Review – Monster Chase

Publisher: Snowed In Studios
Developer: Snowed In Studios
Platforms: iOS, Android
Genre: Kids, Puzzle
Players: Single Player, Multiplayer
Purchase from: iTunes, Google Play, Microsoft Windows Phone Market Place, Blackberry App World

The Scoop: Snowed In Studios brings the Monster Chase memory board game to mobile market!

The Setup: Originally designed as a board game, Monster Chase is a cooperative memory game for players between the ages of 4 and 9.  The game presents players with a monster theme (don’t worry, it’s not too spooky!) with a child’s bedroom as the backdrop. The game starts off with players trying to scare away a single monster by finding the toy that the monster is scared of.  Toys are hidden throughout the bedroom in places that are supposed to hold toys, unlike the typical places where my kids store their toys, which is right in the middle of the floor!

For each monster that appears, players will have 3 tries to find the right toy that matches to scare the monster away.  Finding a match scares the monsters away and stuffs them into a closet.  A meter in the bottom left hand corner is used to track how many guesses you have used up to find a match, and iIf you fail to find the right match after 3 tries, another monster appears.  Now, to make this monster disappear, you have to find the toy that matches for the new monster, as well as any of the old monsters. Careful though, once 4 monsters fill up the screen, the game ends.

To beat the game, players need to fill up the sticker chart that is attached to the closet, which requires 10 monsters.  Scare away all 10 monsters and rinse and repeat!

What’s Hot:

The gameplay is very straightforward, and easy for our younger gamers to pick up after some practice and a bit of help.  My two kids are 4 and 2, both are really into memory games right now and did a pretty good job playing and following along.  After a handful of games my 4 year old son can now start a game up and play on his own.

Monster Chase does a good job with presenting players with toys that children between the ages of 4 and 9 can easily relate to, such as a teddy bear, dump truck, and alphabet building blocks.  The hiding spots for the toys are also limited to 12, which has seems to have given my kids enough of a challenge without being overly difficult

There’s also a multiplayer mode, allowing up to 4 players to combine memory forces in order to scare away the monsters.

The graphics and style are very similar to the Monster Chase memory board game, and the monster designs are fun and silly, and my kids enjoyed scaring the monsters away to the closet.

What’s Not:

The menu simple is very simple, which is great since it gives the younger gamers the ability to jump right in, but the option to choose the number of players is tucked away in the options menu.  It would have been nice to see this option available right before you started a game instead of having to go into a separate menu for that option.  It’s not that big of a deal, and it allows the younger gamers to jump right into the game.

The child’s bedroom will play out as the single backdrop for any and all games, so there’s no variety in terms of boards to play on.  Even after a few games my 4 year old son asked if there was a different level that he can play on.   Maybe Snowed In Studios can release more rooms as future DLC or unlockables.

Final Verdict:

Monster Chase was designed for gamers between the ages of 4 and 9, and after playing this game with my kids it’s pretty clear that Monster Chase has hit the mark as a great memory game for its target audience.  Our younger gamers will need some help getting started and used to the game, but after a few rounds they should be able to play without any problems.