iTuesday Review: Mos Speedrun for iPhone and iPad

Mos Speedrun is an iOS game where you play as a ladybug racing against time while avoiding an odd variety of enemies including aliens and zombies. It’s a side-scroller where beating a round involves more than just reaching the end of the level. Each round has four badges you need to earn. A badge for making it the end of the stage, a badge for collecting all the coins on the stage, a badge for finding a hidden skull in the stage, and one for completing the stage within a set amount of time. If an enemy hits you, you’ll have to start the stage over, and you only receive a badge if you make it to the end of the stage with the objective complete. Meaning, if you find a hidden scull, you wont get a badge unless you also make it to the end of the round.

Bumble Bees and Zombies are just a few of the enemies you will come across in Mos Speedrun

The time badge is really what makes the game. It seems like when attempting the other badges my main focus was scoping out the round so I would be ready to run through it and attempt the time badge. Also, it’s definitely possible to pick up all the badges except for the time badge in one run through. Not to say the other badges are just handed to you, but the real challenge in the game is when you’re trying to run through each round as fast as possible. It’s easy to avoid an enemy when you take your time, but when every second matters it’s quite a bit more difficult.  You don’t have time to think when going after the time badge. All you can do is run. If there was a fire ball shooting out of lava I would often just jump and hope I didn’t hit it; there was no time to wait till it passed.

There were many times when I reached the end of the level just seconds (or even less than a second) too late of earning the time badge. The game has a cool “ghost” feature. Each time you die another ghost of a past attempt will appear on screen. This is actually really helpful because it allow you during the entire run to know if you’re beating your past time. Sometimes these ghosts can get a bit distracting, but if they really bother you the game does allow you to turn them off.

You’ll realize exactly how many times you’ve died on a given round when you watch herds of ghosts run the round with you

There are two control options for Mos Speedrun. The first is a control style known as “mos”. The way this works is you tap on a direction to run that way and tap on the other side of the screen to jump. This works really well, except for it takes a second to switch directions. In this game, there are not seconds to spare. Also when using these controls under water it’s a bit awkward. I recommend using the other option, the D-pad on the left side of the screen and a jump button on the right of the screen. The iPad version also has a feature where you can move the position of the D-Pad and jump button. I didn’t find this to be necessary, but it’s nice to have that option. The D-Pad works great, which is something that can’t be said for many iPhone games.

Mos Speedrun has the look and feel of an old school game, while at the same time being something new and different. The graphics and music are nostalgic while the game is completely new.

The game has four levels, each with 5 different stages. Each stage has four different badges to be earned, making there a total of 80 badges to earn before you complete the entire game. Mos Speedrun is available in the app store for iPhone and iPad for only $1.99.

Final Rating: 7/10

CBR Break Down:
Console Played On: iPhone 4/ iPad (1^st generation)
Approximate Time to Completion: 4 – 5 hours
Price Bought at: N/A Review copy provided by Physmo
Recommend Purchase Price: $1.99 is fair. If it ever drops to $.99 don’t pass it up! If you want it even cheaper than that keep reading below.

The best price for any game is free! That’s why Physmo, makers of Mos Speedrun, has provided us with four download codes. If you want to be one of the lucky four to receive a free copy of Mos Speedrun here’s what you have to do:

First entry: Comment on this post and tell us any of the following: How you first heard of CBR, What your favorite IOS game is and why, or what games you would like to see reviewed in future iTuesday articles.

Second entry: Follow us on twitter and send the following tweet:

@ClearanceBinRev is giving away Mos Speedrun by @physmo for #iPhone and #iPad! Details: http://bit.ly/iy4tWR

Remember that you have to follow us; any winner we attempt to DM via Twitter who isn’t, automatically forfeits their win. If you enter via Twitter include your twitter name in your post below, winners who have their twitter listed will receive their codes immediately after winning.

Third Entry: Like our Facebook page and then simply like the post on our wall for this article.  Simple as that. (Keep in mind the article may be lower on the Facebook page towards the end of the contest and it may take a minute or two to post on FB) If you like the Facebook article please include your twitter name or name used to post a comment here.

Contest will go until Thursday at 8pm CST.  A pool of all eligible entries will then be randomly selected from and the winners will be notified. CBR reserves the right to disqualify any entry we feel either violated the rules or spirit of the contest, including attempts at duplicate entries. Winner selected with no twitter name provided will be notified by email and have 24 hours to respond.  We do not announce winner names publicly