My Pocket Stars Game Review
My Pocket Stars is a free browser game about catching and training small battle pets, from which you can build an entire collection. It is very similar to the famous Pokémon, and the pocket monsters here look familiar, but there is no mention of the franchise itself or sensational names like Pikachu. Nevertheless, the game has a lot of thoughtful aspects - it looks and feels more solid than most of the tricks to run in the browser. Let's find out what makes this CreaGames project interesting.
I choose you!
In the world of My Pocket Stars, everything revolves around catching and training magical pets. You act as a trainer who knows how to deal with these animals. And at the start you get to choose the appearance and initial characteristics, which is rarely found in browser games. However, there aren't too many choices: if you bracket out the minor bonuses, there's a girl in a beret and a guy in a cap - and each has a starting set of a couple of pokémon in stock. Over time, you can add over a hundred unique creatures to your collection, so the starter specimens serve more as an introduction to the basic rules - saving them to high levels usually makes no sense.
And there are some really distinctive critters. In addition to appearance, they all differ in parameters of defense, attack, usefulness for the squad and elemental bonuses. For example, there are creatures with low health, but are able to enhance other creatures and resist fire damage. Pokémon are drawn from the real prototypes, only with original details in appearance, and their nicknames are new. The most striking example is Pikachu, which in the game is called Electric Mouse and dressed up in a helmet with a military off-duty. The same principle was applied to Squirtle as Skull, Bulbasaur as Toad, and Coffin as Stinky.
Regardless of the size of the collection, a trainer can only add up to five pets to the active squad. They are the ones who will take the hit if challenged or, conversely, run into enemies during the journey. And since the total number of pets in the collection is much larger, their choice for the team turns into a tactical task. Here it all depends on the enemy: if he's vulnerable to fire, you should collect five flame creatures before the fight, and if the foe, on the contrary, is such, it makes sense to uncover pokémon hitting water. This is just an example - in practice it's a bit more complicated. Let's say for a specific situation you need someone with strong defense and weak damage, taunt skill and herbal immunity, and in addition it's advisable to give him a partner with healer skills and complement this pair with strong water creatures.
Battles themselves are organized elementary. By default the combat is conducted automatically, in a "wall-to-wall" format, and you only have to watch its course to receive a reward in the end. On the other hand, no one's stopping you from switching everything to manual mode with a single click - but this won't make the process any more complicated or exciting. It's just that the hits that were done for you by the computer, you now activate manually. But the biggest disadvantage of battles is the same melody in the background. If you constantly play with the sound on, it quickly gets boring.
Regardless of the size of the collection, a trainer can only add up to five pets to the active squad. They are the ones who will take the hit if challenged or, conversely, run into enemies during the journey. And since the total number of pets in the collection is much larger, their choice for the team turns into a tactical task. Here it all depends on the enemy: if he's vulnerable to fire, you should collect five flame creatures before the fight, and if the foe, on the contrary, is such, it makes sense to uncover pokémon hitting water. This is just an example - in practice it's a bit more complicated. Let's say for a specific situation you need someone with strong defense and weak damage, taunt skill and herbal immunity, and in addition it's advisable to give him a partner with healer skills and complement this pair with strong water creatures.
Battles themselves are organized elementary. By default the combat is conducted automatically, in a "wall-to-wall" format, and you only have to watch its course to receive a reward in the end. On the other hand, no one's stopping you from switching everything to manual mode with a single click - but this won't make the process any more complicated or exciting. It's just that the hits that were done for you by the computer, you now activate manually. But the biggest disadvantage of battles is the same melody in the background. If you constantly play with the sound on, it quickly gets boring.
Finding an opponent is not difficult. My Pocket Stars has enough locations: you can fight with hordes of monsters on the city map, go to the Settlement, where other players meet, walk to the Dark Forest, the Rushing Rivers or the Ancient Crypt to pass a series of trials with a boss and a treasure chest at the end of each. Pulled to test your strength against other trainers? Check out the Arena. You can get rewards for winning battles: food for Pokémon or Pokémon themselves, coins, jewels, artifacts, equipment, puzzle pieces to make particularly strong critters (about creating new collection members see below), and other useful things. You can grow your own food - for this there's a Resort, where you cultivate a garden and train your pets. You'll find a use for any loot in the game - you won't waste your stash.
How does collecting and pet development work?
So, the main asset of the player in My Pocket Stars is his collection of little fighters. But where do they come from? Pokémon can be obtained as a reward for completing a story or daily task. More search monsters with their further taming is available in different locations - in the same Dark Forest, for example. Even for the usual entry into the game after a break you will be given the opportunity to fill up your virtual menagerie. True, in most cases the creatures are not received as a whole, but in the form of fragments of the puzzle. These pieces must be saved up in order to eventually make a whole set of pet. Some rarities consist of dozens of pieces, so it's not a quick process.
There is no point in collecting all pokémon in a row. First of all, trainers look at the degree of rarity of the animal, which can be determined by the color markings. If the inscription above the pet's head is blue, it's the most common type - they are a dime a dozen here, and they are of no special value to the player. A little less common are "purple" and "orange", and the most advantageous variety is "red". By coloring you can estimate not only the probability of finding a creature, but also its potential after pumping. The best fighting pets grow from red-colored specimens. Their training is the main focus. As for the "blue" ones, they are treated differently: if in the process of improvement you can get a good "red" specimen from them, they are left in the collection, and if not - they are taken apart for resources for the development of other characters.
However, catching or collecting a rare critter is only half the battle. You have to constantly take care of it. First of all, increase the level of trust to the trainer, which is achieved by feeding it. A variety of food for Pokémon, from fruit to candy, can be obtained as a reward for battles and tasks. The second stage is evolution, which consists of a number of stages. For example, Turtle can be transformed into a stronger (and rarer) Tortilla, and then, having accumulated enough resources, you can perform this improvement procedure again and again. The tougher the creature, the more voracious it is in its upgrades, but its efficiency also increases. In particular, there are new types of attack, open cells for enhancing items of equipment - and the little cutie becomes a doomsday machine.
However, catching or collecting a rare critter is only half the battle. You have to constantly take care of it. First of all, increase the level of trust to the trainer, which is achieved by feeding it. A variety of food for Pokémon, from fruit to candy, can be obtained as a reward for battles and tasks. The second stage is evolution, which consists of a number of stages. For example, Turtle can be transformed into a stronger (and rarer) Tortilla, and then, having accumulated enough resources, you can perform this improvement procedure again and again. The tougher the creature, the more voracious it is in its upgrades, but its efficiency also increases. In particular, there are new types of attack, open cells for enhancing items of equipment - and the little cutie becomes a doomsday machine.
Except that beginners do not have much opportunity to breed super monsters, because the level of pets is limited to the level of the trainer, who must constantly raise the status of his license. You can do this for money or after accumulating enough experience and virtual coins.
Conclusion
Browser games rarely offer well thought-out and diverse mechanics - usually they are riveted on a hurry primitive entertainment. But My Pocket Stars stands out brightly: here we found a place for a mass of unique pets and their versatile leveling, locations and adventures, as well as elements of tactics. In addition, all this carefully drawn and animated in pseudo-3D - watching the battles are interesting not only from the standpoint of the commander, who guessed the correct composition of the squad, but also purely aesthetically. If you need something fun and unobtrusive to sometimes relax in the evening for an hour or two, this game is perfect.
November 2020
November 2020