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Master of Monsters
Master of Monsters is a surprisingly fun game. In this game you take the role of a master who can summon monsters. You fight other masters, who of course can summon their own monsters. It's a turn-based strategy game where each player alternates taking turns. You can play up to 4 players in one game, although you'll need to pass around the controller since the Genesis can only use 2 controllers. The part I found the best, however was the 2 campaigns, where you can go from one map to the next, and get to keep your monsters. (Actually I only really liked the first campaign, the second was so ridiculously hard that I could never beat the second map)
Gameplay: 8/10
Master of Monsters is a turn-based strategy game. During each turn you can summons monsters, move the monster you've already summoned and cast spells. Your goal is to defeat all the enemy masters. There are many different maps to choose from to play on. Each map has its own terrain layout, which can really affect how the game plays out. Some maps are fairly balanced for all the players, and some are heavily balanced in favor of certain players.
When you start a game you get to choose which master you want to play. Each master has its own list of monsters it can summon, as well as its own unique spells. Depending on the map layout, it may give certain master types an advantage. For example some masters have a high number of flying creatures, others have more swimming creatures. You need to pick a good master for the map you're playing on.
The are dozens of different types of monsters to choose from. You can only summon a small number of monsters, but monsters can level up and turn into a new more powerful monster. This is my favorite part of the game. Each monster type needs a certain amount of experience, which you get from defeating or attacking other monsters, to level up. Once the monster levels up it turns into a new more powerful monster. Most monster types have 3 different levels, some have only 2 and some monsters actually have 4 levels. It's really fun turning wimpy Lizards into Hydra, or turning an already powerful Dragon into a really powerful Death Dragon.
There are a lot of different spells too, although only a few are very useful (like Mind), although most spells will be useful in certain circumstances. You can almost summon a very powerful elemental to attack an enemy once and then disappear.
The main goal of the game is to defeat the enemy. To do this you need to summon monsters, and have the monsters go defeat the enemy (Masters have limited movement). In order to summon more monsters you'll need to capture towers. Most towers start out as neutral (un-owned), but you can always capture your opponents' towers, thereby helping you and hurting them.
In campaign mode, you must complete multiple maps in a row. After each map you get to keep the monsters you had at the end of the last map. You can then summon them in then next map at no cost, normally it costs MP to summon monsters (tougher monsters require more MP). I like how some monsters can only be summoned by enemies during the campaigns. If you want to see them you must go through the campaigns.
Difficulty: 10/10
The 2 campaigns in this game are extremely hard. You can set the number of MP you gain per turn to anywhere from 50 to 100. I always choose 100, and still get slaughtered. You can only summon level 1 monsters, in order to get tougher monsters you need to level them up. In later maps (starting at the second map), the enemies can summon in level 2 and later level 3 monsters. This makes the maps hard to win.
The furthest I ever got on the first campaign is a desert map (less than half-way through). The second campaign I can't beat the second map in. This game is definitely tough, but you can always play individual maps that are much easier against computer opponents. Let's not forget that you can also play the game multi-player.
Replayability: 10/10
With many different maps, and 2 campaigns with a lot of maps each, you'll be playing this game for quite a while. In addition you can play multi-player games. You'll definitely come back and keep playing again and again.
Graphics: 6/10
The graphics are not a high point of this game. They are good enough to tell what's what, but nothing special beyond that. The monsters look like little one colored blobs. The terrain doesn't look too well either. However when your monsters get into combat with each other, the pictures of the monsters attacking each other look quite nice. (otherwise I'd give it a 4 for graphics)
Sound: 5/10
The music and sound effects are certainly nothing special either. I've heard worse, but still the music is not very good.
Story: 1/10
I don't think this game has a story (actually it has a story but it's pathetic and only an excuse to tell why the masters are fighting each other). But who really cares, the game is fun to play,
Overall Rating: 8/10
I really like playing this game. It's fun leveling up monsters to new forms you've never seen before. The problem is the campaigns are too hard (I really would have liked to finish one), and the individual maps are too easy. So I eventually became bored, and I don't have anyone to play multi-player with. The game is quite fun though, albeit a little simple. I give it an 8.
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