Monster Arena
Monster Arena is a captivating and addicting Flash game that draws its inspiration from Pokémon card games and the like. At the beginning of the game, you have five save slots, and your choice of three pet monsters: Redzilla, Unihound and Cebolla. There are also two locked pets. You’ll unlock the first hidden pet by winning the championship the first time, and then you’ll use that new pet to unlock the next.
The game defines each pet by its statistics: power, defense, agility and intelligence. At 15/10/5/3, Redzilla is a powerhouse. His attacks are strong and focus on damage, and he has excellent defense, but enemies will hit him a lot. At 10/8/8/7, Unihound is the most balanced of the initial pets. She has both good offensive and defensive attacks, and has excellent defense and agility. At 7/7/6/13, Cebolla isn’t particularly good at anything outside of intelligence, but that intellect allows it to adapt to almost any situation.
Monster Arena has three primary modes: training mode, pet mode and battle mode. In between battles, you can swap back and forth between training and pet mode as necessary. As the name suggest, training mode is where you use available experience points to build up your pet. Owners can raise ability scores and train power, defense, agility and intelligence. There’s also a shop where you can purchase power-up items. Some items help the pet in-battle while others increase the effectiveness and efficiency of training.
In pet mode, owners have the opportunity to play with, bathe, brush and even praise their pet. There’s also the option to warn, scold, yell and ground. Players only have so many activity points in between battles, so maintaining maximum effectiveness in training and battle is a balancing act in pet mode. Early on, it will require some trial and error to determine how your pet reacts to what and when. Once you know, you can then manipulate the pet more purposefully.
In battle mode, there is a championship, which comprises four levels each game week: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. The more efficiently and quickly you work your way through a week, the faster your pet will train and become more powerful. The first week of the championship is essentially a tutorial, and experienced players can skip it without missing out. The game will apply the rewards for each stage of week one at the completion of each stage of week two, if it hasn’t already.
Our only gripe with Monster Arena is that the tutorial could be better. There’s an introductory trainer, a trainer during the first training session and then the first week of championship, but it isn’t enough. Most players will be best off chalking their first try up to a learning experience. Play for a while, and then once you have it, delete that monster and start over again.
