MinoMonsters Review

MinoMonsters is a touch-controlled turn-based role playing game, obviously inspired by monster battling RPGs like Monster Rancher and Pokemon. It stars a shipwrecked sea captain, and about a dozen adorable little critters trying to stop evil monsters from wrecking their island home. Players travel across four locations, completing small quests like saving captured monsters, stopping pollution, and finding rare gems.


As a Pokemon-inspired short-term diversion, MinoMonsters works. It's a very simple RPG, though. There's no stat tracking, and very few moves, making it feel more like a children's game. This isn't to say MinoMonsters is too easy, because there is a fair bit of challenge in the later levels, and beating it without level grinding for days takes some strategy.

MinoMonster's adorable art style carries the game. The monsters are cute, and the game is fully animated (something it has over its Nintendo competitor). When my awesome little gator guy uses a water attack, he actually rears back and blasts water at his opponent. Suck on that, Pokemon.

The in-app purchases didn't grab me, save for an exclusive monster. The rest of it were items you collect pretty regularly throughout the game. And the multiplayer aspect, while functional, is simply a barebones battle with no reward or consequence.



MinoMonster's value really depends on how desperate you are for some monster battling on you iOS device (and if you're cool playing mostly by yourself). I'm totally satisfied with my four days of casual play for 99 cents, but with such a short game and the "To be Continued" ending, it might behoove some of you to wait and see if MinoMonsters gets an update with more content.

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