Minimon Online Review
Studio: Sergio Flores
Publisher: Sergio Flores
Platform: iPhone (reviewed), iPad
Release Date: July 27, 2012
Price: $0.99 BUY NOW!
Overview
Admittedly the concept was pretty cool. A Pokemon clone for iOS devices with an MMO twist, so that players can walk around in the same world online and battle each other. Minimon Online at this point was flooding with potential to be an amazing game but sadly, it was all downhill from there. Perhaps this could be something special, but as it stands Minimon Online feels like a boring, awkward, unpolished and unfinished build of a game that seems nowhere close to being ready for a public release and clearly needs a lot more work.
Gameplay
The lack of polish is clear from the second you begin Minimon Online. There is no welcoming title screen, no options, nothing. You just select your monster and head into the game. Furthermore, there is no story, no explanation, no tutorial….nothing. The game just assumes you know how Pokemon is played and sends you off into the world. The main difference to Pokemon (ok the only really noticeable difference) is the WIFI indication at the top with a number next to it. What this means, I think, is how many players are online at time playing in the same world as you. Notice how I said “I think”? That’s because I’m just guessing There is no tutorial or explanation for it, or anything else in the entire game. You can see these players walk around throughout the land, but you cannot interact, battle or talk with them. You can battle them however in one particular arena, located in the third town if you can be bothered playing the game for that long. The game also fails to tell you that, so after hours of gameplay, you need to figure that out for yourself as well. Developer Sergio Flores has stated the issue will be addressed in future updates however, but for now this feature just seems almost non-existent.
That being said, there is still plenty to do offline. There are monsters to catch in Capture Boxes (Pokeballs), Inns to rest in (Pokecenters) and plenty of items to buy, but grinding in this world is purely a chore. For example, you start out with your Minimon on level 5, and one of my first battle encounters was against an AI trainer with a monster on level 15. Minimon Online really throws you in the deep end quickly, and grinding and leveling up becomes a major chore. With this considered plus unattractive battle animations, combat becomes annoying quite quickly. Towns are also boring with hardly anyone to talk to or anything to do in them and various bugs and issues are common such as collision detection allowing you to walk through some people, and menu screens pausing or freezing for brief periods of time. Yeah that’s right, even going through the menu screen has issues. With nothing to do in these towns, Minimon Online starts to feel like a walking simulator more than anything, but walking feels awkward and slow at times as well. It should be noted developer Sergio Flores has said walking speed will be increased in a future update however.
Audio/Visual
Sadly the audio department is nothing special. While the music is decent, it is poorly looped. Graphics look decent for the exception of the human players, as they seem quite big and very pixelated. So while backgrounds look decent, the player you control looks very rough and unattractive. The one shining element of Minimon Online however is the monster’s character design. These monsters are a breath of fresh air throughout the game, as they not only look the nicest and sharpest graphically speaking, but their character designs are pretty sweet as well. Sadly however, this doesn’t make up for everything else in the game.
Overall
Honestly, I had high hopes for this game. The concept was clearly awesome, but the game feels clearly unfinished. Grinding and leveling up instead of feeling rewarding feels like a chore. Walking is slow and boring. There’s nothing to do in any town. You can see other players walking around, but you can’t interact with them except for in one particular arena. Bugs such as people you can walk through and menus that pause and freeze are present. Human characters are pixelated and are not consistent with backgrounds. Music isn’t even properly looped. There is no story or anything to motivate you on this ‘adventure’. The only redeeming qualities of Minimon Online are the monster’s character designs and the idea/concept as it could’ve had potential if proper effort went into this game. If this was an early BETA build for FREE I could be more forgiving, but this is a $0.99 in the app store and has been released as a completed game with a few updates coming. I really tried to like this game and give it a nice and honest fair review, but there isn’t really anything in the game to give it credit for. Better luck next time to developer Sergio Flores.
