(Early Access Review; as an early access release, you may experience bugs, content, interface, and optimization changes. If you are not excited to play the title in its current state & help to support the title to full release by reporting bugs and requesting additional content, you may want to wait for further development)
Welcome to Monsters Mall, a delightful new monster-themed management game. Even in the world of ghosts, ghouls, and things that go bump in the night, there are needs to fulfill, just as with humans. To satisfy all their monster desires you will be opening and operating a Mall just for otherworldly creatures. Start by attracting ghostly visitors to your shops. Collecting plasma spheres each day, you will upgrade the graveyard to unlock new creatures of the night, as well as stores. Spend your plasma wisely. As your stores turn a profit; you will be unlocking new areas to place your businesses. There are also areas to place various items, such as ice cream parlors, signs to hurry customers along and even crystals that generate plasma, with more to come. Watch for brilliantly-lit customers of various hues, who will drop additional plasma to use for unlocks. A fun casual fantasy clicker with many hours of gameplay already in place and updates coming.
Released & self-published on Mar 16, 2020, by the developer Green Cube Games, it is tagged Casual, Simulation, Indie, Early Access, Fantasy, and I have added 2D & Clicker to the tags. It features a vibrant 2D game world. The art-style is adorable. A fitting spooky soundtrack accompanies it as well as nicely done in-game audio. It is currently just over halfway to release, and with continued support afterwards, it means there’s a lot more content to come. Fun, easy-to-learn dynamics drive the game. As a casual game, it starts nice and slow, picking up the pace as you play.
I had a lot of fun as I learned the title; it did start off a bit slow-paced for my taste, but it picks up the action as you unlock more monsters and stores. I love figuring out the mechanics of any game I play the most, I would think most of us do. I admit I was a bit derpy for a good while before I had a good grip on how everything worked. The characters are adorable; cute Lil mini-monsters spending all their ghostly funds at my stores as I leech off their plasma (muahahaha). There is room for improvement, having a lot of potential with a few updates. I look forward to seeing where the game ends upon full release.
The only issue I had was that after 6 hours of play I hit a game-breaking bug that made it impossible to progress. I have been in contact with the developer and reported the issue to get a patch out right away (patched now). I hope to continue my playtime soon (when I find some spare time), and get back to making bank off the creatures of nightmares. (My Mrs is having a blast in it as well!)
My wishlist for the title would be for additional zones to unlock with new dynamics, more shops, more items, which are in the works as I sit here writing. And a 2-player local co-op/split-screen would make a brilliant couch potato competition game.
Monster Mall: A Ghoulish Fantasy Management Game; Cute, Casual & Addictive. Become a Mall Mogul in the World of Ghost & Ghouls.
8/10
Pro's
+ Fun Casual Game-play
+ Lovely Graphic Design
+ Cute Characters
+ Hours of Addictive Casual Play
Con's
- No Steam Achievements (as of yet)
- No Steam Trading Cards (in progress)
- No Controller Support
Key provided by the developer/publisher for review purposes. Any opinions expressed are entirely my own!
