Monad: Psychedelic arcade accelerometer action
Tilt and sway your phone to evade danger and bash attacks at your enemies in this “revolutionary arcade game” … as described in Google Play… Check out how accurate we thought this statement was below.
Gameplay: This is an accelerometer game where you control a ball on a playing area which is the size of your screen. Imagine Labyrinth, but instead of a maze, you have an open field where enemies will chase you. Your aim is to survive their onslaught and to bash stationary balls into them to kill them. So the core is quite a simple accelerometer game.
There’s more to it though… if you press your finger on the screen then everything (except your own ball) will slow down in time. This temporal shifting is critical for saving you in those tight moments as you only have one shield to protect yourself from attacks! Very often you’ll need to evade to buy yourself enough time for the shield to regenerate.
Music and Sound effects: Non existant… diddly squat… unfortunate since something could have been added for some game feeling.
Graphics: Pew pew-esq psychedelic colors with crystal clear geometrical shapes, but not as many particle effects. This simplicity is done very well and it’s very appealing… don’t let the rather lacklustre screenshots fool you – the glowing simple circles and triangles do make this game work.
Our thoughts: This is quite an interesting physics game and the time warping element is pretty darn cool. It definitely has the bullet time feel about it. No sound… well this is perfect for people who listen to their own music whilst playing. Anyway, given that there are no sounds then we’d expect gameplay to be extremely good to compensate for no musical fidelity… however it doesn’t quite have the magic. The game is for the purist and perfectionist gamer… I say that because I’ve picked up the game multiple times now and I’ve just given up because I don’t have the patience to beat all the difficult AIs. The idea is amazing…. truly revolutionary… I’d give them that. But it’s just frustratingly difficult.
Rating: 2/5 Monad is a great concept game, and has excellent potential. However, as it is now, you’d probably find the game difficult even if you had a directional pad. The tough AI means that the 30 arcade stages and 6 survival scenarios would keep any hardcore gamer busy for a pretty decent amount of time.
Monad Tips from Android Games Review:
- The first stage of levels isn’t about attacking… the focus should be dodging. If you dodge the wave of enemies, then they should naturally run into the stationary balls and destroy themselves.
- Towards the end of the first stage, the levels guide you towards being more aggressive and you’ll need to push balls into your enemy. Start off by nudging the balls gently – you don’t want to thrust yourself into the enemy path.
- If you get stuck and you’re annoyed by the bosses, then take the game slowly, use the bullet time in bursts and focus on survival first. After you’ve survived then carefully position your stationary balls… a lot of luck may be required initially.
- In the second stage of levels you can’t be slow and careful. You need to time your movement and trajectory carefully to beat your enemy canons.
Monad QR Code
(Click on the image or scan the barcode with your Android phone to goto Google Play)
Developers: Studio Fenris
