Astro Ape Studios Releases Monsterz Revenge on iPhone

Social-mobile game developer, Astro Ape Studios, which was acquired by DeNA last year, has released a new title for the iPhone by the name of Monsterz Revenge. The company’s third application, following behind the games of Dessert Heroes and Office Heroes, Monsterz Revenge is similarly natured in both its design and freemium monetization model. Like many social games, Monsterz Revenge is a free-to-play virtual space app, monetizing through in-app purchases of items and virtual currency. Set with a classic monster (e.g. Frankenstein, Dracula, etc.) premise, the app is a moderate satire on iconic creatures and how they intermingle with modern fast food chains. It tries to differentiate itself with the inclusion of mini-games and the app is slightly altered from a “traditional” virtual space-oriented game. In this game, monsters are apparently not all that dark and vile. They're still gloomy, but in this graveyard, all they like to do is cookout and have a good time. Such is the case when their graveyards are encroached upon by various, satirized fast food chains (e.g. Taco Hut). In order to stop them, players must create their own ghoulish cookout to not only prove that their food is the best, but to raise money to raze the franchised intruders. The core of Monsterz Revenge has been seen dozens of times before. Players control a handful of characters who use monster-version “stoves” to cook rancid dishes and earn income from passing ghosts. Unlike the virtual space games before it, this cookout doesn’t have a flow of incoming customers. Instead, they appear as food is served, consume it, and leave with no clean up. In this regard, the game is easier as there is no need for any sort of management in terms of characters, item placement, seating, or even what to cook. Cooking is merely a means to make income. Moreover, there is no popularity rating either, thus décor is only for aesthetic purposes. The whole point of making money is to purchase upgrades for a secondary mechanic, the “battle car.” In order to take down the fast-food conglomerates, the monsters pretty much just drive a car through them. As such, earnings are used to upgrade this vehicle in terms of power, defense, speed, and so on. Once upgraded, it is taken to the front door of one of the franchises where players attack in a mini-game fashion not terribly dissimilar to The Playforge's Zombie Farm. In this mini-game, players will time a button press with a fluctuating power meter to ram the structure, while an enemy character tosses food products at the car. The first to reach zero health loses, but the player can get extra bonuses and abilities from some of the classic monster characters that appear in game. As users level up, they can purchase characters like Frankenstein. Some will provide abilities to use in battle mode: Frankenstein, for example, has a massive punch that stuns enemies for a short time. Purchasing such characters will unlock new decorative items as well as the occasional mini-game. These mini-games are nothing terribly extravagant and are about the same complexity of those found in Smurfs’ Village. Using Frankenstein as an example again, players must bring him to life with electricity by matching colored lightning bolts that move about the screen with one that is displayed. Each mini-game will consume energy (which, for the record, is consumed by virtually every action in the game) but earn bonus coins. Energy, like most social games, recharges extraordinarily slowly, but in order to expedite its recharge, players can capture humans that randomly wander into their space. Nevertheless, this isn’t a reliable means of recouping the stat. So if players want to do more quickly, they will need to purchase energy replenishing items in game. They buy decorative items and the like with a virtual currency called “Potions.” These can be bought in quantities of 20 to 1,800 which is equal to $1.99 to $99.99 respectively. On the social front, the game is connected via DeNA-owned ngmoco:)'s social gaming platform, Plus+. As such, there are leaderboards and achievements to play with and users can also add friends and visit each other's graveyards. Doing so will allow players to earn small amounts of extra coin as well as send gifts. The only issue with Monsterz Revenge is its lack of originality. This is still a game that’s been done many times before. It is true that there is a greater focus on mini-games, but few are available early on. This means users will spend a great deal of time within the virtual space part of the game. Overall, Monsterz Revenge is a decent game that at least tries to be a little different, but at its core, it still lacks something special. Mostly, it feels a bit bland in both play and creativity. The real appeal will be based on whether or not the monster art -- which is good -- will be attractive to players. As it stands, Monsterz Revenge is currently #27 on the top free iPhone apps list.

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Astro Ape Studios Releases Monsterz Revenge on iPhone

Christopher Mack

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Christopher Mack