S.U.M. - Slay Uncool Monsters [Switch]

S.U.M. - Slay Uncool Monsters is a surprisingly fun, turn-based educational maths game. Growing up, I was always a strong student at maths. I was in the more advanced classes, and always found working with numbers straightforward. I liked it, but not enough to willingly choose to continue with it beyond it being a requirement. I am too much of a fidgety person, and maths was one of those classes that just didn’t keep me engaged enough. I’d fly through the work and then just want to sit and talk, or doodle, or do something - anything - else. As a result, beyond Standard Grades, I just quit maths entirely. And over time, that version of me where I was super confident at maths forgot more and more of what I’d learned, and I became very uncertain about numbers, making current me - home-schooling my son during COVID lockdowns - feel waaaaaaay out of practice.

Amazingly, S.U.M. has helped with that somewhat, forcing me to do the quick maths that I’ve neglected to do for so long, and making me realise that I do in fact still know how sums work! Here you work your way through each of the levels, accessible through an overworld very similar to old Mario games, and you’ll take on various monsters in the form of math battles. You’re given a grid of numbers to work with, and various sums will appear alongside enemies, and inputting the correct digits to complete the sum will deal damage. Take too long, and the monsters will be able to fight back. Defeating monsters and successfully completing levels will reward you with coins that can be used to unlock further areas of the overworld. As well as the main game mode, there’s also an Endless Mode, for if you’re looking for a challenge and just want to see how far you can get. This also helps to train your reflexes a little for the main game, getting you used to quickly picking numbers to complete the sums.

Visually, S.U.M. has a very basic pixel art style that works well with the simple gameplay. There’s a wide variety of monsters available for you to take on and each level loops through the different enemies. Characters are cute, with different appearances based on their classes. Sadly you can’t fully utilise these as best as I’d like, as they must be unlocked before use - and whilst you level up as you progress, this only affects the active character. So when you finally unlock a new one, you’ll be Level 1 with them, and have to start the grind all over again.

The music is similar throughout, with catchy tunes that change slightly between the levels. They are an odd blend of relaxing, with a strong beat that helps to keep you aware of the timer counting down. It almost feels rhythm based due to the beat, and how you’ll often inadvertently line up your number selections with it. It’s a very fantasy themed soundtrack, and works well with the levels and the monsters you come up against.

There’s not much to say about the controls here, as movement in the overworld is confined to track-like paths that you can move along to reach different areas, and within the levels themselves, your only task is to complete sums, which is done by selecting numbers from a grid. It’s very simple to pick up, and as the levels progress you’ll just need to be able to pick up speed, as well as deal with new sum types, ranging from addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. You get a limited amount of time to complete sums before enemies attack, and you can gain extra gold and experience for pulling off special attacks, by using numbers that match the colour of the equation boxes. As you progress, the sums will increase in difficulty, and whilst some dungeons focus on one type of sum, they’ll often throw you a different one to make sure you’re paying attention! You can even choose from the menu which type of sums you wish to focus on, if you are wanting to improve solely on multiplying, for example.

It’s a simple game, and works perfectly for kids in particular who are looking to improve their maths skills, by making it fun. The reward system of gaining extra coins for completing a level with 100% accuracy further engages you, encouraging you to work fast, but not to the detriment of your quality of work. There’s also extra character-classes to play as, with varying stats as well as different bonuses to give you buffs and alter the gameplay slightly. In-game achievements are also available, giving you incentive to keep going, and all of this really helps to keep it fun, rather than it feeling like school-work. It definitely does get repetitive after a while, but for an educational game, it is well designed in what its aims are, and has been a great thing to keep the kids entertained whilst learning. Priced at £4.49 on the Nintendo eShop, it’s also a fab price for what you get - and isn’t too expensive to consider dropping a fiver on if it’s going to help your kids focus on their maths skills!

In the end, we decided to give S.U.M. - Slay Uncool Monsters the Collecting Asylum rating of 8/10.

Have you played S.U.M. yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!

- V x

Thank you to Doomster Entertainment for the S.U.M. - Slay Uncool Monsters Nintendo Switch review code!