Ah, prom; its a time for excitement, a time for bonding with your fellow classmates and a time for anxiety. This can be especially true if you happen to be a monster! What is a monster to do about finding a date for the big event? Well, that is where you, the player, come in. Monster Prom, brought to you by Those Awesome Guys and Beautiful Glitch, puts you, and if desired, your friends in the position of a young monster looking for their last minute date for prom! Can you whoo the monster of your dreams? or will your future be bleak and horrific? Which one of your friends can be successful at finding love?
As stated above, Monster Prom is both a single player dating sim and a multiplayer competitive dating sim. How did Beautiful Glitch make a dating sim competitive you may ask? Well that is one of the things that make this game one of a kind. First, let’s go over the general gameplay
There are three times you perform actions in the game per day. In the morning you choose a class to attend (or maybe you choose to party or skip class if you’re really a rebel); at noon you decide where to sit at lunch and in the evening once again you choose a class or to goof off. Depending on the classes you pick in the morning and evening, you can raise one of your character’s stats. You can also choose to go to the shop and buy an item to help increase a stat. These stats include Smarts, Charm, Money, Fun, Boldness and Creativity. These will help you be desirable to one of the games wonderful bachelors or bachelorettes. Some events will also help you bond with certain monsters, but if you make the wrong choices interacting with them, it could drive them away from you. Over the course of a number of weeks, depending on if you want to play the short or long version of the game, you must increase the right stats and make the right choices to get your dream date.
Multiplayer comes into play by allowing opposing players to affect certain players standings with certain monsters. You can also block opposing players from going to classes that you see will raise a stat they are trying to raise. You also have a chance to steal first player by playing a short debate game where you are asked to name something like an object, movie or even brand and then are asked a question such as “which object would be the strangest to use as a sex toy?” and the winner of the debate would take first player. If no conclusion can be reached, you can also click the “random” button to randomly select a first player.
After some time of going back and forth, you then each decide who to ask on a date. The winner is the one who successfully gets the date or its a tie if both or neither do.
So, the most important part of any dating sim are the eligible dates. So, how are the options? Well, its best if you don’t take these characters too seriously. The dates are played in a very tongue and cheek manner. You have Liam, the hipster vampire for instance, who is a very hyperbolic example of the hipster trope and only cares about irony, art and food photography. You also have Polly, the ghost who is the “afterlife” of the party and does copious amounts of drugs and only wants to have fun. Miranda is a Princess with a slightly sadistic streak to her when it concerns her enemies and commoners who is a clear play on Disney princesses. There is the werewolf Scott who is a real puppy of a sweetheart and the dumb athlete stereotype which was meant to be a joke on the movie Teen Wolf. You can chose Damien LeVay, the touch anti authority demon who pulls no punches and always ready to fight. Vera is the eligible gorgon who is all about good business and money.
None of these characters is particularly more than their tropes. This game is very light hearted and silly and really, I suggest playing through all the characters just to enjoy all the writing and humor. I did not feel connected strongly to any of the characters, but the banter and situations kept me interested. I actually found myself more interested in the outcast characters (the ones who you can not chose to date until you meet certain conditions) like the witch coven, the shopkeeper or the slayer than my first potential dates.
Overall, Monster Prom is a very fun time with cute art, fun gameplay, amusing writing and just over all a silly short game to enjoy by yourself or with friends. If you’re looking for something different, pick this up and enjoy the monster mash.