Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest.
This review was written by Brett Nolan, a regular guest contributor who also happens to run an iPhone gaming blog called On The Go Gamer.
Remember the memory card games you played as a kid? You know, the game where you flipped over two cards, and if they matched, you removed them from the playing surface and you kept going until you found all the matches. Now imagine that all those cards have really cool looking monsters on them, and when you make a match the remaining cards sometimes shift positions, and you can earn the right to flip over all of the cards (for a few seconds) just to take a peak at what they are, and you are doing all of this while racing against a clock. Then and only then, will you have Flipn' Monsters!
Flipn' Monsters! offers two different game play modes, Classic and Arcade. Classic mode is just what it sounds like. Its the same game that you played as a child, or currently play with your own kids now. You have 18 face-down cards in a (3x6 grid) and you keep flipping over cards, two at time, trying to match up all of the pairs of monsters in the shortest time possible. The second (and much more challenging) option is Arcade mode. In this version, each round gets progressively more difficult, adding additional types of monsters into the mix each time In the first round, there are 25 seconds on the clock and there are only two types of monsters that need to be matched. You are shown face-side of all the cards for a couple seconds, before they are all flipped back over.
As soon as you flip over your first card, the clock starts, and the race is on. The quicker you finish, the more time you'll have left for the next round. Unlike in classic mode, whenever you make a match which includes a card from either the second or third row of cards, any cards in the rows above will slide down to fill the empty gaps left by the removed cards. This was a devilishly evil (by which I mean clever) gameplay aspect included by the team at The Laboratory. Now you need to remember where that card used to be if you want to remember what it was. When you finish a level, some bonus time will be added to the clock. You can also earn a 'Monster Flip', which allows you to shake the iDevice to get a peak at all of the flipped-over cards for a few seconds, but this will eat away at your countdown clock, so you need to use it sparingly. In each subsequent round, new monsters are added into the mix, making it more and more difficult to make matches. Basically you keep playing round after round until you run out of time. At the end of the game you are presented with your score and the current high score for that particular game mode. Unfortunately right now there is no way to directly access the high scores from the main menu, so you have no idea what time you have to beat, before you start the game. The good news is that I exchanged several tweets with the development team, and they said that they are "actively focusing on community. This includes leaderboards at the very least". At this point, The Laboratory can't publicly commit to any additional features other than that, but it sounded like they are definitely interested in doing more (if they can).
As you may have surmised, Flipn' Monsters! can be furiously fast-paced, but exceptionally entertaining at the same time. The graphics in the game are phenomenally well done and reminiscent of the cartoonish movie monsters of those old 1940s creature features. There are nine different monsters in the game and it is obvious that the game's artists took their time to craft a unique bunch of lovable misfits. Fortunately, the main menu offers a 'Monsters' link, where you can get a closer look at each of these wonderful creature creations. Flipn' Monsters! is as much fun to look at, as it is to play. The Laboratory has even provided some offline-fun, click here to access some printable monsters for your desk or home.
The game's background music, while relatively short in length, is quite artfully done. I found it to be somewhat reminiscent of a haunting Danny Elfman film score. I should note that there is no option to play your own music during the game, but being a huge Danny Elfman fan (and Oingo Boingo too for that matter) I absolutely loved the theme music and rather enjoyed listening to it while I was playing. It really helped set the tone/mood of the game. Something tells me that playing the game to the beat of Hannah Montana would have had a totally different feel. The card flipping sounds and other effects in the game were all also top notch.
Kids will especially love this game, but you will find that it appeals to all members of the family, young and old alike. It's the type of game that you could pick up and play for just a few minutes (ie. while waiting in line at the grocery store) or for longer stretches of time (ie. while waiting in line at the DMV). This game is easily worth several times its 99 cent price tag and I definitely recommend picking this one up...it's flipn' fantatstic!
- Sound: 8
- Graphics: 9
- Gameplay: 8
- Longevity: 8
8
Great
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