Minions Paradise
Minions Paradise was a mobile game based on characters appearing in the computer-animated comedy film franchise Despicable Me. The game was developed by Electronic Arts in partnership with Illumination Entertainment and Universal Partnerships & Licensing. It was given a soft launch on April 21, 2015 and was later given an official release on October 13 of the same year worldwide on Android and iOS.[1][2]
Minions Paradise | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | EA Salt Lake |
Publisher(s) | EA Mobile |
Series | Despicable Me |
Platform(s) | Android, iOS |
Release | October 13, 2015 |
Genre(s) | City-building game |
On March 23, 2017, it was announced that the game would retire on May 22, 2017. The game was removed from the store (for non-players); players could still play the game until the retiring date, but the in-app purchases in the game were disabled.[3]
Synopsis
The game follows the Minions as they go on vacation on a cruise ship. Things quickly go wrong after some of Phil's antics result in the ship sinking, leaving the Minions in the water and him on a deserted island. This causes them to get angry at him so he must try to make it up to them by turning the island into a perfect vacation spot.
Reception
Critical reception has been mixed.[4] Gamezebo reviewed the game and wrote "Much of Minions Paradise will seem familiar to anyone who’s played other free city/town/base/resort building games before. You stock up on money, resources, and premium currency in order to build fancier things and expand your territory so that you can stock up on even more money, resources, and premium currency. But beneath the simple setup is a game that’s honestly kind of refreshing in its approach to free-to-play."[5] Forbes criticized Minions Paradise in a review about Star Wars: Battlefront, where they called it a "familiar and formulaic phone and tablet game built around timers, tapped icons, and insidious invitations to skip forward in a build queue by buying fake currency in bundles that cost anywhere from $2.99 to $99.99" and wrote that "The imposed bottle necks on upgrades and item acquisition makes tapping both incessant and detached from any dramatic significance, something that feeds a recursive loop of player presence."[6] Apple'N'Apps gave Minions Paradise a score of 3.5, praising it for its mini-games, theme and flow of quests and objectives while also criticizing it for being too similar to other freemium simulation games.[7]
References
- Gibeau, Frank (April 7, 2015). "Welcome to Paradise, Minions Fans". Electronic Arts. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
- Williams, Katie (April 7, 2015). "EA is now making Minions games". IGN. Archived from the original on April 11, 2015. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
- "EA Is Retiring Minions Paradise on Mobile". Archived from the original on March 25, 2017. Retrieved March 24, 2017.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
- Cowley, Ric. "My love/hate relationship with Minions Paradise". PocketGamer. Archived from the original on November 22, 2015. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
- Rich, Rob. "Minions Paradise Review: Island-Hopping Hijinks". Gamezebo. Archived from the original on November 22, 2015. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
- Thomsen, Michael. "'Star Wars Battlefront' Plays A Lot Like 'Minions Paradise'". Forbes. Archived from the original on November 21, 2015. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
- "Minions Paradise iOS". Metacritic/Apples n Apps. Archived from the original on October 29, 2015. Retrieved November 21, 2015.