Ever since the release of the budget-priced super-hit Vampire Survivors, there seems to have been an almost never-ending stream of titles looking to get a piece of its action. While there have been some worthy choices in the midst of that tidal wave, mostly giving themselves firm footing by doing something to change or enhance the formula, far too many have simply been pale imitations of some kind. 

Without much doubt, despite giving the roguelike dodge-em-up action a more cutesy veneer, Monster Rush Survivors falls into this trap. While you’ll eventually unlock a few different characters that have some slightly different play characteristics, and on a general level there are at least a fair number of different weapons that each have their own look, there’s just something hollow to it. Whether that’s the fact that it looks a bit like an old-school Flash game, or that it seems to be set up to go from too slow and dull to outright overwhelming most of the time, it’s a struggle to find a sweet spot where it feels satisfying.

Now, I suppose to its credit, it does try to make its own contribution to the subgenre, introducing a pretty steady stream of gear that you’ll pick up and then be able to manage, upgrade, and equip. The problem is that all these really do is make minor stat changes to your character and nothing more, making the time it takes to manage them and try to tediously upgrade them feel wasted, since there’s so little visible effect for your efforts. Add to that the fact that your character honestly feels pretty chunky and a tad slow, so even if you’re pretty good at dodging and weaving, it feels like your runs won’t last quite as long as they could if you weren’t such a big target. Given that there’s a plentitude of games of this type in the eShop, and this simply lacks anything significantly noteworthy, it’s hard to recommend.