“Mosa Lina’s” goal is simple: collect all the fruits and make it to the portal. To assist in accomplishing this, you’ll be provided with three random tools. Tools in “Mosa Lina” consist of abilities ranging from spawning a bamboo stick you can walk across like a bridge, to flies that will stick to blocks and flutter, and even to a cocoon that switches the gravity of the entire level.
Every tool has goofy use-cases, downsides, and synergies with other tools. For example, by shooting a honey blob, connecting a fly, and using the grapple hook to hang from the honey, you can create a simple flying machine.
Every round of “Mosa Lina” consists of nine levels (from a pool of 350+), for which you’re given a random set of nine tools that it’ll pick from for each level. Every time you beat a level, it’ll be taken out of the rotation and transport you to another of the remaining random levels.
Once you’ve beaten eight of the nine levels, whichever remains gets turned into a “boss level”, with more platforms, fruits, and items. Once you beat the boss level, you … play another round! There is no ending or progression to “Mosa Lina”, outside of becoming more skillful as a player every round. As you learn the ins and outs of every tool, the game becomes increasingly more satisfying!
When you first start playing “Mosa Lina”, you’ll have no idea what any of the tools do, so every round starts confusing. Over the course of a round, you’ll learn the abilities of the tools you’ve been provided, and by the end, you’ll have a handle on all their powers. However, despite now understanding how all the tools function, I’m still finding secret synergies, such as the fact that you can attach flies to thrown items to make their abilities activate in a different part of the level (fun fact, I learned this yesterday)!
“Mosa Lina” was originally released on Oct.17, 2023, with the developer adding small gameplay features (for better or worse) over the next few months. These updates definitely had their faults, such as one of them introducing a randomly-spawning turtle that would instantly lose you the level if it died. Many problems arose with this update (and a few of the others), such as the turtle occasionally spawning, instantly dying, and making levels impossible. In March 2024, they realized the issues with some of the past updates and made a “Director’s Cut”, removing and refining many of the previous updates into a more fine-tuned version of the game, while simultaneously handing the majority of the development to a friend of the developer. As somebody who had just recently become obsessed with the game, the game’s future being uncertain was extremely troubling.
However, in September of 2024, The Collaboration Update was released, adding local and online multiplayer. While in this mode, players will now each get two items instead of three, and there are special lemon fruits that both players need to hit before they activate. Multiplayer was exactly what the game needed, and it once again became a personal favorite of mine. Then, in May 2025, “Mosa Lina’s” second layer was released, doubling the count of tools in the game from 24 to 48 (including some of my personal favorites), adding 189 new levels, launching on Nintendo Switch, and a bunch of other content, all showcasing the true potential of “Mosa Lina”.
“Mosa Lina” even includes a level editor, including hundreds of level packs made by players, published on the Steam workshop, and free to play! Unlike the first and second layer levels made by the game’s developers, which are emptier (to allow for various creative solutions), workshop levels are generally more exciting, ranging in quality and difficulty, making each level a completely new experience. I only discovered the level editor a few weeks ago, and have already spent dozens of hours playing the workshop levels.
There’s even more content I don’t have the space to dive into with this article, such as an advanced backflipping technique (yes, this is real) that allows you to leap between platforms, the built-in GIF creator you can use to capture your best moments, and all the rest of the 48 items I couldn’t mention!
Priced at $7.99, “Mosa Lina” is one of the most replayable games I’ve ever experienced. Additionally, thanks to the collaboration update, it’s become a personal favorite multiplayer game of mine, and many of my friends have now fallen victim to purchasing the game to play with me. I would highly recommend “Mosa Lina” to any puzzle, platformer, or puzzle platformer enjoyer!
