Mosa
Lina

Mosa Lina (2023) is a platform brain game where you are granted three random abilities to complete each self-contained level. You can always walk and jump around the level, but this is aided (and sometimes hindered) by the selected abilities at your disposal. The challenge is putting these things to work in a way that enables you to collect the yellow balls and get to the exit.

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You play a small pixelated person on a mission to collect the yellow balls and then escape the level. Each new level, and each time you fail, you are given three random abilities to help. You might get a stretchy ladder, some arrows, an anti-gravity bomb a warp gate, boxes or mushrooms. Unlike other puzzle games, there are no pre-planned solutions so you must continuously experiment with every new run.

As you learn how the different objects and abilities work, you are increasingly able to use them in ambitious and imaginative ways. Rather than the usual Lock and Key puzzle design of other games, Mosa Lina leans into immersive solutions.

The result is a game that is as much about failing, trying again and tomfoolery as it is about quick reactions or managing systems. There's no guarantee you can finish a level with your given abilities, but that's half the fun. When you do manage it, it feels less like a solution and more like a work of instinct and putting things to unintended purposes.

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Our examiner, Jo Robertson, first checked Mosa Lina 17 months ago. It was re-examined by Andy Robertson and updated 12 weeks ago.