Monster Mayhem is a castle defence game from Taplay; published by Chillingo, the title takes a little inspiration from the highly successful Plants vs. Zombies; the presentation is as bright and colourful, each level has its own blend of different monsters, it includes an almanac to catalogue all of the undead, and it even has a large red text warning before a large incoming wave. With a large assortment of undead creatures and plenty of firepower to destroy them, three modes and social connectivity (via Chillingo’s Crystal platform) it is certainly a well rounded package.

The game is all about quick thinking and taking full advantage of each monster’s weaknesses. There’s a lot of them and they take different forms; Weedy are impervious to damage but damage you if you shoot them accidentally and are a general nuisance, Venom steal your gold if you let them hang around too long, Dan Goldquiff mill around after a level and you can shoot them to earn coins and ammunition, and then you have three basic enemy types; archers that stand back and launch projectiles (usually Weedy will pop up to protect them), weak warriors that die after a few hits but move fairly quickly and strong warriors that take a lot of damage but aren’t as swift. In addition you have five boss stages, each with their own special attacks to try and take down your gate.

What usually ends up happening is that you’ll be frantically switching between the various weapons each time a different enemy type appears on the screen, because it makes no sense to pick one of the more heavy duty armaments for the weaker creeps. Indeed, this is reflected in the cost of ammunition that you have to buy for every round; the knife doesn’t take ammunition, obviously, but it is also the weakest weapon in the game. You have to weigh buying ammunition with upgrading your weapons too; upgrading makes them more powerful and gives them additional ammunition capabilities but of course upgrades are relatively expensive. Make sure you pack enough bullets for the next round; running out during the middle of the game forces the knife which quickly tires your fingers out.

Favourite weapons include the machine gun and flamethrower; they deal some heavy damage and don’t involve you frantically tapping the screen like the pistol or shotgun. If things get too much, the nuke will wipe the screen clear but you can only carry one at a time. Grenades also offer great back up for large waves of creeps, but we didn’t tend to use them once the machine gun was fully upgraded and could carry 1,000 bullets per stage. Once you’ve beaten the campaign you’ll unlock the Boss Rush mode, which basically pits you against all of the bosses, one after the other with the opportunity to buy more ammunition after each encounter; after unlocking that you’ll then get the Endless mode which does exactly what it says on the tin; an endless swarm of monsters that keep coming until your gate is broken through. Even with the difficulty set to easy the game is fairly challenging, and is best experienced in small bursts so that you don’t wear your fingers out swiping and tapping the screen.

The presentation really helps to carry the game and heightens the experience; the comical animations are fantastic, with fallen zombies tripping over, turning into puppies, burning to death or simply dissolving into a green goop; but each one has its own ending sequence. Effects look great too with highlights being the flamethrower and lightning attacks, but we loved the subtle screen shaking when using the machine gun and of course the nuke’s immense blast. The slick visuals are complemented by excellent background music and a good variety of sound effects too.

In all, Monster Mayhem is a solid, if somewhat predictable castle defence game. That doesn’t stop it from being fun though; we really enjoyed playing this game especially as it makes you make use of a variety of weapons instead of picking one and maxing out its upgrades. The boss battles are really intense and add a great change of pace to the game, and when you’ve beaten the main meat of this title you’ve still got the Endless mode for longer gaming fun; just be warned that it doesn’t save state so you have to play through in one session. We think that it’s definitely worth the £1.19.

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