Frank Sinatra summed it up perfectly. The moon has always been a figure of awe. From man’s iconic first steps to ancient religious worship, the bright light in the night has mystified mankind for generations. It’s a popular cultural trope, with every creative form, including video games, drawing on its power as a backdrop.
FlyMe2TheMoon goes further than most when it comes to lunar inspiration. Along with its obvious name sharing, its entire concept is based on reaching the moon.
Developers moHoYo have tapped into an Eastern setting and crafted a beautifully Asian game. An anime female lead called Kiana floats around the levels, collecting stars and avoiding obstacles on the way to the moon. Once she gets there, she moves onto the next level, meeting trickier level design and new navigation mechanics.
The further you progress on the adventure, the more difficult the levels get. What starts off as a linear collect-them-quickly becomes an intricate puzzler. Deft reactions are necessary and by the time you reach the middle stages, you’ll need to be paying attention to avoid being impaled on spikes or falling down bottomless caverns. Roaming lasers, powerful wind currents, spiky walls; it’s a dangerous world out there.
There’s a story somewhere in there, but at the moment the translation is difficult to understand. The dual language menus give the impression that it’s an Asian game for its local territories. The global nature of the App Store means English regions are no longer difficult to target, so why not include a rudimentary English narrative.
It could certainly do with some work. At the moment you’ll hurry through the dialogue due to the confusion it causes. There’s something in there about silver moons and sacred stones. It’s all a bit convoluted and it’s worth focusing on the solid action that FlyMe2TheMoon offers.
There’s still a decent platform/puzzler in there. It’s got a nice art style, and while the controls can border on sluggish, the gameplay generally holds up. It’s a decent skill-based title and offers something different. It’ll struggle to stand out in the packed App Store, but if you’re after something that’ll entertain for a couple of hours, you could do a lot worse.
Thanks to miYoHo for providing an NFR so we could take a look.
