Bastion
LQ: 9.15
Recommended Age: 10+
Skills Used: Planning, Working Memory, Mathematics, Reading
Moonshot: The Journey Home is a slingshot game where the player takes on the role of Moon Pi, a young moon who has lost his Mother Earth. Moon Pi must navigate through a series of worlds and get to the wormhole at the end, hoping to make it back home. The player touches the screen and pulls back, releasing Moon Pi like a slingshot to navigate the different obstacles on the way to the wormhole. In addition to the trajectory that Moon Pi travels along, the planets on the screen have their own gravitational pull that needs to be taken into account when choosing the path.
The player has a certain number of tries to get Moon Pi to the wormhole on screen. Timing is also required because Moon Pi will sometimes be caught in a gravitational field and will need to time their escape in order to avoid obstacles such as asteroids.
The player can also collect stars and coins in the level which can unlock new skins and outfits for Moon Pi as well as hints that can help you make it through harder levels.
Moonshot: A Journey Home is currently available with a subscription to Apple Arcade.
Planning: Developing a systematic approach for setting and achieving goals.
In order to make it to the wormhole that takes Moon Pi to the next level of the game, the player needs to have a plan for how they will set up their moves. Much like in a game of pool, the player needs to look at where Moon Pi needs to go and then line up the trajectory to help them avoid obstacles and to collect as many stars and coins as possible. The player also needs to try to accomplish this in the number of moves listed at the bottom of the screen. While some levels may be able to be completed in fewer turns, all of them can be completed in the number of moves listed at the bottom of the screen. The player needs to use their planning skills to make sure they don’t use more turns than necessary to get Moon Pi to the next level.
Working Memory: Recalling and retaining information in our minds while working.
Sometimes the player will need to repeat a puzzle and this is where their working memory is going to come into play. The player needs to use their working memory to recall the different moves they made already so that they do not repeat the same mistake twice. They need to do this while in the middle of moving Moon Pi. For players who struggle with working memory, the game does show the trajectory of the very last move the player made so that they can reference it when making their next move.
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