Monster Striker

Monster Strike is, well, it's odd.

It's a weird combination of air hockey and free to play games like Puzzle & Dragons. But while all of the puck-shuffling can be entertaining, it still feels like more of the same in slightly different packaging.

It's just a fling

The framework of Monster Strike might seem familiar, because it is. It's the same kind of approach several other freemium puzzlers have taken.

Fight your way through waves of enemies, earn money and creatures, fuze creatures to level-up your strongest fighters, recruit other players before a battle, and so on. It's eerily similar at times, right down to the art style.

What really sets it apart is the way in which you use your recruits. Rather than matching gems or something similar, you drag a finger across the screen and let go to launch them like hyperactive marbles.

As they strike enemies they'll do damage, but they can also perform other types of attacks when struck by their teammates.

Bounce around in circles

These super-bouncy combos can create an interesting spectacle, but it never really fees like my approach matters. There's just no strategy to it. More often than not, all you really need to do is pick a direction and launch a character as hard as possible.

It also doesn't take long for you to save up enough Orbs (premium currency) to get a solid team together, which removes even more of the challenge.

Then it's just a matter of waiting for energy to refill between levels and occasionally fusing monsters - and even that starts to become a problem when you run low on Gold and your Monster Box fills up with a bunch of throwaways.

Monster Strike has a decent enough hook, but without much of a challenge it doesn't stay interesting for too terribly long.