Introduction
Luna & The Moonling is a new indie game developed by Greyborn Studios. It is a top down puzzle platforming game and it is available now on Steam for Windows PCs & Mac OS for £15.49. The price is a little too expensive for what’s on offer here. Don’t get me wrong Luna & The Moonling is a good little game but I feel like it would be better at around the £10 mark for me. I enjoyed the game quite a bit though so I would recommend it in a sale. The gameplay is a lot like 2D Zelda type puzzles with different mechanics introduced as you progress at a fair clip kept the game interesting throughout.
Graphics, Music & Sound
The Graphics in Luna & The Moonling are very nice indeed. With a lovely colourful art style, cute and colourful characters that are well presented and fairly memorable. Luna is a young girl and she teams up with a Moonling, which looks like some sort of moose like creature. The colourful environments in the levels really pop off the screen and give the game a great sense of fun and adventure.
The music is similarly suited to the art style with nice slower tempo melodies that compliment the slower paced gameplay. Sound effects further compliment this more relaxed mood in the game with subtle ambient noises such as waves crashing on the rocks and the subtle sound effects when picking up collectables. It all adds up to make Luna & The Moonling a very somber, relaxing experience that is more laid back and can be enjoyed at your own pace.
Gameplay
Although Luna & The Moonling is a single player game, players have to switch between Luna and Moonling in order to solve puzzles to progress through the levels. The game features full controller support so I played it with my Xbox One controller. You move with the left stick and A button shoots a spell as Luna that lets you shoot switches on a far away wall to open/close gates or raise and lower platforms for example. You switch to Moonling with a tap of the B button and he can push large stone blocks and help Luna progress by standing on pressure pads to hold gates open for her.
The levels themselves are well designed with new mechanics introduced as you play through them at a fairly good rate to keep the game interesting and vary up the gameplay. The levels aren’t terribly replayable and the puzzles are fairly simple to work out making it an accessible game for most people if a little uninspired if you are looking for something with a bit more meat to it. The puzzles here don’t really do anything I haven’t seen a number of times before in other similar games either. I enjoyed the game quite a lot but it never had any real stand out moments.
Conclusion
Luna & The Moonling is a good little top down puzzle game. The puzzles themselves aren’t particularly exceptional or offer anything I haven’t seen before. But it is a good amount of fun. The graphics are nice, colourful and family friendly and the subtle use of music and sound is used to good affect to compliment the gameplay. Luna and Moonling are good characters, not outstanding but likeable enough as are the other characters in the game. The game is a bit too expensive in my opinion at £15.49, I would recommend it for around £10 in a sale. Although there are 60 levels in it so there is a decent amount of content here.
7/10
Good
Publisher: Greyborn Studios
Developer: Greyborn Studios
Platforms: Windows, Mac OS (reviewed)
Release Date: Out Now
RRP: £15.49
I love that you have done a review of this game!
One point I would add is that unless you are speedrunning the game and know exactly what you are doing, you’re unlikely to get this game completed in 5-6 hours quoted above.
As an example, I completed the final 5 levels the day they were released during a Twitch stream, my stream was just under 9 hours long. Those runs did not include getting three stars which were several hours more worth of gameplay.
Additionally, there is no mention in the review that more levels are coming without any additional purchase needed. So, the price of the game is well worth it. 🙂
Thanks Lizzie! That is good news that the add-ons are free. I did see in the game that it says more levels are coming soon but I did not know they were free so I didn’t comment on them in the review. I may look at those levels when they are released though and do a mini review of them. I have to be honest I did rush through the game in order to do my review but I do intend on going back to it later on. Some of the stars I never managed to get so I am looking forward to going back and taking my time with it. As for the price, for me there are a lot of games at that price range that are better in my opinion but Luna & The Moonling is a good game I would recommend to people.