Reach for the Sky and Catch The Moon!

Build your way up, one ladder at a time, either competitively or cooperatively in this charming dexterity game.

Published by Bombyx and KOSMOS, Catch the Moon is a 20-minute dexterity game for 1-6 players.

Gameplay

The cloud game piece is placed in the center of the table and two straight ladders are placed into the slots on the cloud. All the other ladders, which come in uneven shapes, are placed in the box.

On your turn, you take a ladder at random from the box and roll the die. You will be adding your ladder to the structure of ladders on the cloud, but it can’t touch either the cloud or the table. The die will tell you if it must be touching one or two ladders. Alternatively, you might roll a moon, in which case when you place the ladder, one tip of it must be the highest point of the ladder structure, and may touch either one or two other ladders. If any ladders drop to the cloud or the table, or you are not able to meet the requirements of the die, then you take a raindrop token. Any ladders that fell are discarded from the game.

It is now the next player’s turn. The game continues until all the raindrop tokens have been claimed or once all the ladders have been used. The player with the fewest raindrops wins the game.

You can also play Catch the Moon as a cooperative game. Gameplay is the same, only players also take a raindrop token when they wish to score. When scoring the structure, you place the game box beside it and earn one point for each ladder that is at least partially higher than the top of the box and three points for each ladder that is completely above it.

After you run out of ladders or there are no more raindrops to take (they also get taken when ladders fall like in the competitive mode), the team’s final points are from whichever scoring attempt earned them the most points (points do not stack between scoring attempts). You then check the chart in the rulebook to see how well you did based on your points.

Review

Catch the Moon is a delightful, beautiful-looking dexterity game with an enchanting theme and components, and rules that are easy to learn and fast to pick up.

The ladders coming in different dimensions and uneven shapes leads to interesting ways they can connect to one another. It’s fun to examine the piece you draw and figure out the best way to connect it to the ladders already on the cloud. There are also a few ladder configurations listed in the rulebook to help players get started in learning what ways the ladders can balance off each other, which is a helpful jumping-off point for learning the game.

Given that there are multiple slots on the cloud game piece, and players pick the configuration they want at the start of the game for the two straight ladders, there’s a bit of variety for game setup, which can, in turn, alter the way the ladders get built up. This is particularly interesting for the cooperative ruleset, as players can play around with the most efficient starting set-up for a tall structure.

There’s a bit of a push-your-luck element in the cooperative version that is clever. You can score early, checking your points when it's safe and not risking losing ladders and having them fall, but only your highest score will count at the end, you only have a limited number of raindrops, and the higher the structure grows the more points it is worth.

This is a very light game, and the simple rules and limited components work to its advantage, keeping turns fast and gameplay moving along quickly, as well as making it a good fit for families. The game is unlikely to win over people who aren’t fans of the genre, but if you like dexterity games, the charming presentation makes it one that is worth adding to your collection.

Pros: Excellent blend of theme and components, fast turns, two game modes, it is fun to balance the ladders off of each other

Cons: Gameplay might get repetitive after enough games

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.