Super Monsters Ate My Condo+

It's a blast from the past seeing Super Monsters Ate My Condo return on Apple Arcade. The core gameplay loop of swiping condos to feed neon-colored kaiju is just as frantic and satisfying as it was a decade ago. The visuals are sharp, the animations are wild, and the music is incredibly catchy. When you hit a flow state, chaining together bronze and silver condos to rack up massive scores, it feels fantastic.

However, it's a bit of a mixed bag due to the restructuring. The removal of the original Endless Mode in favor of a strict 2-minute time limit really hurts the pacing. Just as the tower is getting impossibly tall and the tension peaks, the timer runs out. Also, despite being an Apple Arcade game, it oddly retains some of the grinding mechanics of a free-to-play game regarding coins and boosts. It's still a fun, crazy puzzle game, but it misses some of the magic of the original release.