Bloodsuckers, half man and half dogs, witches, ugly and stinky critters from the swamp…never liked ‘em one bit. I be sailing the high seas fer years, battled all kinds of bloody pirates, and even killed meself a stinkin giant squid, but never have I seen the likes of these abominations. And, I surely wouldn’t want ta. No siree, leave ‘em undead and ugly monsters to the mobile game you and I play such as Monster Mansion, the newly launched simulation building game. So how does this release from Meridian4 fare? Well, let’s see.
Keeping the Monsters Happy
Monster Mansion, the name itself should be obvious enough. Aye, as the player, you are in-charge of a mansion full of monster residents, from the typical vampires and werewolves to the swamp things and zombies. The assortment of monsters in this game goes on and on as well as strange and strange. Now, if you are expecting some kind of mansion similar to the Hef’s Playboy Mansion, think again. The mansion in this game is a mere tower, which somehow emulates a stinky hotel. Well, it is your goal to improve and maintain this residential tower into a mansion that will make all its monster residents happy. So, yes, continuous building will be involved, as with any other typical simulation building game.
So, how the hell can you keep a variety of monsters happy and comfortable? It’s very simple really, just decorate the place with the traditional cobwebs, creepy organs, candelabras, and other seemingly spooky items and ornaments. If you are housing a vampire, a coffin and maybe a supply of fresh blood (if it is available) will do nicely. As you keep improving your tower making it a luxury hotel for creeps, more and more monsters will flock to your booming residential paradise.
The Intricacies
Like any simulation building game, Monster Mansion has all those details that can actually make this game fun. For instance, you can set up and furnish scare rooms, rooms where monsters can scare the regular tourists witless. Each successful scare earns them coins, which you yourself can use to continue the renovation of the place. You may even find that some residents may even require you to field in experienced monster nannies to take care some of your tenant’s little monsters.
The details in this game are pretty good. However, not everything is all fun and sunshine. After a few hours of playing, you might begin to notice some of the monsters becoming idle. That is normal. As you keep attracting and collecting weird and creepy creatures, you will find observing them a bit boring since they literally don’t do anything but stand around waiting for their turns to scare the tourists. The animation they do in that room is almost always the same, which can get really tiresome later on.
In addition, the game literally has no strategy and the player is not limited in his movements. What does this mean? Well, it means that your decisions and actions have no incentives, which will, in turn, damage the re-playability of the game. In fact, I found myself uninterested after one day of toying around with the game. The game lets me build anything, reorganize the rooms as I see fit, and decorate as much as I want and I would still get the same results. There absolutely is no variation and no motivation once you figure out this game.
It’s Free and The Graphics are Good
Yep, the game may pale in comparison to other simulation building games like Hotel Transylvania Deluxe or Tiny Tower. However, Monster Mansion is still totally free and does sport some cool, hand drawn art, making it a spectacle for the eyes, especially if you like looking at cartoon-like monsters. So, even a bad review like this shouldn’t stop you from trying out the game. Just be prepared for massive in-game ads, which is quite common for free-to-play mobile apps.
