Mos Speedrun Review
PROS
- Fun retro style with neat visual touches.
- Two control options to suit your style.
- Records ghosts to fine-tune your runs; can be turned off if you find them distracting.
CONS
- Relatively short on content; can take about 1-1.5 hours to finish all but the speedrun trophies.
- Bonus levels not currently working?
VERDICT
It's great to see the magic of platformers digging its claws in to modern gamers and while Mos Speedrun can't compete with the classics it slots in well with the currently dominating genre of skill based platformers.
- Full Review
- App Store Info
The idea of finishing a level as fast as possible in a platformer can be fairly common, with some games even going so far as to reward players for their speed, be it through bonus points, achievements or maybe that elusive third golden star. Mos Speedrun by Physmo turns speedy play in to a core component of its retro-slathered skill based platforming and while you don't have to beat the top times to win, taking on the challenge will require patience and reflexes honed to a sharp point to succeed.
By default players are given a touch interface setup that moves Mos, your colorful bug, based on the side of the screen you tap, while jumps are performed by tapping on the opposite side while moving. At first this may not seem like the optimal setup and indeed players may want to opt for the more traditional two-way virtual d-pad and jump button setup to navigate the many various enemies and environmental hazards in your way, but attempting to reach the preset time-goals requires players to learn efficient, non-stop paths that are emphasized by the default controls. In order to progress and unlock additional stages, players will need to collect trophies associated with four basic achievements - completing a level; collecting all the coins on a level; finding the 'hidden' skull; and beating the speedrun time.
These days it's almost expected that skill based platformers have a retro-esque theme and Mos Speedrun is happy to oblige with its pixel-art world and up-tempo chiptune soundtrack. Additional small touches like adding a faux-scanline effect and using TV snow as a visual transition help to set the mood. Special levels can also be activated by placing special URLs in your iDevices Safari browser, however the one level I was able to find via a QR code on the developer site did not seem to load as intended.
As with all challenging platformers your mileage will vary depending on how far you wish to go to conquer the levels and their additional objectives. Fans of League of Evil, N+ and Super Meat Boy will quickly devour this title whole, but beating those speedruns is a whole different kettle of fish and will keep you coming back for more.
Screenshots
$0.99
