On my search for some cool ARKit game, I came across a great little game called Crazy Monsters Strike AR. Crazy Monsters Strike AR is an incredibly fun and challenging cartoony first-person shooter where you need to eliminate monsters before they are able to enter the portal
I must admit that what first caught my attention was the adorable blue wacky character in the game’s logo on the App Store. The game was developed by Dweek Studios, a game, developer that have been developing games for over a decade (since 1988.
Crazy Monsters Gameplay
First of all, just so you know, Crazy Monsters Strike AR is an ARKit games, which means it requires iOS 11.0 or later and it’s compatible only with ARKit compatible devices.
The core gameplay is very simple. You have two touch-controls on each side of the screen (I’ve played it on the iPad), the left one is for picking up the purged monsters which look like little balls (purged monsters = ammo), you just aim the cursor to the orb and press that button to pick it up. The second touch-control on the right is for shooting. You aim the cursor on a monster and tap on the button to release shot and take it down. You only need to shoot a monster once to eliminate it. You also have arrows on the screen that show you where the monsters are, so you won’t need to turn around like crazy looking for them. Even with this visual aid it’s still a challenging game
Ammo is of low supply, so it’s not one of those games that you can spray bullets all over the place and get down with it. You can shoot many bullets, but your ammo will run out very quickly. Without any bullets at your disposal, the game will just stop and give you two options, either buy more chargers of power (that’s the in-game currency) and use them to continue playing or it’s game over. You can also lose the game without any option to come back if the portal loses its health completely. The portal loses health each time a monster enters it, so you need to protect it at all costs and make sure no monster is able to even come close to it.
The game has in-game purchases. You can but an x340 start pack or x930 large pack. This means that if you are out of ammo, you can still continue playing the game and try to beat your previous high score. There is also an option to watch a video commercial an get x5 charger of power.
One thing I noticed is that you can’t get below 15 chargers of power, so you won’t find yourself not being able to play the game because you ran out of charger of power.
The game saves your highest score and there is a trophy icon on the top right side at the home screen where you can see the global leaderboards. As of the time of writing, there are two sections for the leaderboard: Multiplayer Heroes – Highscore and Purge Machines – Monsters Disabled. I am actually #3 in the highscore and #2 in the monsters disabled, but I guess that in a few days I will be pushed back.
Let’s take a look at some gameplay.
The gameplay itself is fast-paced and can be really challenging as you progress. I found myself needing to deal with lots of monsters falling from the sky at the same time, it was crazy but I enjoyed every minute of it. It’s one of those games that I know I will try against and again to beat my previous highscore, I just know it.
What makes this game so special?
When you come to think of it, Crazy Monsters Strike is a very simple shooter, but there is one thing that really makes it stand out from the rest and that is its adorable little creatures.
I think that these creatures are by far the funniest and adorable among all the characters I have met so far in ARKit games. They look so funny, especially when they open their mouth and show their teeth before entering the portal.
The combination of vibrant visuals, beautiful explosion effects, adorable character design, smooth and lovely character animations and great rhythmic music and sound effects—all make the experience amazingly entertaining.
I have to admit that I really like the part of the game where the monsters are coming down from the sky in parachutes. Usually, an ARKit game finds a surface and people put the creatures on the surface, but Dweek Studios took a different approach and I have to admit that the nailed it with that amazing gameplay experience.
To be honest, I felt that making those monsters fall from the sky lead to a very comfortable gaming experience in Augmented Reality. The reason is that I could play the game very comfortably while standing and it works beautifully for adults and kids alike. I don’t like sitting down when playing AR games if I sit I rather play a non-AR game unless it’s a board game.
This game lets me come to a realization about what type of game designs work better in AR. I think this is the same as playing a game in a standing position in VR. I’ve played some AR games that forced me to crouch and it just felt wrong. All I can say is that I definitely happy with how Crazy Monsters Strike AR plays out, it just played really well in AR so kudos to the developer for nailing the AR experience just right.
There are some things I didn’t like, like the size of the sight is too thick, I would have preferred just a dot sight. It’s just a waste that sometimes you are not able to see those cute monsters because the sight covers almost their entire face.
Another thing I would have liked to see is having more portals to protect the longer you are able to survive the game, not just a single portal.
I think it would be even better if there were new types of monsters that you’ll need to deal with at a higher score level. It will be even more fun if there were power-ups. How can a cool augmented reality shooter like this has no power-ups, this game just invites total madness and more turbulent gameplay.
I do understand that the developer wanted to focus on an endless gameplay and I am into it, but you can still add some progression to it. If you add more creature to discover through gameplay, new types of abilities that you can unlock at a certain score, those things will motivate players to spend more time on the game and try to progress, even in the endless mode.
Before I forget, just one last thing before we move on toe sum things up. The game has a pause button at the top left side. What this button does is, of course, pause the game. The cool thing about it is that you can pause the monsters while they are in the air, walk around them, look at their funny faces and even pause their face the moment they open their big mouths and reveal their funny teeth. I highly recommend trying it out, it’s really cool!
This gives me an idea: just imagine a game that plays a like a Matrix, where you can pause time and dodge bullets, a game like Superhot but in AR..mmmm.
Conclusion
As you can clearly tell, I really enjoyed playing Crazy Monster Strike AR. I review many ARKit games and I only get to replay only a small part of the games. What I do know is that I am certainly going to play Crazy Monsters Strike AR again tomorrow, I have no doubt about it.
Crazy Monsters Strike AR can be a lot better, I really mean it. I’ve mentioned some of the things in this review and I honestly think that with some new content, new levels, monsters, and achievements within the endless gameplay itself,—this game can be much better and certainly enjoy a higher replay value.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very addictive and super enjoyable game to play in AR. This vertical gameplay formula works so wonderfully for AR. The shooting feels really good in this game.
Crazy Monsters Strike AR is also very user-friendly. It doesn’t force advertisements on the user and it’s free to play.
Crazy Monsters Strike AR
Summary
Crazy Monsters Strike is one of the rare little gems on the app store. It's a very addictive and amazingly enjoyable AR shooter, featuring super adorable and funny-looking monsters that you probably want to hug not eliminate. The game is free to play and it's one of the better ARKit games on the App Store in my opinion.