Monster Strike, the free mobile game that has already taken its native Japan by storm, has crossed the 3 million downloads mark and now plans to expand in to China.
Monster Strike is a mix of action and RPG in which players control a total of four monsters inside an arena and aim to kill waves of enemies until a boss character appears at the end of the stage.
Created by the in-house mobile games development branch of the Japanese social network Mixi, the game has been praised for its high production values and creature design.
As is the trend in Japan these days, the game also offers elements like collecting monster cards, creating decks, fusing two or more monsters to create stronger ones, clearing missions and entering special events.
Another element is the multi-player mode that allows up to four people to fight monsters together at the same time. At the moment, this mode is only available via Bluetooth.
The success of Monster Strike was so unprecedented that it even managed to turn around the fortunes of its developer’s social networking brand – Mixi was predicted to lose somewhere in the region of 1.6 billion yen ( £9.5 million), but now stands to make an operating income of 200 million yen ( £1.2 million).
Following its domestic success, Mixi has reached a deal with China’s Tencent to provide its mobile game for use on smartphones in the country.
Users do not require a Mixi account to play the game, so if you feel like giving it a shot (bear in mind the current Monster Strike is a Japanese-language version) you can grab it for iOS here and for Android here.
Check out a gameplay video below:
Source: Bloomberg, Tech in Asia
