Time to don your full length leather coat and silly hat – it’s time to kill you some monsters !
MonsterKill (iTunes link) from iPhone developer ‘Origin8′ pits you against a swarm of, unsurprisingly enough, monsters. You then kill them using a gesture based magic casting system. It’s one of those simple ideas that usually make a tip-top iPhone game, perfect for killing (see what I did there?) time stood in line at the Post Office and the like. But does MonsterKill hit the spot or will its vampires suck all the fun out of your day ?
For your £1.19 (lite version also available) you get three game modes; Normal, Endless and Onslaught. All three modes see you swiping, slashing and drawing with your finger, often with varying success.
The modes:
- Normal – endure 20 rounds as the monsters run amok! Unlock new spells, earn money and trade wisely in the shop!
- Endless – why limit yourself? Try and last as long as possible, rack up those high scores, unlock those achievements, be the best MonsterKill-er!
- Onslaught – how about having NO defenses? Use your tokens wisely in the shop then survive a flood of 101 monsters!
The aim of the game is to stop the monsters before they make their way to the bottom of the screen. In Normal and Endless mode they’ll need to break down an obstacle once they get there, but in Onslaught mode you’re all on your own. Scary stuff indeed !
Over the course of the 20 level Normal campaign you’re faces with the usual well known foes and will need to choose the right spell for the job. Mummies for example, require a swift swipe to decapitate, while drawing a zig-zag line will dispatch a vampire. The issue here is accuracy. The zig-zags in particular need to be drawn in just the right place, at just the right angle. It’s not a game breaker, but definitely something that might take a little practice to master. Things can get very frantic in the later levels too, making it imperative you learn to cast spells correctly first time, every time.
Graphically, MonsterKill is gorgeous. The cartoon aesthetic works well, and the characters are beautifully drawn. Frame rates on my iPhone 3G were also spot on. This is one game you WON’T need a 3GS to enjoy.
The audio does the job, and has a distinct ‘Addams Family’ feel to it. Certainly one to play with the sound up. If you’re running iPhone OS 3.0 and above you can even use your own music from your library should the urge take you.
All in, MonsterKill is a fun little game. It’s not going to keep you going for 12 hours, but then how many iPhone games will ? For that matter, do we really want them to ? To me, the iPhone excels in simple, pick up and play gaming. Games for wasting five or ten minutes here and there, not for sitting down and working through. There are other mobile platforms out there that do that much, much better. It all boils down to this: For the price of a bottle of your favourite carbonated drink you can entertain yourself. Job done.
Conclusion
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Varied game modes, great art style | Finicky controls can get irritating |
| Verdict | Fun, perfect for wasting five minutes |
| Rating |
Agree completely with the review – great fun for a short time then never played again. Excellent graphics though
It really is gorgeous. The longevity can be an issue as I said in the review, but if you play it as I do, in 5 minute chunks, it’ll obviously last longer.