DanLabGames has been a star player of shareware Mac games for years, creating such hits as Jammin’ Racer and Wacky Mini Golf. Their recent release, WackaMonsta (iTunes Link) is a universal game for the iOS devices. This game is their cry for battle in the iTunes App Store and they are seriously up for fight by offering a well-designed puzzle game at a bank-breaking price of nothing!
WackaMonsta is a match-three puzzle game that features all too familiar gameplay. The concept is pretty basic: colored bubbles will slowly scroll down the screen in different designs and you will fling bubbles from a cute little monster on the bottom to match three of the same color…
You’ll be able to rack up combos that will multiply your points and pick up coins along the way. Once you collect enough coins, you can buy different monsters and accessories in the shop that will boost your abilities like multiplying your score and showing you the next bubble in queue. But a problem I had with this was, while some of the more expensive monsters and accessories gave you special bonuses, the other’s seemed to just be novelties. I had no idea if they provided anything useful so it would be nice if the developers put some kind of note on what monster or item did what.
Users will be able to play between four different worlds: Surf and Sun, Chili Bubbles, Zen Garden and Forest Gums. Each of the worlds play quite similarly to each other, only varying slightly in gameplay. Surf and Sun is an arcade mode that allows you to level up by clearing the screen. Chili Bubbles is similar but mixes in chili peppers. Shooting a bubble at the chili pepper will make all of the bubbles in that row turn red. Zen Garden is basically the same except with different colors, and Forrest Gums is your unlimited mode.
WackaMonsta offers interesting bonuses that add a unique flavor to this game. Some bubbles will have skulls that when hit will not disappear but will change the color of the bubbles around it. A Rainbow bubble will change the bubbles around it the same color and Wooden Knobs placed on the screen will make bubbles stick to it.
Graphically this game is really well designed. The animations of the bubbles popping, monsters, background and everything are top notch. The music and sound design is fun and cute and the developers really put a lot of effort into making a graphically pleasing game.
Overall I can’t complain. Some of the added bonuses such as the shop and different bubbles were interesting yet the gameplay doesn’t really offer anything new at all. But for free, this game is a must have and fun for casual gameplay.
Good Points:
- Graphically well designed and fun
- Free with four different modes
Bad Points:
- Many monsters and accessories do not offer any bonuses
- Game is too easy