold your finger for continued thrusting, or tap for minute adjustments. The Good First off Moon Drop shares the outstanding polish of any Nimblebit title. The visuals are outstanding beginning with the space background to the base on the surface of the moon. The pods are designed nicely as well with each pod looking like a one eyed alien smiley face. The space theme is integrated into everything as well most noticeably with the digitized menus. The animations are amazing to see, shown simply with the varying thruster blasts out of the pods. Where ever you tap on screen a blue circle emits around it showing you where the pods are being directed from. When your pods land yellow and green circles emit depending on where you land on the base. Also after each pod lands the little astronauts get out and bounce off screen. Also included are tons of witty sayings from the astronauts after each wave. The in-flight brochure is mentioned quite a few times from saying that the surface is spongy like a cake to the moon being discovered in 1995 by a guy with the last name moon. In the many sayings there are a few shout outs to Nimblebit’s own Sky Burger, Scoops, and Textropolis as well as huge games Flight Control and Pocket God. The best part about the sayings is that there seem to be so many, and knowing Ian Marsh there will be even more in the next update. There is one background song the entire time that is a joy to listen to. It's calming and creates a sense that you're in space. The thrusting sounds are perfect, and there are great little dings depending on where you land on the base. You actually feel bad when one of the pods smashes into the moon disintegrating into pieces with an appropriate smash. Who would have thought maneuvering groups of landing pods could be so much fun. Applying thrust based on where you tap is ingenious, and is easy enough so you never worry about the controls. It’s super addicting, and you’ll find yourself playing over and over trying to better your technique and ultimately your score. The Bad Moon Drop is more closely related to Scoops than Sky Burger if you know what I mean. Like Scoops it’s one time through to try to get the highest score, and that’s it. In Sky Burger even after you lose you’re continuously adding to your career, and there are three different high score categories. Also unlike Sky Burger there are no achievements, which were introduced in an update and hopefully will be the same with Moon Drop. Twitter online high scores are great, but you shouldn’t have to tweet every time you want to submit a new high score. The Verdict Ian Marsh and Nimblebit have done it again. They’ve created another highly addictive, extremely fun, super polished iPhone game. They’ve discovered the perfect mobile gaming formula. All of their games are intuitively designed to be played anywhere at anytime in short bursts. Moon Drop lacks some of the extras that are in Sky Burger, but is a unique enjoyable experience. It is fun and addictive, and you'll find yourself spending a lot of time with it, a should have.

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