At first glance MonTowers seemed like a game I would never play regularly, let alone download. However, after playing it for a bit, I surprisingly found myself addicted to the Pokémon-like strategy used throughout the game. 10 minutes turned into an hour until I eventually forced myself to stop playing so I could write this review.
Overview
This monster battling animé-styled adventure game by Buff Stone, made popular in Japan and Korea, is available for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. The main objective of MonTowers is to move up the floors of each Monster Tower, battling stronger and more powerful monsters along the way.
Throughout the entire game you are guided by a half naked woman who refers to you as “master” and acts as your personal cheerleader, while dressing up in your choice of revealing outfits along the way. She offers short breaks between the constant monster on monster violence and serves as eye candy for the majority demographic of this game, which are teenage boys.
Before you battle any monsters from the towers you must summon a few of your own. This calls for some serious strategy where you must balance the exchange of energy points for gems, which ultimately determine which monsters you can summon. You’re doing all of this while under the pressure of a ticking clock.
Once you’ve successfully defeated a monster from a Monster Tower, you’re awarded with experience points, HP potions and new monsters ready for summoning. Over time you’ll work your way up through 500 floors over 7 Monster Towers, all while collecting, upgrading and managing your own lineup of superstar monsters.
The game is full of fantastic graphical detail, which makes the monsters that much more intimidating. Although, in my opinion, the 2D “anime” style design is a bit too cartoonish for an iOS game. Navigating throughout the UI of the game becomes very intuitive within a couple of minutes of gameplay. Overall, the app is really responsive and very easy to use.
Verdict
MonTowers is a very complex game that requires a great deal of strategy. The basic principles don’t change much throughout the game, but it never loses its excitement and at times can be very addicting. It has the perfect mixture of cartoon violence and mild sexual content. At $0.99, this multi-device iOS app packs as much bang for its buck as any app in the App Store. If you like strategy-based battle games with a hint of anime styled graphics, MonTowers is the game for you.
Rating: [rating:4]
Pros:
- Great graphical detail throughout entire UI
- Intriguing complex game concept
- Hundreds of levels (More to come with every update)
- Game Center integration
Cons:
- No easy way to pause the game other than killing the app
- Lacking iPhone 5 update
