In theory, graveyards are places that should never be disturbed. In practice, things are a little different. You may not realize it, but everything from chain restaurants to middle schools get built on top of old, abandoned resting places for the dead. The worst culprit? Fast food outlets. At least, that’s the case in Monsterz’ Revenge. But don’t worry, the undead resting in those cemeteries are more than ready to get up and take back what’s theirs.
In theory, graveyards are places that should never be disturbed. In practice, things are a little different. You may not realize it, but everything from chain restaurants to middle schools get built on top of old, abandoned resting places for the dead. The worst culprit? Fast food outlets. At least, that’s the case in Monsterz’ Revenge. But don’t worry, the undead resting in those cemeteries are more than ready to get up and take back what’s theirs.
Monsterz’ Revenge tells the tale of some creatures of the night who, upon deciding to fight back against an onslaught of fast food restaurants, decide to show off some culinary skills of their own. A social restaurant game similar in structure to everything from Restaurant Story to Zombie Café, the gameplay here will be centered around preparing thematically appropriate dishes like “Worm Lasagna” and “Brain Cake.”
Unlike most restaurant games though, there’s more going on here than just a little cookery in the kitchen. Gamezebo has recently had a chance to go hands on with Monsterz’ Revenge and we were delighted with what we saw. In addition to the restaurant management, players are offered a variety of things to do. In the game’s biggest twist, players will do battle with other restaurants in a mini-game that has players ramming their “battle car” into a filthy human’s restaurant.
The battle car becomes a key component in the gameplay – a yin to the restaurant’s yang. Money you earn will be spent on not just restaurant furniture, but combat upgrades. Unlocking new monsters doesn’t just add staff to your restaurant, it can give your battle car special attacks. Playing mini-games doesn’t just earn cash and XP, it can level up the special attack related to each monster. This is a game that’s seemingly about two halves, and from what we’ve seen during our brief hands-on, they mesh together quite well.
The mini-games, too, are more than a simple diversion this time around. In the one early mini-game we were able to fiddle around with, players needed to tap matching colors to electrify Frank N. Stein (cute, we know). The more matches, the bigger the payoff at the end.
There’s enough going on with the gameplay here that Monsterz’ Revenge doesn’t ever really feel like any one thing. Sure, at its core Monsterz’ Revenge is a restaurant sim with a spooky twist, but then there are the battles … and the mini-games …and the human catching – there’s so much going on, that it’s almost impossible to get tired of any one thing.
In a lot of ways, Monsterz’ Revenge reminded us of Smurfs’ Village. Both are games built on a tried and true social gaming formula, and yet both pack in so much around those basics that you never feel like they’re just another re-tread.
Of course these are just our initial thoughts after a brief hands-on. We’ll be checking Monsterz’ Revenge out further over the coming days and should have a full review ready to go the moment the game launches on April 28th. Be sure to check back with us to see just how much fun we were able to scare up!
