Review: Moonlights
by Staff Writer
July 20, 2009
Update
With the newest 1.1 update to moonlights there is now a new world to play. On top of the 40 levels on Earth, now you can play on Neptune with even more difficult tower building levels. Also include is a new control scheme that allows dragging your new piece that shows you a preview while dragging. This is a great update, and make this game even better. Now it's easily a must buy.
Overview
Moonlights is a tower building game similar to World of Goo or Tiki Towers. Your goal is to build a structure to reach the moon. You tap to add new parts that are always added in triangle shapes, and their size is dependent upon how far away you tap from the rest of the structure. In Moonlights your structure has to be stable enough to hold in the moonlight for three seconds. Your structure has to be strong, rather than just rushing to reach a certain height or point. As you progress the levels contain more obstacles and varying objectives. The goal of each level is to finish the objective in the fewest number of moves.
Features
Moonlights includes 42 brain teasing levels each requiring an almost completely different technique. Some levels are simple structure building up to the moon, but some require you to pick up stars. As you progress, obstacles are introduced including volcano orbs and surfaces to burn any part of your structure that touches it. Some levels let you use an infinite number of pieces, but others have restrictions. On other levels there are bubbles and clouds to float your structure. Then there are levels where you have to delete part of your structure to let it fall. Finally there are levels that have huge distances to traverse with orbiting volcano orbs and planets to contend with.
The controls perfectly incorporate all the unique capabilities of the iPhone. You tap to add new parts to your tower, and then control the towers tilt based via the accelerometer. You can drag your finger to delete sections, scroll with two fingers, and pinch to zoom. Also you need to shake to pause.
According to the developer BonusLevel they’re working on a major update that will include some great new features. There will be worlds, the current 42 will be in earth, and there will be brand new windy levels in Neptune. There will be a level editor, and the shaking to bring up menus will be gone. Also in the update will be a new control mode that will provide structure preview in addition to the current fast add tap mode. It definitely sounds great, and will make this game even better.
The Good
The best aspect of Moonlights is the outstanding gameplay. Having to build structures to reach a certain point requires figuring out your plan of action before you make a move. The addition of requiring the tower to hold in the moonlight for three seconds makes it so much more challenging, but fun at the same time. The level difficulty amps up quickly, and once you get in double digit levels there won’t be a level that you can beat in one try. Most levels provide unique obstacles not seen in the similar tower building games. One example is a level where you have to build across 3 islands just to reach the point to stack up to reach the moonlight, and between the islands are orbiting volcano balls. On another you have to build up and over two volcano balls, and then tilt the top part of the tower towards the moonlight, and be able to hold it there.
The graphics aren’t top notch by any means, but are still nice, and fit perfectly with this game. Your structure is black bars with black ball points, but as you reach the moon they become lighter gray, until they’re the same color as moonlight.
Once you hold your structure in the moonlight for three seconds the entire structure flashes to white like a camera flash. There’s a mellow soundtrack throughout that gets out of the way to let you think.
