Minions Paradise Review (iOS)

Sergio Pablos, writer/creator for Despicable Me, never would have guessed that the supporting cast of his movie franchise would end up being more popular than the center character. Fortunately for him, that popularity has spawned another movie, ridiculous amounts of merchandise and even spawned a Minion movie! So, multiple games, especially in the iOS platform, made a lot of sense. Unfortunately, today’s review, Minions Paradise is not the addicting builder one would hope.

You can make no mistake about the overall intention of the Minions. The character, and their foundation was never based on a deep story, meaningful themes or anything else. It was merely to be ridiculously cute and lovable characters that could appeal to children and adults with their humor. For the most part, they entirely do that. EA and Illumination Entertainment put full spotlight on the characters, plotting anyway to maximize the title character’s.

The story is somewhat here. The Minions, through turn of events, manage to ruin a getaway on a cruise ship, sinking it and being stranded on an island. The island, an undeveloped land is waiting for your building skills. Like previously said, the game does not shy away from the fact its story isn’t deep. It hopes you accept it, and go with it. For the most part, you really buy into the Minions culture.

Unfortunately, as with every pay as you go, pay to play game, the fun can only be had for so long before it ultimately catches up with you. Being an immediate free game, Minions offers some entertainment, and value up close but pay walls soon emerge. Buildings take a few minutes to build, or with a few points, you can speed it up. This is extremely helpful but expensive. After a few buildings, you will be out of currency and left stranded. Thankfully, Minions counters this with cute mini games, centered around ‘gimmes’ that extend your currency in game. They are nothing more than extremely simple tasks involving Minions traveling, building or keeping them entertained.

When the free parts of the game ultimately end, the game’s expense is not overbearing. The most basic ‘helper’ will set you back about $4.99 with a bigger bundle running you $6.99. Truthfully, this is not as ridiculously priced as some of the freemium games, waiting to tick and tack you over every purchase.

Minions Paradise on the iOS is not a particularly bad game. Colors flush in with a lot of blues, greens and of course, Minion yellow. Apple devices (iPhone 6 and iPad 2) handle this swimmingly, with zero stutters, no frame rate issues and consistency. The saturation of colors and color design really adds a visual flare that is enticing in its own right.

However, there is no denying that Minions is a huge merchandising franchise. It would only make sense for freemium king EA to be behind the design and publishing of these games. Unfortunately, as cute as EA makes them to be with adorable side quests, there is not a lot of real game play content here. You place a pinata down, entertain the Minions and then new minions arrive. You keep doing this until you celebrate or you run out of tokens to keep the system going. This does not work like a RTS, RPG or even a traditional city builder. Eventually, the fun runs out on Minions Paradise.

You can download Minions Paradise on the App Store here.