Monster Typer Review: Mavis Beacon Teaches Monster Hunting!
- Amazing soundtrack
- Challenging gameplay
- Short levels
- Borrowed visual style
Learning to type on a new platform can be somthing of a chore. How many of us can truly say we’ve mastered the touch screen keypad on the iPhone and iPod Touch yet? Those of us that are all thumbs now have an edutainment style savior in Monster Typer, the debut iPhone app from Clock Studios. Monster Typer takes all the fun of classic “learn to type” games like Typing of the Dead and puts it in your pocket.
The gameplay in Monster Typer is simple. One of two monster types will appear on the screen and work their way from right to left. You need to type whatever is on the monster’s body to destroy it. If you don’t the monster will pass by your little guy and lead him to an early grave.
The first monsters you encounter are simple, one-digit bad guys — things that fly by with “f” or “q” written on their sides. Shortly after meeting them you’ll meet some big robot-looking baddies with whole words on their torso like “shelf” and “river”. The website hints at new monster types to come in future updates, issuing the not-so-cryptic statement “Hopefully we will be able to gather more intelligence on new and unknown monsters soon.”
As the levels increase, so does the challenge. By the fifth level those one-digit fliers will be demanding different capitalization, numbers, and punctuation. The robots will be so plentiful that you won’t be able to see the words on some of them, as they’ll be obscured by those in front. While it’s a great exercise in frantic typing, Monster Typer gets hard.
It’s a shame that there’s not a more gentle difficulty curve. You’ll likely reach the best you can do within a few minutes of gameplay. Offering a gentler curve would have ensured a longer time to enjoy what’s offered, because you’ll likely enjoy it a lot.
The soundtrack appears to be wholly original, and is definitely one of the reasons everyone should check Monster Typer out. Have you ever played a game and said “I need this music in my iTunes right now“? This is one of those games. There only appear to be two tracks — the menu theme and the in-game theme — but both are brilliantly crafted. If either become available for purchase separately, they’d become an instant buy in the hearts of game music connoisseurs.
Unfortunately the visuals don’t reflect the same originality as the audio. To say that the art in Monster Typer is inspired by the PSP game Patapon would be something of an understatement. The visuals have practically been lifted whole stock from the work of artist Rolito, and while homage is one thing, it’s hard to see the art in Monster Typer as anything short of full scale theft. Regardless of their history, the look of the game is an excellent fit for what’s offered.
As a free typing tutor presented in the spirit of classic typing games, Monster Typer serves it’s purpose well and offers a fun title that’s a feast for both the eyes and ears. Unfortunately, the mind-numbing difficulty early on makes it hard to recommend for everyone, and the borrowed visual style will leave a bad taste in the mouths of those bothered by that sort of thing.
Monster Typer is available on the iTunes App Store for free.
Free is the price that I like. Lol. Great interface and designs though.
Nice Patapon artwork…
[...] It’s a shame too, because asides from the art theft leaving a bad taste in our mouths our review of Monster Typer couldn’t have been more glowing. Why should it take the threat of a lawsuit from Sony to [...]