A few months ago I looked into doing a roundup of app icon packs on the Play Store. I made a discovery: most of them are depressingly uniform. You've got square icon packs, round icon packs, "Material" and "Holo" packs, various interpretations of minimalism or 3D, and packs for every conceivable sports team and anime fandom. But icon packs that are both unique and interesting are thin on the ground. That's why Upbeat Monsters is so refreshing.

This cutesy icon pack from Play Store rookie Mark Pixel re-imagines popular Android icons as squared-off "monsters" (in the Sesame Street sense). The effect is a cross between the squared-off Creepers from Minecraft and the googly-eyed Minions from Despicable Me. A delightful amount of creativity goes into each of the icons - the Instagram monster is wearing a beret. Perfect.

The only real downside is that it's tough to recognize some of the icons at first glance. Chrome is easy enough to spot, but the icons for YouTube (above left, in the third row) and Flipboard (above right, first row) are a little more obtuse. Still, I'll bet you can get used to it soon enough. Upbeat Monsters includes 139 icons and 5 wallpapers, and it's compatible with Nova, Apex, Go Launcher, and most other popular Android homescreen alternatives. It's a $2.20 download in the Play Store.