Just before Christmas, popular children’s virtual world Moshi Monsters launched a brand new game for iPhone and iPad called Moshi Monsters Village. Now it’s available on Android too.

The game remains the same: a village-building game where you have to create a village for Moshlings characters, after rescuing them from the villainous Dr. Strangeglove.

It’s reminiscent of the genre that spawned FarmVille, albeit with a day-glo colourful world populated by characters that your kids will recognise if they’re fans of Moshi Monsters – which has spawned a successful magazine, books and even a film in recent years.

Your children will be building houses, playing mini-games to rescue the Moshlings, and customising their village, as well as visiting those of friends. For children older than 13, this includes the ability to invite Facebook friends, but younger kids can write down a friend code created in the game, and give it to friends.

As on iOS, the game is free to download and play, but it uses in-app purchases for virtual items: coins and ‘Rox’ gems. On iOS, these currencies were available in quantities costing between £1.49 and £29.99, and the same is true on Android.

Moshi Monsters publisher Mind Candy is keen for parents to understand how the in-app purchases work, and also how to set their restrictions so that children can’t spend without their permission.

The company has created a guide on its website for parents, explaining how to set these restrictions on Apple devices. We’re assuming it will be updated now to include Android instructions too.

Moshi Monsters Village is a free download for Android from the Google Play store, and more than 50,000 people have already installed it since its release yesterday, so it looks set to be popular.

Read about more Moshi Monsters apps for kids on Apps Playground, and check out our 100 Best iPad Apps of 2013 e-book – £1.99 from Apple’s iBooks Store