Monstrous Fun! (moshimonsters.com)

Member Name: glitter_princess

Product:	moshimonsters.com
Date:	07/11/08 (210 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great educational games; Moderated; Fun!

Disadvantages: Addictive!

Although I reached the grand old age of 25, I am really a big kid at heart. I get excited about Christmas still at some point in early December, I love dressing up and playing with make-up, and I love playing puzzle games. www.moshimonsters.com is a website that allows me to satisfy my inner child!

Moshi Monsters is a flash game aimed at children which was launched back in early 2008 so is still pretty new. The idea is that you adopt a monster and play puzzles and games to win "rox" which allow you to buy your monster food and things to decorate its room. The better you do in the puzzles the quicker you move through the levels.

On signing up, you can choose from one of six monsters - a Fury (a big ball of fluff, which is cute but grumpy - one for the boys I think!), Poppet (a cute little bear - this is the one I chose, definitely a girly monster!), Katsuma (an evil looking rabbit), Diavlo (a little devil), Zommer (a zombie) and Luvli (apparently the least popular monster - she's is essentially a floating heart and compared to the others looks a bit dull!)

One you've chosen your monster, you can choose what colours you would like it to be - there are lots of combinations to choose from! Next step is to name your monster - mine is called Beryl. Then you fill out "adoption papers", which is essentailly your user information - your username, date of birth, if you're a boy or a girl, and your (or your parent's) email address. On your first login you will be shown an example room and a helpful monster gives you tips on how to use the game.

Once you reach your own room for the first time it will look quite empty - it has a door, a window, a pinboard, a "friends tree" plant, and a button which links to the puzzles. The puzzle button is the key to earning rox and progressing through the game: there are daily puzzles where you are given a minute to answer as many questions as you can - they start off pretty easy but become more difficult as you progress up the levels, however even at level 15 (which I've reached now) they're still not so difficult that I would imagine younger children would really struggle with these. Most of the games are counting games - how many squares can you see in the window? How many eyes can you see? - some are brainteasers - which word is not written in the colour it names? - and some ask you to look for sequences. All of which are great for getting young kids to think differently and get comfortable with numbers in a fun way. Depending on how many questions you answer correctly you will receive a number of rox for completing the Daily Puzzles - you can play the daily puzzles once a day, but there are also all of the puzzles laid out in the Puzzle Palace where you can practice and earn rox at the same time.

The Friends Tree allows you to add your friends and allows you to jump to your friends rooms quickly. The more friends you have, the bigger the tree will become!

The pinboard allows people to leave messages for you - these are public so you will need to approve them yourself before they are displayed. In addition, all messages are moderated - there is no form of communication on moshi monsters that doesn't go through the administrators, in order to keep the site really child friendly.

On the left hand side of the room you can see details of how happy and how healthy your monster is - the more you feed it and play with it, obviously the higher these will be! If you don't log in for a while to play with it, it will become more moody. As far as I know though, they don't ever die! Monsters love to be tickled - just click the mouse and move it over your monster's tummy and they will squeal with delight! They will also say things to you - Beryl's ponderings are quite random and normally get a little smile out of me.

On leaving your room (just click on the door) you see a map of Monstro City which, at the moment has two main streets - Main Street and Sludge Street. Each has a number of shops where you can spend your rox - The Grossery Store, Yukea, Horrods, The Bizarre Bazaar, the DIY shop, and Dodgy Dealz, a pawnbrokers where you can exchange items you no longer want for rox, either gambling on what percentage you get back, or taking a fixed 40%. All of the stores are manned by wonderful monsters - Dodgy Dealz has a particularly great creepy octopus character. As you move up the levels the items you can buy will become better and better - the higher level items will move when you click on the in your room - for example, a jack in a box which pops out when pressed!

At the end of main street is EnGen - a great and really addictive Tetris-like game where you turn around coloured blocks to match them to the same colour. The higher the level you get to here the more rox you will earn - this one is a great game for topping up those rox, although there is a limit to the number you can earn in a day!

Other features which have been added lately are the dress up store and the Moshling Garden. The moshlings are a great addition to the game - you need to buy seeds from the moshling seed cart on Main Street, and then plant them in your garden (which is reached via the map) and depending on what combination of seeds you planted you may attract a moshling - an adorable little creature that you can keep in your room as a pet. There are lots of different types of moshlings - common ones and rare ones so lots to collect, although you can only keep two in your room. I have a Purdy (a small bright pink fluffy cat) and an Angel (a unicorn). If you don't manage to attract a moshling with your first seed plant the Cluekoo (a bird which sits in the garden) will give you hints about which of your flowers the moshlings will like.

The dress up room is rather less succesful I think. Once you've bought some clothes, you can go to the dress up room and dress your monster in them. However, only other people who see your room will see your monster dressed in them - you won't be able to see them yourself. So I never get to see my little Beryl dressed in her sailor hat and fairy wings!

Moshi Monsters works hard to develop the community side of things - with a forum where you can chat about anything to do with your monster and appointing a Room of the Week (some of these are just fabulous! So much stuff!) and a Monster of the week. There are also competitions published on the community page.

Because it's still quite a new game, there are new features being added all the time so I'm sure there will be more shops and more games added soon.

I love the little touches that are in this game - the loading screen where a little purple ball of fluff tries to eat your cursor, the random things that Beryl comes out with, the items in the shop like posters for The Goo Fighters or Broccoli Spears.

I think this is a great game for children to play - I would suggest it would be suitable for children aged 8 and up as it does rely on you being able to count and to read and write, although with some parental help I don't see why slightly younger children couldn't play too. Also great for parents is the knowledge that all content is moderated so there is no form of contact between players that doesn't flash past someone's eyes. There is also a language filter so your child won't be exposed to any bad language.

The game is free to play (at the moment) so is well worth a try and is becoming more popular by the day. The only disadvantage for me is that it's pretty addictive - rarely a day goes by that I don't log in to Beryl and see how she's doing! So go now and adopt a monster!

Summary: Great flash game designed for children and childish adults