Full disclosure: I helped with playtesting and have put probably 20-30+ hours into TMH, not even including idle time. So I very much like this game, and my displayed play time is deceptive compared to my actual play time.
tl;dr
Tiny Monster Haven is an adorable desktop companion game which combines delightful elements of creature collecting with cute pixel art and a satisfying upgrade system. Both active and passive play are rewarded, systems work well together, and the creatures are delightful with a good variety as well as alternate forms to collect.
Long Version
Even with limited pixel area, the monsters are adorable and delightful, and the systems all weave together well. Another benefit I've found particularly pleasing is that you can play it in either an active or passive way and still be rewarded either way. If I want to focus on actively playing, I have plenty to do, and if I want to spend time writing a Steam review, I'm still making progress while doing that and getting to watch my monsters industriously working away at my farm.
Pros- The art style is really cute, and it's fun to watch the monsters going around and doing things. Also, glancing at the monster compendium shows the full size, uncropped sprite (as well as letting you see the alternate colour variants) and they're all really delightful.
- Great variety. Judging by the monster compendium, including evolutions, there are 53 monsters to collect in TMH. Not only that, but there's two different alternate colours per monster, resulting in a total of 159.
- Plenty of activities to do. Besides the obvious battling that every creature collector has, there's also racing/hurdle jumping, a world map with monster tamer NPC battles (including boss tamers for certain routes), a rock smashing game, and at least one more that I haven't gotten to yet. The racing and rock smashing are relatively simple, but they're still enjoyable. Also, doing the mini games rewards stats (more for a win than a loss, along with currency for a win), so they're also great ways to passively strengthen monsters as well.
- Systems all work well together. Each type of resource (monster essence, coins, food, etc.) all intertwine with each other in a way that make sense and build off of each other.
- Figuring out the automation of the farm (different monsters have different things they can do for the farm: harvesting, cooking, fertilizing, watering, etc.) is satisfying. Once you get your farm going, it's really nice to just watch your monsters maintaining it without too much manual input. (Of course, you still can, but I like alternating depending on what I'm doing and how much focus I need for other activities.[/li]
Cons
[list] - Sometimes you finish a minigame really quickly, but still have to wait a few seconds for the other monster to finish. This is the TINIEST of things, literally just a second or two, but I do end up glaring at it every time.
- The game is TOO fun, and this review has taken 5x as long to write up as intended because I keep playing with my monsters. (To be clear, this is a fake con; really more a pro in disguise unless you REALLY need to get an essay done or something.)
Conclusion
Tiny Monster Haven is a delightful, bite-sized desktop companion game with a wide variety of creatures and a satisfying gameplay loop. There's plenty of content to work your way through, and every system builds nicely on every other one. I've run into very few cons, both in playtesting and playing it now that I've bought it and can play through the rest of the game that I didn't get to test. Genuinely, this is a game I have pretty much no complaints over, and that I look forward to continuing to collect monsters in for a long time.
.....also, Mysticub and Ampolitl exist. What more can you ask from a game?
