The pickles are attacking! Run! And while you're running, why not set up a few defensive towers to take out the Horripickles and Fisquitoes chasing you? In Monster Mash you must protect storybook villages and their people from evil fairy tale monsters. It's a tower defense game with artwork, characters and plot taken right out of a children's book, and it's every bit as surreal (yet fun) as you might think.
Tower defense games usually operate on the same basic rule set — monsters march along a specified path and you must place towers that will destroy them before they reach the end. Each enemy defeated earns you a bit of cash you can use to buy more units or upgrade existing towers to be stronger, faster, or have a wider range of attack. There's always a good variety of buildings at your disposal, each with a different strength and weakness to help stave off the hordes.
Monster Mash takes the now-familiar formula and gives it a child-like makeover. Not in terms of gameplay, mind you (although it is a bit pared-down compared to other tower defense games), but in the artwork and setting. Each round begins with a villager running out of the monster cave back to the village. Your lives are measured in people, and each runaway villager that returns to the town gives you another chance at success. Let a monster reach the end of the path, however, and expect to lose a few villagers. You don't want to kill the happy people of Curly Valley, do you?
Defeated monsters occasionally drop items that can be collected by sending villagers out onto the battlefield. Some items give you gold, while others speed up building time, slow the enemy's walking speed, or increase your towers' attack strength. There are even level-specific objects you can click on to aid your cause, such as the scarecrow that freezes enemies or the cannon that dispatches foes no matter where they are. Throw that in the pot with a handful of unique maps and you have the makings of an entertaining tower defense game.
Analysis: In a genre that's becoming more crowded as the weeks go by, Monster Mash has the good sense to set itself apart from the pack with a delightful artwork and story presentation. The gameplay itself is rather run-of-the-mill, but seeing zany monster after zany monster crawl out of the cave is a blast, and each one comes complete with a short biography.
Where Monster Mash falls a bit short is in long-term play. Each map you defend is almost completely cut-off from previous areas, as you don't carry gold between stages. Power-ups you nab are saved, but as far as an over-reaching drive to keep playing the game, there really isn't one. Also, the difficulty level is sharply increased after just a few levels, and it's quite a jarring experience.
Compared to other tower defense games (especially Garden Defense), the amount of items and towers doesn't quite stack up, leaving the experience a bit flat by comparison. But the creativity poured into the artwork and character stories more than makes up for that. It's a good tower defense game made even better thanks to a little imagination.
Windows:
Download the demo
Get the full version
Mac OS X:
Not available.
Try Boot Camp or Parallels or CrossOver Games.
Monster Mash is available to download from these affiliates:
To give credit where credit is due, Monster Mash was developed by Russian developers KranX Productions, who also made Yumsters. Both games have a very distinct and toe-tapping soundtrack!
i need help! i'm on the second version of the first stage. on attack 17 three of the zombie type monsters come with the runers and those three zombies WILL NOT DIE. i have played this levl about a trillion times and they always eat my peope. advice?
chloe, i am having the same problem on the same level, any luck yet?
I got past that, but I don't really remember how. I think I had a bunch of power ups saved up & just unloaded them all.
I am having the same problem. I rolled right along absolutely LOVING Monster Mash (though I agree with John's comments about its shortcomings), and while I've managed past wave 17 (you do need to power up the center area and use the energy towers...), I still only make it to wave 33 at the most! I never use cheats in a game, but for this one, I've started considering it. Only 6 villagers, 37 waves, and after being on this darn level forever, I'm wondering if maybe the balance is a little off in this level.
Anyone know how to get PAST it?
Mike
same her that wave17 is brutal. and I don't have may powerups. The first time I made it past 17 - but then I died at 33 argggg.
Stupid Stupid. Yes I tried the energy towers and the scarecrow as well. I even move towers when the zombies are past them. Grrrrr.............
on that level you just have to put your ground towers close together and make sure you have some power ups that slow down the monsters. If you upgrade at least two of the ground towers to the second highest level and put them close together and than push the scarecrow when the monster is close enough for both of them to hit it at the same time you should be able to kill them. I hope that helped.
i've made it to level 30. but still even though months have passed i haven't beat all 37 waves. i have figured out that when land bosses or zombies come all you can do it have ALL land cannon things and waste zero space with the flying ones. it's so ard to sell switch and upgrade them all again. i can't beat it. i can kill the first two bosses and the zombies but it just goes downhill from there. ridiculous.
I love this game, I've played it through at least five times (maybe I need to get a life). The trick to this game is to stratagize where your weapons will be best used and be flexible. Just because you have big beautiful cannon built towards the end of the last scene doesn't mean it's going to do you any good if the majority of the creatures are flying. Be willing to stop time and rebuild if necessary. Also, remember, the power supplies can support more then one weapon. Be smart, put the weapons with short range firing capacity in the front, then a power supply, then if you have room build a palace which has a longer firing range.Also, the bubble gum machine seemed dumb to me at first but it's now my best friend. And try to build weapons in places where they can shoot two directions instead of one. Doubling up will allow you more money to make the weapons you have more powerful. (Wow, that's far to much for one person to know about one game) Have fun!
I Love this game I have completed it about 8 times now. Each time trying to get higher and higher scores. I agree with the person above that you need to save your powerups where ever possible and use the bubble towers to slow the monsters down. It doesn't hurt on the level you are having difficulty with to put 2 towers then a bubble tower then 2 towers then a bubble tower right across one side of the middle.
There are lots of ways to place towers. You will eventually get there.
OMG I came here looking for help for level 17
and I find everyone has the same problem!!
I can't stand it anymore! And I thought 'Garden
Defense' was hard but MM eats GD's ***!!!
I tried all the suggestions here and I do
pretty well, but always lose 4 kids by the time
I'm at wave 30.....then I know it's only a
matter of time, no matter how strong my battle
ground is!! :(((((( Maybe I should just give
up, from what I'm reading in here anyway.....?
I wonder what would happen if I put in a double
line of 8 bubble towers and then 8 fully loaded
towers and energy towers....then the guns??
Too bad there's never enough money to do this!
The level needs at least 8 villagers!!
I thought I had it figured out!
When you have enough villagers you can just
let the bosses go and save all the powerups
for the other waves. Then at the end when
you have a good strong-hold, you can
blast the bosses. But this strat doesn't fly in level 17! :(
For the level 17 (scarecrow level), utilize the middle of the map.
Place 2 powerup towers in the middle and a whole bunch of long ranged towers surrounding them along side the top and lateral portions. On the lowerside of the 2 powerup towers place cannons, air towers, and bubble towers.
Next you want to focus on the bottom of the map (next to your town). Have two powerup towers w/ long ranged towers surrounding them.
When those alien dudes or bosses reach the middle of the map (in between your two armed areas) use the scarecrow w/ powerup items (typically 2 powerup items, quickshot and increased power).
Remember to upgrade your powerup towers and long-ranged towers.
I decided to come look for help in passing Windy City level 2, and discovered we're all stuck here! I'm going to try the suggestions last posted though. Good luck all.
I'm a huge addict of Monster Mash. I have played thru several times and level 17 and the last level are by far the hardest.
I can easily win level 17 without even one life lost. The strategy?
Build everything in the second bend starting just after the bridge. I never even have to build much at all past the 3rd bend unless a straggler slips by.
Make sure to upgrade the air and ground towers at the 2nd bend as fast as possible and stagger the bubble towers on both sides every other tower. Example: Bend by bridge is bubble, air, ground (in corner),bubble,air, ground (I ALWAYS have ground on first corner and air on next corner maximized first).
Across path I do same thing - staggering is key.
Then use at least 4 boosts in the middle area to maximize damage and upgrade all the way. You will have to juggle some at first by selling and rebuilding closer to the scarecrow until your towers are powerful enough to do it on their own.
Hope this helps! Good luck!
Well I finally passed Windy City 2 after trying for a week using the suggestions posted. I'm hoping somone can help me with Spiral City 2. Please!
I've been stuck at this one too! I actually got to wave 29 once (out of 37 waves total). That's the best I got to. It's hard that there are no additions to the townspeople like in earlier levels, and that the boss mosters come twice before those three zombie ones. The only way I passed this zombie wave was to play once or twice prior to save up bonus tokens, then use them all to kill off the three zombies. But there is a boss monster at level 29 that I don't know how to pass since I no longer have many bonus tokens. And that's no matter how I try to upgrade and arrange all the towers ideally. It's driving me mad. I have played this level more than twenty times! I'd sure apprecaite any help anyone can give me, but it sounds like everyone is in the same boat!
Hi everyone. I'm stuck at Windy City 2 too!!
After a few attempts, I managed to pass level 17 right up to 26 but thereafter...
Start building after the bridge until the bend before your village. The 2 big monsters and the 3 zombies can be defeated by bubble (5-6),upgraded basic tower up to level 3 at least (3), lightning (6), energy tower (2), plus other basic and cannon towers if gold permits. Plus the powerups (sword, shotgun, slowdown) and not to forget the scarecrow. If you follow this then right to level 26 no problem with all villagers alive. By luck I reached level 30 once, then couldn't hold on much longer. I used all the comments here too, but not helping much no matter how many times I try!
Please help, really addicted to it. Mom is scolding for not studying and playing. Tried to stop playing but too addictive. Please help me to either finish it or overcome the addiction.
[Edit: Spoiler tags added. -Pam]
Just thought I would check back. I just got my highest score. 1119765. I really wish they would come out with a second edition, this one is getting too easy.
ok, didn't think windy city 2 was tough. haven't been able to pass spiral city 2 for like a year. any comments on this MUCH harder level?
To give yourself cheaper towers, use this cheat...
go to this C:\Program Files\Monster Mash\media\properties (or wherever you installed the game) and you have got towers_ground,towers_simple,towers_brake,towers_fly,towers_aura
and you should copy them just in case it goes wrong and this can change the cost of the tower that you get on the game
I have finished MM 2 times now with no cheats, with destroying every monster and without losing a single villager, even the ones that run down the path.
I too was having much difficulty with Windy City 2, and finally was able to get by it. These last three levels are definitely the hardest of the whole game, and it's my opinion that Windy City 2 is the hardest!
Anyway, what I did to win was build basic towers first, forget the lightning/cannon/bubble for now. You'll need the quick firepower of the basic towers for those first few big monsters. Make sure you keep track of powerups falling, as you'll need them for the big monsters too, especially the quick shot, amplify damage, and slow down monsters.
When the big monsters come, including those nasty zombies on level 17, slow them down right before the bridge with a powerup, and use the sword/quickshot powerup.
After you have basic towers everywhere, you can start to sell them at prime spots (corners and what not), to put in cannons and lightning. It also really helps to have bubble gun towers right BEFORE the monsters get to these big hitters. Shoot for about 5 fully upgraded cannons, and 5 fully upgraded lightning spread around.
I also put the aura (forget the name) towers used in places where I can up quite a few towers at a time.
I can't say I stopped every monster with this strategy, but it got me through windy city II and curly village (the final level)
For Spiral City II strategy, it's basically the opposite of this strategy. The monsters can get overwhelming quickly, and you have to majorly slow them down. Forget the basic towers unless it's a spot away from the road. Use the combination of bubble-gun towers before you hit them with lightning/cannon. Repeat this setup, bubble-gun, cannon/lightning. Make sure you upgrade as soon as you can at prime spots, and save the sunlight to zap the big monsters that get by when they're the very first in line. Remember, the whole monster line only goes as fast as the first person in line, so if he stays slow, you're good to go.
Hope that helps everyone who manages to find this comment!
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