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Mooniz – An iOS Indie Game Review

Mooniz Gameplay
Mooniz – An iOS Indie Game Review
3.5

Platforms: iPhone, iTouch

Game Name: Mooniz

Developer: Adrenaline Monki

Genre: Action puzzler

Release Date: May 4th, 2011

The Mooniz are here!!!

These cute but cheeky critters are invading from the moon and you are Earth’s only hope in this simple yet highly addictive action puzzler!

DEVELOPER SUMMARY:

Save the world from adorable moon monsters by tapping groups of same colored Mooniz to make them explode in a spectacular display of dazzling colors.

To help you in your quest to repel these mysterious invaders there are killer power-ups available including point multipliers, first aid kits, nukes, and more!

Key features:

  • Classic and Rush game modes loaded with challenges
  • Fast paced action and 8 killer power-ups
  • Awesome artwork optimized for Retina display (HD)!
  • Intuitive touch controls
  • Unique musical score
  • Easy to learn, hard to master
  • Endless hours of fun for the whole family
  • Online leaderboards using GameCenter
  • Share your highscores on Facebook

WHAT WE THINK:

Mooniz is like a Saturday morning cartoon: bright and animated and simple. Does it stand up to its promise?

Well it certainly doesn’t fail to deliver in the cuteness category; it’s graphics are lovingly polished shades of reds, greens and blues. The game pieces are adorable little creatures that stare into your eyes as you destroy them group by group.

While there isn’t an iPad-specific version of Mooniz, the game’s HD graphics scale nicely to fit the bigger screen. Also, the game has preoccupation with butts. Cute Mooniz butts. There’s a bonus game dedicated to them.

Mooniz also throws in a catchy soundtrack that will get stuck in your head all day -addictive and cute, much like the game itself.

Now, for the gameplay. You tap clusters of similarly-colored Mooniz (yes that is the plural) in order to gain stars. With each level you have a set amount of stars to reach within a minute. Powerups will randomly appear and help you along. At the end of the level, you get bonus points for extra time. At the end of the game, you get coins to spend on more useful powerups.

Mooniz is a self-proclaimed ‘action puzzler’, but suffers from the unfortunate disadvantage of not having gameplay unique enough to stand out from the crowd. It’s fun clearing the board the first few times, but in the end you’re doing the same thing, just faster. The variety of powerups and a secondary Rush game mode does little to relieve some of the general repetitiveness. In the app store, cute, cuddly and easy is the flavor of the month, and Mooniz is just that.

In and of itself Mooniz isn’t a bad game by any means; it’s easy, quick and satisfying like a package of instant noodles, just the thing this reviewer needed after staring at the umpteenth action-RPG for the past three days.

That’s where this game’s real strength lies: it’s not clever enough to make you struggle, but not so easy that it lets you “phone it in.” In between the kaleidoscopic colors and bouncy soundtrack, you can lose a couple of hours chasing away those pesky Mooniz. The game is well executed and worth the dollar. Looking for a game to whittle away the hours? Mooniz has landed.

Get Mooniz at the iTunes store.

[xrr rating=”3.5/5″]