Monster Prom is a dating simulator where you take the hottest monster in school to the prom. The title is pretty self-explanatory.
This indie game, developed by Beautiful Glitch and published by Those Awesome Guys, is colorful and pretty darn cool. It has multiple paths to take that lead to different endings, it’s fun to play with friends, and the lines are always funny, weird, but mostly dirty.
You start Monster Prom by selecting one out of four high school monsters. There are each color-coded to make things easier. You can be a red djinn, a blue Frankenstein’s monster, a green zombie (of course) and a shadow dressed in a yellow shirt.
You can choose to identify yourself as either a male or a female, no matter which character you play. It doesn’t affect the game whatsoever – you can still hit on anyone you want – but it is nice the developers leave that choice to you.
Once you select your character, you answer a short questionnaire that feels like it was taken straight out of a teen magazine. It will determine your initial stats: Smarts, Boldness, Creativity, Charm, Fun, Money. Each of these stats will help you impress a different love interest, and you can improve your chances by investing skill points in the right one.
Speaking of love interests – all the (un)usual archetypes are here. You have the dumb but kind-hearted captain of the football team, who’s also a werewolf. The pretty but shallow (and somewhat murderous) popular mermaid. The outcast demon who loves starting fires. The mean, manipulative gorgon who’s all about power, fame, and money. The hipster vampire who’s secretly a sensitive dork. And of course, the wild ghost girl who loves drinking, smoking and partying all night every night.
Your goal is to win the love of one of these six monsters and take them to the high school prom; the monster prom, if you will.
A playthrough can run for either 30 minutes or a full hour and consists of you and a group of up to 3 other friends traveling around the high school and talking with your future prom date.
Every time you finish a playthrough, you’ll get a quick summary of everything you did, and how many other options you still have to explore. That way you know how much of the game you’ve seen, and how much is still left unsaid. It’s a small but useful feature that can save a lot of time for completionists or those of you who must romance every single monster.
You’ll visit exotic locations such as a classroom, the gym, the library and even the toilet in your quest for love. Once you enter a place, you’ll get a short dialogue with the characters present, and face a series of choices to make. Play your cards right, and you might earn a point in one of your stats. Mess it up though, and you risk losing a point.
Between bathroom chats and cutting class, you’ll have a chance to sit down with your monster of choice in the cafeteria during lunchtime. This is the only time you actively choose who to spend time with since you never know who you’ll meet in the other locations.
The dialogues between characters are great, and I never felt like they were repeating themselves even after a few playthroughs. They are full of jokes, slang, innuendos, and teen drama, and it’s actually kind of wonderful. As it’s always the case with teens, your dialogue choices aren’t very clear, but once you get to know the other monsters, you can figure out the right thing to say; well, most of the time.
Admiteddly, once you crack the personality of every monster you lose some of the excitment that comes with akward flirting. However, the lines themselves are so diverse, surprising and funny that you will still enjoy every conversation.
The game’s visual design complements the game’s casual, relaxed vibe. All the characters look exactly how you’d imagine they should look, including their body language and expressions during conversations. Even the locations all help to enhance the overall atmosphere.
I never felt my eyes drifting off the screen, or the need to skip texts just to get on with the game. I think it’s mostly thanks to the visuals – they give everything the proper weight and context, and keep you immersed in this weird dating sim.
Monster Prom is a unique game that will keep you laughing and thinking about the weirdest life questions, like which animal are you willing to have sex with if your life depended on it. It’s this right kind of dirty humor that keeps the game from getting boring.
If you’re into dating simulators, especially about high school drama with a twist, Monster Prom is the game for you. The game is currently only available on Steam, for PC, Mac, and Linux.
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