Moonleap is a charming platformer puzzle game where jumping changes from day to night, with enemies and hazards changing behavior or moving accordingly. The pixel art is charming and full of character, the music is moody and immersive, and overall it's a fun experience you can complete in an evening.

The puzzles ramp up nicely, starting out simple enough to get a feel for the day/night change while jumping. This can be tricky at first as you'll try to jump to dodge an obstacle, only for the obstacles to rearrange themselves and potentially having you hurl yourself into danger, but figuring out how maneuver in both forms of each level is a big part of the fun.

The game shines in its hub world, which fully commits to the idea rather than feeling like a glorified level select. The music is beautiful and haunting, adding so much atmosphere to the game. Each screen of the hub world has secrets to discover, some small and simple, but the best-hidden secrets are obscure enough to leave you thinking about their purpose as you play through the rest of the game. Some of these secrets were more fun than others, the jumping one was a bit too much of a logical leap for me to understand it, and even after looking up the solution later, it was not obvious how to execute the jumps in the correct timing. Ultimately, some of these secrets were more fun to discover and wonder about than to actually solve, but it was still a great time and added a lot to the game.

Reviewed on Oct 27, 2023


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