[h1]Overview:[/h1]
'[i]Monster Tower Quest[/i]' is a casual match 3 game where you climb your way up a huge tower fighting groups of enemy monsters with your some of your own. The objective is to repeatedly fight through the tower and eventually get to the top and win the game but based on my current playthrough, I'd imagine it would take quite a bit of time as I haven't gotten there myself yet. The game is actually pretty fun and doesn't necessarily demand the player to be super vigilant because the premise is very and I mean [i]very[/i] casual.
[h1]Gameplay:[/h1]
You start off with a handful of gems to which you use to buy monsters in order to fight in the tower. The beginning consists of 3 buildings and 3 buildings only, one being your house, the second being the shop where you buy and manage your monsters and the third being the tower where all the gameplay is. Sounds simple enough. Monsters purchased are generated randomly and can range from very weak monsters to relatively strong ones but honestly it doesn't matter too much as the game is very easy to play and weaker monsters have no trouble fighting against enemies until way later on. Clearing floors in the tower gives experience to the current monsters you have equipped and as they level up they become stronger. Each monster is represented by a specific gem and matching 3 of that particular gem will make that monster attack. If you have multiple monsters of the same gem equipped, they will all attack at once which is good to maximize damage.
While you fight you're also earning gems by matching 3 of the corresponding one. These gems get added to your overall balance and can be used to unlock more monsters, stronger or weaker. New monsters get thrown into a monster storage from which you can pick out and customize based on what monsters you want to level and which ones you want to put away. Honestly aside from their base attacks and assigned gems, there's not much to customize. Typically, you'd want to be using the strongest monsters as they clear out floors the fastest but it all boils down to how lucky you get when you spend gems since monsters are randomly generated. Luckily there's also a monster book where you can keep track of what monsters you've unlocked and which ones you haven't.
As you progress through more floors, hazards such as bombs and skulls begin appearing that make the game more difficult. The bombs although can be helpful can also be detriments as they either clear the row or column that they're on. This is good because it gives you plenty of different gems and potential attacks, but if a skull is in the way, one of your monsters will die (top first going down). So logically, you'd want to put the weakest monsters at the top so the strongest ones stay alive longest. Making wrong moves that don't result in a 3 match will also kill one of your monsters but with that being said, you don't have limited moves and the enemy will never attack you unless you mess up. This is where strategizing what to destroy on the grid comes in to play because you want to preserve as many monsters as you can for if they die, they will no longer receive experience. The good news is that even if all your monsters die, you won't lose them, you just get booted out of the tower with all your accumulated gems and experience.
Now although the game for the most part is fun, that's not to say there aren't any flaws. For one, the gems on the grid take a bit too long to disappear. Especially when you blow up a chain of bombs, you're just sitting there for a good 10-15 seconds watching each row slowly get destroyed one gem at a time. Even just a simple match 3 takes like 3 whole seconds to completely disappear. A skip or speed up option would've been nice. But the biggest issue I have is the fact that the game will [b]always[/b] crashes when you die and try to enter the tower again. If you die, you have an option to either take off from where you left off or start back at floor 1. If you choose to resume your progress, the game will crash. And if you didn't save the game, you will lose [b]all[/b] of your progress so make sure to always, [b]always[/b] save the game when you die because if you don't and try to go back, you will deeply regret it.
Besides those gripes however, '[i]Monster Tower Quest[/i]' is still a pretty fun game and a good time killer. I can definitely see it getting repetitive for a lot of people but for those who enjoy the feeling of leveling up many monsters and the sense of progressing up a big tower, this one's a fairly decent title.
[h1]Controls:[/h1]
Surprisingly only uses the keyboard and no mouse which some people may find normal but for me, I feel like the game would've played a lot smoother if you had a cursor to navigate the game rather than arrow keys and space bar. Perhaps the game was meant to be played with a controller because the controls screen depicts a controller layout first and then a keyboard. Despite this, the keyboard controls still function fine but feel a bit clunky. There aren't any remapping options but I don't believe they're needed.
[h1]Graphics:[/h1]
Clearly adopting a pixelated artstyle which is a treat to some and not to others. Personally I'm not a huge fan of pixelated games but if it's done right then I can give it a pass. '[i]Monster Tower Quest[/i]' looks perfectly fine and slightly resembles other games such as the older '[i]Pokémon[/i]' games as well as other lesser known titles like '[i]Littlewood[/i]'. The colors are at least nice and vibrant and there are also a few video options which honestly surprised me.
[h1]Audio:[/h1]
Pretty mediocre if I have to be honest. There isn't anything special about the music and sound effects. In fact the music got rather repetitive for me after about 5 minutes of playing the game as it's just one track. Nothing changes and the sound effects are also as average as a glass of water. I could probably count all the sound effects on my two hands. That being said though, mediocre doesn't mean bad. For one, there's a damn volume meter, hallelujah. That's right (B-game developers, take notes). Regardless, this one's a pass.
[h1]Conclusion/TL;DR:[/h1]
'[i]Monster Tower Quest[/i]' is a pretty good (and free) casual match 3 game where you progressively fight through a tower full of enemies with your own monsters and awesome match 3 skills. Earn gems and unlock new monsters to help you in your journey to the top and pick and choose your monster loadout from a boatload of different creatures. The gameplay aspect is very straightforward and isn't difficult in the least bit to play. I [i]will[/i] say that it will probably take you a while to get to the top but I myself haven't fully finished the game. Warning though, if you [i]do[/i] decide to give this game a shot, be sure to consistently save your game as there's no auto save and every time you die and go for another run, the game will crash and any unsaved progress will be lost. Nonetheless, if you're into time killers and match 3 games, this one's a pretty decent one. Just remember to save after each run.
