Paper Monsters – Review – Mario-inspired platform game set in a paper and cardboard world

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By: Crescent Moon Games LLC

Version #: 1.0

Date Released: 2012-01-26

Developer: Crescent Moon Games LLC

Price: 0.99

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Paper Monsters borrows heavily from none other than Mario Bros., one of the most iconic platformers in video game history. Although in Paper Monsters the player controls a main character that is a cute fellow apparently made from cardboard boxes (on whose head a happy face is pasted) rather than an obese, mustachioed plumber, the game does have mushrooms, which pop out of the ground in certain places to add points to the player’s score. And instead of coins there are silver and gold buttons to collect and optionally use in buying items of clothing and accessories for the plain-looking hero in the external Dressing Room. There are also enemies to kill, of course, and they are killed by jumping on them, of course. The name of the game actually refers to them: papier mâché monsters that include dinosaurs, walking bombs, and birds in flight.

As if those elements from Mario weren’t enough, the game also has tubes that, as in the Mario series, lead to a different location. Sometimes they lead to an underground lair with lots of buttons floating about, but they more often lead to a place in the background also giving the player an opportunity to accrue more buttons and points. When the background becomes the main playing field, the screen doesn’t zoom into it, so the player is then doubly challenged by the smaller than usual characters and environments, not to mention the parts of the foreground that might block the player’s view at times.

The cubic hero of the game initially has three lives, and he loses a life every time he runs into an enemy. The game naturally ends when all his lives have been used up, but the game also ends if he falls into the abyss below the platforms. Needless to say, it’s best to be careful while controlling him to avoid seeing “game over” over and over again. The default game controls (virtual joystick) are simple: the left half of the screen is devoted to moving the hero to the left or right while the right is for making him jump or double-jump. But the optional, visible classic touchpad is, in my view, simpler.

Paper Monsters is a recently released universal iOS game that adds new depth to the typical execution of side-scrolling platform games. The operative word here is “depth,” used in its literal sense, because unlike most platformer games, where the main character moves around in a world rendered in 2D, Paper Monsters presents a world with foregrounds and backgrounds, with objects near and far. One can say that the use of the word “depth” also extends to its figurative sense, seeing that there’s a good deal of complexity involved not in the game’s back story so much as in its delightful design.