If you’re familiar with Missile Command, the premise is at its core the same. Defend our planet by intercepting incoming enemy fire with missiles; however, Earth vs Moon expands on this simple premis to make itself a highly entertaining game. 

Story mode consists of 20 levels and is interspersed with five Each of the boss battles is very unique to say the least. You’ll find yourself playing, among other things, Pong, Space Invaders, and a Sinistar meets Peggle boss with nothing but your missiles. You must play Story mode to unlock Survival and Boss Attack.

Survival Attack is unlocked once you play through 8 levels of Story mode. It is just like it sounds, survive as long as possible against the constant barrage of incoming missiles.

You must play through 16 levels to unlock Boss Attack. Here you get to play against any of the game’s boss levels to try and see how quickly you can defeat them.

Gameplay
Playing Earth vs Moon is very easy. There is a humorous walkthough tutorial to take you through the basics, and it clarifies your job duties as, “Don’t let Earth get completely destroyed.  Although, partially destroyed is ok.” Tap on the screen where you want to launch a missile or swipe across the screen to send a wave of missiles up to meet incoming fire. You have 3 satellites and depending on the level they will come with a limited number of missiles so you cannot simply fill the screen with random missile fire and hope to win.

Besides missiles, you also have shields and healing UFOs to aid you in defending the planet. When missiles get too close to a satellite for comfort, click on a satellite to activate temporary shielding. It is imperative you protect your 3 satellites since losing even one really hampers your ability to defend the Earth. Periodically, healing UFOs will cross the screen, be sure to shoot them down and heal our poor, scorched planet below.

Your job performance will be rated from 1 to 5 stars and depends on how many missiles you used, if you lost any satellites, and what percentage of the Earth you let get scorched. Lose a level and the people of the Earth will let you know with an “Epic Fail” stamp of disapproval. You will at least need a “Good Job” stamp of approval to progress from one level to another in Story mode.

Overall
Earth vs Moon is graphically polished in every detail. The main menu looks like the inside of a space capsule and allows easy access to each of the three game modes and local high score tables. Just poke around and you may just make a hidden discovery. Even the hula girl moves with a flick, and the newspaper articles at the beginning and end of a level have full articles to read though the text is small and somewhat blurry.

The sounds are also spot-on including missile launchings, explosions, and earth scorching thuds. Levels progress in difficulty nicely and can provide a real challenge especially if you are going to try and 5 star each level.

Pros:
-very polished graphics and sounds
-easy to learn game play, combined with challenging to master levels mean that you will have a lot of fun playing the game and trying to win
-boss battles that offer a variety of unique challenges
-local high scores, global high scores are coming in an update
-well thought out and instructive tutorial

Cons:
-would love to see humorously named trophies or achievements to add to the fun
-the newspaper print is hard to read, I didn’t have any issues with any of the other text such as the tutorial text which was small but very ledgible
-you haven’t hit the “Buy” button yet

Definitely recommended if you want a very polished, easy to play, but hard to master game. Earth vs Moon is a wonderful retelling of a classic gameplay theme.

Price – $3.99 (currently on sale for $1.99 until the next update comes out)

Earth vs Moon in iTunes