About a week ago, I walked in on my fiancee sitting in our room. She had her iPad in her lap, and strange, musical noises were coming from it. Confused, I came closer only to find that she had what appeared to be a white, big-mouthed bigfoot in the middle of an island on her screen, happily singing it’s little heart out. We both stared at it for a long time, and then I went to get my iPad, sat down across from her, and said, “OK, what’s the name of the app?” And this is how I found out about My Singing Monsters.

My Singing Monsters is a game in which you buy, breed, hatch, and raise monsters on an island. There are three separate islands, each with their own “song.” If you want it to be quiet, you can silence the monsters by putting them to sleep – but where’s the fun in that? If you’d like an idea of what the different songs sound like once all the different monsters are singing (I admit, even my fiancee doesn’t have them all yet), check out these remixes on Amazon MP3. The monsters are all different “types,” which is indicated by an elemental icon in the screen where you purchase them. If you want to breed a new monster instead of buying one with coins (earned by harvesting the monsters and the buildings – don’t worry, it doesn’t stop them singing!) you have to match the sequence of these symbols exactly with the monsters you put into the Breeding Facility – something that isn’t available right away, but comes available soon enough.

There’s another building that manufactures food for the monsters. Food is used to level the individual monsters up so that they give you more coins – they also get larger as their levels go up. Your little band will eventually take up most of the island. You start with just the Plant Island, but can purchase the Ice and Air islands with coins as you go on. There are also Diamonds, which are the in-app real-money currency. However, in addition to just being bought (you can also buy large amounts of food with real money), you eventually gain access to a diamond mine that will make getting diamonds (mostly used to speed up the breeding and hatching process) much easier.

If you find there are particular monsters who’s sounds you like more than others, breeding or buying more of that kind of monster will make it’s sound in the overall song louder. For instance, my favorites are the two that are in the far left on the picture there – the one with the violin and four arms, and the little seedling with green fuzz and a wide open mouth. As for what they sound like in game, you’ll have to breed them yourself in order to hear.

A warning, though – all the music is VERY catchy. Since starting to play this game, I’ve found myself humming the Plant island song quite a bit. And yet still, I’ll keep playing. In fact, I’d better go see if my latest breeding experiment is finished.

Price: Free (in-app purchases for currency & food from $0.99 – $9.99)

Version reviewed: 1.0.2

Requires iOS 4.0 or later

Download size: 17.1 MB

My Singing Monsters on Apple App Store