Very good game for my little son. He really likes it!

Thanks for the tip, Mapsking. I'll have my tech support check for spyware, just in case.

Thank you very much ... since today's offer had mixed reviews, I decided to give it a try before passing judgement. This program downloaded with out any problems on Windows XP and played just fine. This game is cute and gets much harder after each level - it did offer me a brain challenge and I plan to keep it around for a while. Thank you!

Thank you for the great review I always look for your reviews Stephen you provide a great perspective on a game.. I will be giving this one a try.

#4 said so much about it, (and i didnt read most of it) but not going to download it because of #4s comment or sales pich, maybe #4 should have just said "hey cool game for $10 yalll..di di di

B

It's a cute little game. You get hints as to where the next monster (and it's color) will pop up. Sometimes you need something silly like this to relax!

It works fine on my Vista Ultimate 32 bit but took a long time to load the first time. I wondered if it was hung when it finally worked.

I was surprised to find it in windowed mode (not full screen) by default.

This is a nice casual game. It tends to become boring because your goal is to survive as long as possible while trying to run up as big a score as you can. Thus, the main fun is trying to outscore other players more than anything else. That plus the kid-friendly monsters make it a cute family-oriented game. (Except that the monsters have no clothes. :P ) Unfortunately, kids probably won't like sitting still with so little "action" going on.

You can take as much time to move as you need. The meter on the left shows roughly how many more points you need to complete the level. There are bonuses to help you along the way, but not a lot of them early on.

As a follow-up, all of the games Dozo mentioned seem to be online flash games, and I think Marie L is possibly looking for physical games on the hdd, as opposed to online flash games.

On a side note, with the offering from two days ago, Time Breaker, did anyone figure out the problem with the black tiles, bat, and bonuses? It seems like a good game, but certainly not if you can't see what you are doing?

Thanks

Hi, I will e skipping this game, as per my last review, it was too fast, and not too my liking, and, for me, the controls were not as dead-on accurate. Also, #8 Dozo, and #9 Huw, the reason the spyware might have been activated, is on the link, there is actually a period at the end, which, when you click on the link, it takes to you a non-real, non-existent page. Dozo, next time, you might consider just putting SPACE at the end, so it does not include the period at the end, which is a totally different page. An examply would be http://dozotheclown.com/games.htm

Thanks

I'll try it since I'm a fan of Monsters, Inc.

Big fan of Monsters, Inc. and I have the DVD too. I'll check it out.

Great little game..I enjoy it Thanks for Sharing it.
Enjoy most of the stuff you have here for Us, can not please everyone.

And #9....the site #8 listed worked fine nothing wrong with it at all
Dozo keep up the good work.

Anyways GGotd great stuff......you kepp up the good work

I clicked the link to website as mentioned in #8 (dozotheclown) and my spyware blocked a malicious attempt to infultrate my PC. Might be my over twitchy spyware or a very real threat. Might want to rename this website to Dodgytheclown)

Marie, I have nonviolent games for kids of all ages at my website, http://dozotheclown.com The games with links go to safe sites.

Dammit, Stephen, you made me download this game! Great review! Happy Boxing Day/Kwanzaa!

I didn't even try to d/l last time this game was offered as it didn't look very interesting and so many people were having problems, but I thought I'd try it this time. I'm glad I did, it's really addictive!
It isn't really a match three, you have to make shapes and the monsters keep popping up so you have to have a strategy to keep from being blocked in. Music isn't bad, but it does get kind of old after you've played for awhile. You can change to full screen or windowed but you have to close out the game and restart for it to take effect. There doesn't seem to be a save-game feature. Good little puzzle game.

First I want to say THANK YOU to Stephen for his VERY infomative review. I haven't downloaded too many games yet, because I get GOTD for games for my son who is only 9. Is there a chance that you (GOTD people) could add to your blurb about the game, some sort of age rating? When I read them I am not always so sure. If it wasn't for Stephen's great review, I MAY have passed on it but since it does have Disney characters, I was probably going to download this one anyway. I am trying to get my son away from the violent games and those that are just too mature for his age. It would be SO appreicated even if you guessed, to have some sort of age rating on your blurb. I have downloaded a few for my husband, but I am trying to build up a collection of DECENT games for my son..Thanks again so very much for everything. I look forward every day to both of my GOTD emails!

Here's my review from the 18th November. I posted it in the forums as there was a problem with the game giveaway downloads at the time. I thought the guys and gals would offer it again. :)

This is now available for half price from Alawar (less than $10). The fact that there are only two comments about the actual game in the review section, going back to 2003, may speak volumes about the game. Despite that obvious negative poke at this game; the kids will probably love the game. We as a family didn’t particularly find the game entertaining enough the first time around, but then I was inundated by loads of games at the time (not via the game giveaway, but from going on a spending spree) so didn’t keep this one because we weren’t inspired at the time. However if and when the game is re-run please try the game before you decide not to bother, as I did spend more time playing it today and feel I was a little hasty the first time around.

The aim of the game is to place monsters of a particular color into groups of four or more. This can be done in lines of four, a square of four, an L shape and a T shape. There are a couple of bonus items such as bombs that can clear away unwanted monsters, and a joker that allows you to create a group of four from any color group of three which can then escape to the ‘Monsters House’ Alawar does say in the help menu that they were intending to add more bonus items/power ups into this game, but that was over four years ago and nothing has materialized.

Personally I find this sort of statement in a game that is being sold a little false; I’ve come across it before when developers promise something extra, for example; extra board sets for free in their advertisements, which never appear; {a quirky arkanoid called Arcon Toys springs to mind, see the end of the review for more details about that game and others}*

To move a monster to the appropriate place you must first click on the monster then the place you wish it to move to. You do have to ensure there is a clear path to the empty cell though. Once you have created a group of four as detailed above, the monsters are freed. You earn points for every monster that escapes to the Monsters house. The level ends when you attain a specific number of points. There is an indicator in the form of a water pipe to the left of the screen that tells you how near you are to the target score. You will finish the level when the water pipe is empty.

Empty cells slowly fill with monsters. You can see which cells will fill because you can see the monsters eyes, peeping through the letter box. You can also see the color of the monster; however until the monster actually opens the door you can place any color of monster in the house. You can create multiple points bonus’s by creating multiple shapes. See the help menu for a graphical explanation of this.

The game does speed up a as you progress through the levels and contrary to my original thoughts about this game; it isn’t such a bad game as I originally remembered it. Apart from the influx of games I was buying as mentioned above, it could also have been possible that the game giveaways at the time contained a lot of match three or more games, which always dampens my interest after a few of the same. I certainly continued playing it for a while today though, although because the game giveaway site wasn’t available for whatever reason, I downloaded the demo from Alawar and worked from that while writing this review. Unfortunately, when I paused the game, the time continued to tick away , so I didn’t get to progress very far (I didn’t actually realize that this was happening until I closed the game for a break and discovered I had only a few minutes left, despite only playing what seemed like several minutes. I discovered what today’s game was going to be by looking at the giveaway site, which thankfully was up and running.

At the beginning of each level you are shown a window called a help mate that tells you how many points you require to pass the level, the shape you have to make. Besides the main shape or figure as they are called, you are shown special shapes or patterns that are combinations of at least two different colors. In the early levels you were only allowed to make the one shape shown in the help mate plus the special pattern; it also showed you what colors of monsters would appear and what bonuses you could expect There were none in the first couple of levels. You didn’t really need them though because they were easy levels. :) or :( ,depending upon how hard you like your games to be, lol.

There is no save function in this game. If you decide to close the game down your score will be posted on the high score board (if you made enough points) and when you return you have to start from level one again. I only managed to play up to level five (after initially playing level one and shutting it down to find that returning didn’t take me to level 2), which had introduced the joker bonus point and a couple of the shapes I could utilize to empty houses.

Check out the screen captures by following the links below:

All on one page:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Monster%20House/?start=all

As a slideshow:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Monster%20House/?action=view&slideshow=true

The game speeds up very fast. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to check any further, so was unable to discover whether later levels allowed you to collect more than one shape at a time during a level. I actually quite enjoyed playing this game and would give it 6.5 put of 10. Although I realize the developers purposely made this particular game this game without a save function, I think it would still have been a positive aspect to the game if you had at least been given the option. This could have been accomplished by having an endless and an arcade mode, however I think having several game modes is a recent development. It’s certainly challenging the way it has been designed and gives you the opportunity to beat your own scores rather than just save the game for later and continue; which is still a great idea, but not always as exciting. There are no limits to the number of levels; that is, it is an endless game. Of course you need to be on your toes if you are to keep up with the speed of the game. At level five the 9x9 grid of houses seemed to fill with monsters very quickly, lol. So good luck to those who manage to reach levels in excess of a 100 (if that’s possible) Considering the nature of this game, I think it could be improved by adding an online high scores link as this would inspire some gamers to play for much longer and add a more competitive feel to the game. Also a two player game; I seem to remember most games had options for two or more players to play a level one after the other years ago. I know there are two player games still around, but not in the way they used to be presented? Alawar mentions that the games development was inspired by Monster Inc. the film by Disney.

To Alawar Games; thank you for allowing this game to be repeated and to the Game Giveaway team for providing this fantastic project.

================================

*
I don’t regret buying that one (which cost me $15) and would recommend any arkanoid fan check it out. It’s reminiscent of the arkanoid Wave Ball Root Revision, with it’s weird moving board sets, and if you pick up a particular power up your perspective changes to the balls view, which is really weird.….it certainly adds a new dimension to the game and adds a difficulty that has meant despite having both game for quite a few years I’ve still not finished either despite the small number of levels Arcon Toys has. I can’t remember how many levels Wave Ball has though. Both are well worth checking out if you like arkanoid games. They are both very original and harder than your normal arkanoid game. Well Wave Ball certainly is, lol. Check out the demo’s from:


================================
Arcon Toys:

http://www.5star-shareware.com/Windows/Games/Arkanoid/arcontoys.html

Wave Ball root Revision:

http://www.arkanoid.com/games/waveballrootrevision

p.s.
I originally bought this online about the same time I bought Arcon Toys, and shortly after bought one of those budget games packs from the local supermarket and found the same game was included with it. Both the 50 game pack and the single game cost me the same. As with previous offers, I’ll give away my copy I purchased online if you email me. It may take me several days to find the file and reg code as I’ve been doing a lot of updating over the past year and have so many DVD’s full of games and other programs that I’ve bought or downloaded as freeware or mod’s for games (e.g. I have hundreds of gigabytes of files for the Battlefield 2 game alone), that it will take time. But it’s yours for free as I can’t see the harm in passing one on when I’ve got two paid for copies.

:)

This is one matching game I don't need.

I am enough monster in this house.

Thank you for reposting this. I'm happy this version unlocks.
It's an excellent lines game inspired by "Monster's Inc".