Halfbrick has done it again, this time with the help of Barry Steakfries. High Score type games usually garner little interest from my self and the other staff here at AppTapper, but once in a long while we come across a game that really pique's our interest. A game that outshines any other like it on the AppStore. Up until now that game was Canabalt now a new contender has surfaced. That contender is Monster Dash.

In Monster Dash you assume the role as Barry Steakfries in an attempt to get as far as humanly possible. Dodging vampires, zombies, demons (Oh My!), walls, and spike pits. Armed with your trusty shotgun, the objective is simple, make it as far as possible, and kill as many monsters as possible. The controls are even more simple, two buttons populate the left and right side of your screen. The left is for jumping, while the right is for firing whatever weapon you currently are using. If you run into a monster or land on a spike pit, you lose a life, you start off with 3 lives, and can collect Hearts throughout the game to replenish your lives. The great thing I have noticed is that the amount of lives you can have is limitless (I once had 10 lives), but more times than not you won't die from monsters or spike pits, rather from missing jumps, and hitting walls.

There are a bunch of weapon types available: Shotgun, Sub-machine Gun, Machine Gun Jet-pack, Mr. Zappy (Shoots lightning bolts), The Pacifier (6 shot Revolver Handgun), and your Bad-ass Hog (A motorcycle that equips you with a larger range shotgun, and invulnerability for a short period of time. You are able to run down monsters, smash through spike pits, and even jump walls). With such a large range of weapons the game continues to be one of my favorites.

The degree of difficulty increases as you run farther and farther, an aspect that fits well into this game. The farther you run, the faster you run, which becomes quite difficult when reaching the 4k and 5k marks. A solid reaction time, will definitely come in handy when reaching those points. The monsters randomly spawn each time you enter a new area, or start a new game, so memorizing the pattern in which the monsters spawn will be a waste of time.

The enviroments of the game, relate to each type of monster specifically, the vampires are located in Vampire Kingdom, the zombies are located in Zombie Metropolis, the demons are located in Demon Dynasty (Somewhat resembling the Great Wall of China), and the mummies are vacationing in Tomb Town (An ancient Egypt themed location).

Now while this game is very well made, there are some issues that cause some dissapointment. There is no retina support at this time so if you are using the iPhone 4 or iPod Touch 4 the game is going to look pixelated. The respawn points of the monsters become quite annoying, as some spawn directly in front of you, leaving no time to avoid them.The controls are a bit too low and sometimes I miss them causing me to fall or run into a monster. The pause button is just too far away from the controls to reach it in time. The below image demonstrates how the controls should be set.


Aside from the above features, there is really not that much to the game. It's quite addicting, contains numerous achievements (Some of which are extremely difficult to get), and a well UI, and a fun and engaging atmosphere. Everything about Monster Dash screams quality, besides the few hiccups with controls and monster spawning. For the price point it's set at, I definitely will put my vote behind it. Halfbrick continues to please everyone with their original and quirky games. Keep it coming guys, I cannot wait till the next game is released! Below is the games trailer and gameplay video.





Monster Dash on the AppStore