Kids Will Love Hunting Down Critters In Moops
Moops ($4.99) by Moops Games Ltd features a gorgeous 3-D cartoon world filled with endearing characters and adorable monsters. It’s visually impressive and it also has a fun storyline.
You see, critters have overrun Moopville, causing Moops to flee their home. You’ll need to assist the town heroes and pest controllers Flunk and Dunk, on their quest to rid the land of critters.
As Flunk, you will run around with a big stick to whack animals into unconsciousness. Movement is controlled with a joystick on the left side of the screen (though tap controls can be enabled as well) and attacking is done with a button on the right.
Incapacitated critters are vacuumed up by Dunk, and later turned in for a bounty of coins at the processing station.
The game consists of roaming through the countryside, hunting down these wicked creatures. It’s an entirely 3-D world, so you can not only move left and right, but also forwards and backwards across bridges, trees, and more.
Controls are an issue in any 3-D game, and Moops is no exception. While it’s generally easy to navigate around the level, jumping up on objects at different depths on the screen can be a challenge, and it can be difficult to target enemies correctly. I also felt that the controls were just a bit too unresponsive, making both movement and mini games frustrating at times.
As you adventure through towns, you will often be asked to help neighbors clean up their critter-filled houses. These interactions begin different mini games, which will have you flinging creatures into furnaces and tapping to squish them before they can cause havoc within the house.
There are several of these mini games, but unfortunately the bulk of your time in the game is spent playing them, which can get repetitive. Neither the mini games nor the capturing of creatures in the wild presented any challenge in Moops.
I didn’t have to kill difficult creatures, I didn’t have to navigate terrain puzzles, and I didn’t have to struggle with any of the mini games, so while Moops is a great game for children, I don’t think it has enough content to hold the interest of your average adult.
That said, there’s nothing wrong with games for kids, and I do think children will absolutely love this game. It’s easy and fun to explore, the games are simple, and you can use your earned coins to buy all kinds of new outfits and weapons.
I’ve been having some stability issues with Moops. While I was able to play on my iPhone last night, this morning it opened and crashed immediately, despite restarting the phone. The game also crashed twice on my new iPad (third generation)., so I would wait for an update before downloading this game.
While Moops is great for kids, if you’re on the hunt for a more adult oriented action platformer, take a look at Swordigo, which is an App Advice favorite.
