Age of Monsters Review

Whether it's deciding who gets to ride shotgun, or who gets the last piece of pizza, rock paper scissors plays in integral part in most friendships. Still, in our age of social media and digital connections, why bother using hands and fingers to play? Why even be in the same room (or ZIP code, for that matter)? Age of Monsters is a game where friends can challenge each other to asynchronous rock, paper, scissors battles from their iOS devices whenever they want. Each battle is also depicted as an epic face-off between two monsters selected by the players.

Everyone has played rock paper scissors and the rules are fairly clear so we won't waste any time here explaining them. Age of Monsters puts a horrific, monster-filled veneer on the well known "game", making it a bit more interesting to watch through fully animated monster avatars and unique actions and reactions for every monster. The game also offers players the ability to play asynchronously meaning players can choose their moves and wait for their opponent to choose their moves before seeing the result. Much like the popular word game, Words With Friends. Players are alerted when they are challenged or when an opponent has made their move.

To play, a player must either challenge an opponent or receive a challenge. Currently opponents can only be chosen from the player's Game Center or Open Feint friends lists, and there is no option to select a random opponent. Once a match is set up between the opponents each player chooses a monster and then selects three choices of rock, paper, or scissors; one for each of the match's rounds. Once both players have selected the results show and the best out of three wins. There is no need for both players to make selections at the same time either, when the last player has set their choices the other player is alerted and can watch the results play out. Matches are played out with the animated monsters showing their hands and reacting to each round's result.

The animations are amazing and easily the best part of the game. Watching how all the different monsters act and react is very entertaining. The lack of an option to play a match with a random opponent severely limits the game's playability though so players should make sure to share the game with their friends if they plan on playing it much. The game looks great, it's simple, and the matches are satisfying. This game is worth a look for a few minutes of fun here and there.