Nomsters Review

Welcome to the world of Nomsters, where the eponymous creatures like to dine on such fruits as cherries, bananas, and watermelons–and where the villainous Fruit Fly Army seeks to claim the fruits as their own.

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Good for a nom, but not great for a nom-nom-nom.

Welcome to the world of Nomsters, where the eponymous creatures like to dine on such fruits as cherries, bananas, and watermelons–and where the villainous Fruit Fly Army seeks to claim the fruits as their own.

At least, that’s the story we’re given. In practice, the occasional fruit fly does make its way on to the field to snatch up a piece of fruit, and they’re usually disposed easily while the Nomsters gather pieces of fruit by the dozens. But if the flies get even one piece of fruit, then you fail the stage and get a sad expression from your Nomster. Who are the true villains? That’s for you to decide.

Nomsters

But perhaps we’re getting a little bit ahead of ourselves. Nomsters is a slingshot-styled kinetic /physics game with elements of pinball thrown in. The gameplay is simple: you touch and extend a line showing where you want the active Nomster to go, and you can even touch anywhere on the screen to draw the line, making it rather versatile.

Let go, and the Nomster flies off, ideally into fruit and bonus cakes, bouncing off walls and point-increasing bumpers all the while. Touch the screen while your Nomster is in motion, and you can even activate a special power which can help you clear obstacles, such as bumpers that move and collect fruit for you and fixed bumpers that must be hit a certain number of times to pass.

Each Nomster’s special power is varied: The starting Nomster, Bumpy Beaver (who looks about as much like a beaver as Sonic looks like a hedgehog– maybe less) can inhale nearby fruits, while Chunk expands in size. Newcomer Li’l Sugar gets an extra burst of speed (which is like a second launch), and our favorite, the Colonel, can leave a bomb on the screen which not only destroys some bumpers, but collects fruit as well.

Nomsters

As with other games, however, you don’t really get a choice of which Nomsters to employ, as they’re chosen in a certain order for you in each stage. However, by earning stars in each stage, you gain avocados, which can then be spent on different power-ups before you start another. These allow you to gain more power, more speed/momentum, or even an extra shot.

Better still–and unlike other games–you don’t always need to use power-ups just to level the playing field, instead only purchasing them when you need them. What’s more, though you can buy avocados, they are fairly abundant as well, so you don’t necessarily feel like you’re being forced to whip out your credit card.

Nomsters

Truth be told, Nomsters is a pretty fun game– at least, for as long as you’re playing it. It’s a fun time-waster, but not especially compelling, though the addition of more Nomsters as you go does help this a bit by adding some more variety. At the same time, it’s not quite one of those games which you think about playing when you’re not playing it.

Thankfully, it is a free download, and for that, it does its job pretty well. Some later portions (that is, groups of levels) do require you to earn three stars for earlier portions before you can play them, so there is also a pretty decent challenge there (most of our victories stand at one or two stars) for those who want to experience the full game.

The good

    The bad

      70 out of 100