EDITOR’S NOTE: Hey, everyone! Please welcome new contributor Kelvin Marn, who’ll be writing for us about mobile games, and, uh… whatever else I tell him to do. (He might end up interviewing Orion about his use of “gluten” as a pejorative, I don’t know yet.) Anyway! Here’s his first piece, a look at the mobile game Monster Strike. — JM
The struggle for top game in the Google Play Store and Apple app store in Japan is real. Constantly fighting for the top-grossing game with GungHo Online’s Puzzle Dragon, Mixi, Inc.’s Monster Strike takes on their collectible characters and takes them into a casual action style game. There are hundreds of well-designed monsters in the game with unique abilities and skills that all feed the need to collect ‘em all!
Monster Strike is a slingshot-style multiplayer game where the objective is simple: use your team of monsters to bounce, pierce, shoot missiles, shoot lasers, and blow things up in order to take down the minions to get to the boss. The game is deceptively easy going in, but with progression into harder stages, the stronger enemies and deadlier gimmicks (such as damage walls and land mines) add complexity and skill.
The themes and event stages rotate daily and always keep things interesting. The monster designs take inspiration from characters in fairy tales, mythological gods, and even non-fictional personalities such as Napoleon Bonaparte but with added Japanese anime flavour (and not-so-occasional gender swaps).
One of the coolest features of the game is its multiplayer. Invitations to lobbies can be done through popular apps such as Facebook, Line, and Whatsapp, and can hold 4 players at a time, allowing friends to beat down on giant mechs and dragons together. Monster Strike rewards players with bonuses such as increased drop rates and friend points to use for obtaining more monsters; players on Reddit and Line have even created invite groups to make getting those bonuses even easier!
Dragon-slaying aside, the team at Mixi, Inc. does freemium games the right way. Acquirable premium currency (Orbs) through daily events, repeat play, playing with other players and through achievements make obtaining powerful premium-only characters like Zeus obtainable, so long as you are lucky with random draws. Being able to get faster, stronger, and overall more badass (or cute) without having to spend a dime only makes you want to finish “just one more” quest; that is, until you rank up and refill your stamina allowing you to do the entire addicting cycle over again, inevitably leaving you with 2 hours of sleep until you need to get up for work.
Positioning elements, gimmick immunities, and race bonuses are all things that you would hear in an RPG or strategy game; but Monster Strike wraps all these things together in an explosive box that gives even casual gamers with little time for play something they can enjoy.
Kelvin Marn is a Contributor for aybonline.com.
