Run and Gun With Barry Steakfries

Casual Gaming is an oddity and a God send. It's helped push the gaming industry into the hands of millions and is one of the reasons why gaming is no longer just a hobby for geeks in basements of their parents homes. However, the gaming community is somewhat split. Some see casual games as a waste of time and below them, while others believe it's the next movement of gaming. Though I've never been thrilled by casual games, being a very big advocate of stories in games, I recently picked up Monster Dash made by Halfbrick Studios to fulfill my gaming New Year's Resolutions and was pleasantly surprised.

Barry Running the Vampire Level

The game is about as simple as it gets. Barry moves across the screen and the player can take the left side to jump and the right side to fire his awesome shotgun. This game essentially created the 'Infinite Runner' genre of casual games and is still one of the best. The goal of the game is simply to destroy monsters. As Barry runs, monsters will appear, either from above or below, to attack him. The choice is yours: either Jump or Shoot. It's that simple. Barry starts with three hearts, but can gain more as there is one heart per level. If Barry has full health, the new heart is added on. Otherwise, it refills a depleted heart.

Every 1000 meters Barry is teleported to a new level. There are five levels total, each with different themes and monsters. The change in level doesn't effect difficulty at all, but it's nice to watch the change of pace. Each level also has a weapon power up within it that can boost Barry's kills, but also has limited ammunition. The weapons range from a simple 6 shooter revolver to the 'Badass Hog', in which Barry rides a motor cycle and fires his shotgun, much like the Terminator.

The one thing that really adds to the game is the Open Feint achievements. Though not built into the game itself, Open Feint does achievements for numerous games across the mobile market, and these little achievements that extend the game life 100 fold.

Overall the game is great, especially for a quick fix. It is pretty easy to jump in and go and drop out when you need to. Though it is great, I can't see a game like this replacing Metal Gear Solid or Final Fantasy as my games of choice.

8 out of 10

Interesting Sites:
The App Store Page: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/monster-dash/id370070561?mt=8
The no dpad Review: http://nodpad.com/2010/08/18/monster-dash-review-halfbrick-does-it-again/