Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess, Review
MediaTonic are fan favourites around Shoryuken towers, ever since their iPhone/iPod Touch title “must.eat.birds” was released last year. Now, with a PS Mini title for PS3 and PSP comes “Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess”.
The cartoon graphics complement the PSP's lush screen
You star in the role of a plucky vampire called the Duke, who’s beloved Princess was stolen. By monsters. Probably. Que some quite funny, often raunchy (“Save me with your sexiness, Dukie!”, says the Princess at one point) dialogue that only appears through text and muffled voices between the Duke, the princess and a various array of accused monsters.
Gameplay is simple and basic. So simple that it perhaps emulates Doodle Jump on the iPhone too closely. The object is to knock out accused monsters to find out if they have the princess. The monsters will climb up, skyward, and you must chase them by jumping onto various platforms – with jump and double jump being your only friend. Your objective is completed when you double-jump into the fleeing monster three times in a row. Which sounds easy, but the monsters are quite fast, and on the first and second time you hit them, you also launch the monster further into the stratosphere of the level – thus meaning you’re constantly playing catch up.
Yes, that is a giant spider skull thing.
While the game has cute graphics and a funny set of dialogue, the sound design can often be annoying. It’s uninspiring at best, and out of sync at worst. The Duke’s clogs make a clippity-clop noise as he walks and jumps, but the sound design is out of sync with the number of jumps or steps he takes, which is distracting. The game can also be quite frustrating to play. It feels almost artificially difficult when you’ve done well to hit a monster twice. The second hit often sends the monster near the finish line (a bar on the left of the screen shows your distance from the monster), giving you an impossible task – which you must then repeat. Over, and over again.
Another annoyance was the gameplay. Although tried and tested, and it works quite well, it would have been nice to see some more variation. Level design changes, but realistically that’s just changing textures and creating a new monster to chase after. Ultimately each level is the same.
The game, if a little uninspiring, is quite a solid effort, and does come in at the 95mb size, just 5mb short of the limit for a Mini game on the platform. PSP owners will enjoy a quick burst of jumping on the bus, but if you own an iPhone you could do a lot worse then just spend 79c on Doodle Jump, or even Mediatonic’s own must.eat.birds.
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