Monsters and Monocles is a fun little steampunk style top down, bullet hell shooter with some cute characters and fun game play. The story is fairly basic but gives you the idea that your group of explorers fly around the world in their airship searching for artifacts and fighting off monsters. At least that’s what I take away from the intro to the game. There are four characters to choose from when you start a game and this title has up to 4 player co-op available. You guide these characters through different environments and complete the task required to open up the next floor in an attempt to reach and defeat the boss. You start with a simple revolver but can find weapons as you make your way through a level and you may carry two guns. You have to watch your heat levels on the weapons but otherwise have unlimited ammo. There are also various relics to be found that give different bonuses that you can also upgrade back on your airship. A nice thing about this game is found relics and upgrades to them persist through attempts and deaths. Graphically this game is a pretty standard pixel art throwback game with a nice almost Saturday morning cartoon feel. The characters have distinctive looks to them and won’t get confused during multiplayer rounds. The environments are nice and varied, the colours tend to be a bit muted but allows for the enemies to stand out quite well. The weapons all have different looks to them and when fired are easily told apart. Overall its a simple design that won’t wow you but is easy to follow and is easy on the eyes. The music in Monsters and Monocles is wonderful, from the light and airy home screen music that gives you a feel of adventure, to the mid game music that make you feel the pressure, this is a game I enjoy keeping the music turned up. The weapons all sound good and the enemies sounds are solid as well. The controls in this game are very simple and not many buttons are required. Mouse and keyboard or controller are both viable options though it looks like they forgot to put in a button map for mouse and keyboard. Though there are signs on your airship that tell you how to do the basics they somehow missed a few functions and there is no current way to check or remap your keys, at least that I have found. This game is quite fun and worth multiple plays. The fact that you keep your relics and can upgrade them gives you a feeling of progressing that many games of this type often miss. While the story is more tacked on it’s not a driving factor of this game and is more of  a reason for the art style than anything. In a game like this who really needs a fantastic intricate story anyway? We all just want to shoot some monsters!