Monster Head Review

Double-chocolate glazed donuts? Awesome. Plain, old-fashioned cream cheese cake donuts? Awesome. Oreo donuts? Awesome. Poison donuts? Oh. Not so awesome.

Monster Head, an action/reflex title from Robot Rocket Games, is filled with donuts and poison. Players tap madly on donuts that bounce around the screen while avoiding hazards. It's frantic, and it's pretty addictive.

It's also harder than it sounds. The monster at the front and center of Monster Head appears to have an insanely fast metabolism. If the player isn't able to keep up their momentum while feeding the beast (represented by a constantly-depleting bar on the top of the screen), it'll die. And who'd want to be responsible for the death of a cute monster? A monster, that's who.

But tapping donuts fast enough to keep the monster fed is tricky, because the deluge of deep-fried pastries is mixed with some pretty nasty stuff. There are bottles of poison to contend with, which take away a chunk of the player's momentum if they tap it by accident. There are also poisoned donuts and hot coffee that burns the monster's tongue and prevents him from eating for a little while.

Playing Monster Head is actually kind of relaxing once the player hits their groove. It's not completely mindless, either. The best way to accumulate momentum is to eat certain combinations of donuts, which awards big points. Simply tapping every donut that comes into view isn't enough to sustain the monster, especially since later levels become very cluttered with hazardous items.

Granted, there's not much to do in Monster Head beyond reaching for a high score, bragging about it, and then attempting to beat that record. The appeal wears off pretty quickly, but Monster Head is tasty for as long as it lasts. Eat up, and watch out for poisoned donuts.