Monsters Among Us

Overview:

Monster Loves You! is an interactive story-book adventure where you get to raise your very own monster. Starting as a little “morsel” in a vat of ooze you make choices that determine how your monster grows, and eventually how other things in the world turn out.

Gameplay:

Monster reminds me of the Choose Your Own Adventure books I used to read as a kid, and I loved those books. The writing is very entertaining, with a lot of humor and even a few surprises. It’s certainly not an epic adventure, you can easily finish your first play-through in under 45 minutes, but it’s a fun 45 minutes. There are also more than a dozen endings, and over 900 choices to make, so it has decent replay value. It does have some events, like eating kids, that might not sit well with some parents, but the majority of it is kid-friendly. It isn’t as gruesome as the original Grimm Fairy Tales, but it can be more graphic than the more recent watered-down versions most of us grew up with. Some of the events are actually taken from these fairy tales, but not so much that it spoils anything.

Graphics:

As your monster grows you get to experience multiple locations, and each one has its own unique look. The art has a fun cartoonish style that I really like, but it’s definitely geared more towards a younger audience, which fits well with the story. It isn’t an especially immersive world, but it works well and if you pay attention you’ll find some really cool details.

Sound:

Although there isn’t anything necessarily wrong with the sound in Monster it also isn’t anything great. The sound effects do work well and don’t distract from the game. The music is fine, but repetitive. This seems to be the way most games are recently, with little innovation in their music. It’s understandable as having a full sound track professionally composed would require a bigger budget.

Controls:

Monster Loves Me! works perfect on the Switch, especially when handheld. You can do almost everything through the touch screen, and it’s very responsive.