“My Singing Monsters” is a mobile and PC game in the idle base-building genre of video games. The game was published by Big Blue Bubble in 2012, and it quickly grew in popularity both for its charm and for its release during the peak of the genre’s popularity. It has recently had a resurgence in popularity, allowing the development team to update the game with better quality and more frequently. The most recent update to the game is update 4.2.0, adding many new features, but the biggest feature overall was a new island titled Magical Nexus.
Islands in “My Singing Monsters” are the homes of a variety of monsters, each having unique sounds that come together to create a song. Magical Nexus is home to a race of monsters called the “impure magicals.” These are all the monsters that have a mix of natural elements and magical elements. Monsters are unlocked on Magical Nexus by either buying them from the shop for a ludicrous amount of diamonds or by “transposing” (or teleporting) them from their home island once they reach level eighteen.
The art design of this island is like nothing players have seen before in the game. Islands are usually symmetrical, but Magical Nexus is as asymmetrical as possible. The most asymmetrical part of the island is the Stair Shaper being on one side and the sculptures to represent each Titan that makes the magical islands on the other. This is a genius design for the island, with it feeling like it simultaneously has lots of life and mystery.
Another part of the art design that makes Magical Nexus feel so lively are the animations for each monster. There are a chunk of monsters that are pretty static in their animations, but they either contribute the least to the song or are very hard to animate in a lively way. Other than that, every monster animation really brings the personalities of the monsters to life. This is just another point in the trend of more lively monster animations in the game, and players are loving it.
The most important part of any island is the song, and Magical Nexus does not disappoint. Yes, many players dislike how it is composed, especially the key change, but it is still a really good song. It begins calmly, with Wimmzies carrying the verse with its heavenly voice after the intro. Instruments and vocals are slowly added and removed in waves, building up to the sudden key change.
The new verse begins to feel frantic, with Peckidna immediately setting the backing instrumental and Spytrap, Bonkers, Squat and Hawlo, all of whom are from different magical islands, coming together to make a unique beat. The frantic verse is short, though, and ends with a small Fiddlement solo that perfectly builds up to the beat drop halfway through the song.
The next verse takes elements of all the previous verses, making it feel both heavenly and frantic. This is a perfect contrast for the verse, and could very well be the final verse, but there are two more verses left. Each subsequent verse works to calm the song back down to the first verse, allowing it to perfectly loop the song, a feature that I really enjoy.
All in all, Magical Nexus is a perfect sendoff to the Magicals. The song can be listened to for hours on end and feels really good to finish. It is a bit hard to finish the song, but it is a more late-game island, similar to Amber Island and Gold Island, so a little more difficulty is expected. With the release of such a good island, most players in the community, including myself, are very excited about the direction the game is heading.
Magical Nexus gets an 8.5/10 from me, and its prize is my sanity that I have lost and am still losing because of its expensive way of unlocking monsters.
