Madmonster Review (iOS)

Madmonster from CGMatic has both monsters and madness. Honestly though, you could probably replace “mad” with “frustrating game which makes you a bit sweary” but it wouldn’t be as catchy.

You’re playing as a smallish monster in an aggressive, side-scrolling world and your job is to complete each stage by achieving three objectives. These objectives will centre around: killing things by bouncing on them, bouncing on things to get higher (and killing them at the same time), bouncing and killing to collect coins and doing all of the above within a time limit.

Should you fail in your mission to bounce and kill effectively you’ll lose health. Suck enough and you’ll be out of life and subjected to the whims of Chillingo’s item shop. While this game won’t penalise you for not forking out above and beyond the initial app cost, it’s more than happy to take your pennies for an easier life, new monsters and other tat.

In order to make your mini-monster crush his way to your victory, you’ll need to master either reasonably forgiving screen tapping or the gyroscope method of tilting in the right direction and hoping for the best. Using enemy infantry to catapult him/her off the ground you’ll be able to reach passing helicopters, stealth bombers and eventually satellites.

What you’re really aiming for are stupendous combinations of jumping, coin collecting and special moves. As these are achieved the game changes from being a bit annoying to the very best bits of Sonic (well, the collecting rings bits) and you’ll be hooked. It’s all happening a bit too fast to absorb, but there’s lots of happy, splinky noises and you’re not dying. Until you miss a bounce, then you’re dead.

Death comes easily and quickly, much like FTL, thankfully it’s mercifully quick to restart a level and continue trying to perfect your aiming. Where Madmonster offers something a little different is earned coins can be spent to upgrade skills and stats, rewarding what can sometimes feel like a bit of a grindfest as you try to complete each stage.

Probably not a winner for those of us who are easily frustrated and certainly not something you’d stick with for hours on end, but there’s more than enough quality entertainment to be had from this game to make it worth the minimal cost.

Madmonster is out now for iOS 4.3 or later.