Having just had a field day on PSPS Mini’sI felt compelled to tell everyone about this fantastic little game. Full of silly humour, great visuals and a very simple gameplay mechanic, Monsters (probably) Stole My Princess is the perfect quick 5 minute game.
The Concept
You play The Duke, who suddenly finds his Princess has been stolen and assumes every monster in the area took her. Now its time for payback and double jump those monsters to hell!
The Gameplay
The game plays like Rainbow Island in a way. You need to jump from platform to platform as the monster climbs up the playing field. You need to catch up with it and double jump into it three times to take it out. The crux and the catch is that the area to catch them in is quite small so you need to constantly plan ahead. Of course it’s very easy to do but if you want high scores and to see special moves and extra areas you need to rake up combos. Each platform you land on consecutively adds a point to your combo. If you fall down or land on the same platform or a lower one you’ve already been on before, you lose your combo. Much of the gameplay here will involve trying to max your combo as a high as you can get it as the higher the combo, the more dramatic the finishing move at the end of the level is going to be.
The Graphics
I loved the cartoon graphical feel and the cut scenes are really well done. There’s no slowdown whatsoever as well as things do go at quite a pace.
The Sound
Lots of gothic organs and vinyl pianos at the ready here but all of the highest quality. Everything sound wise and effect wise really compliments the tongue in cheek humour perfectly.
The RePlay Factor
Here is the only down side. There are only 5 mandatory levels and you can have the game completely in 10 minutes flat. I’m not the worlds best gamer and I only had to have a few go’s at the final boss, everything else I passed first time. The big pull here is all the extra bits you can go back for via score attack mode, that then unlocks awards in game. However if you’re not going to sit and memorise the jump order to get perfect combo scores, you might find this game far too short.
The Positives
~Great humor and tone
~Graphically excellent for a PSP Mini
~Simple to learn, hard to master
The Negatives
~One of the shortest games I’ve played for a long time
Conclusion
Monsters (probably) Stole My Princess is a riot… while it lasts. This game purchase is purely down to if you prefer style of substance at times or if your a gamer that is not satisfied until you’ve mastered every level for a gold medal. If you fall into these catagories, you’ll love this simple, effective and fun platformer.