Monster Trainer Comes to iOS Devices Today

Remember back when raising and training a virtual pet was cool? I remember it, but I never got into it as it was a kids thing, but apparently it’s making a comeback with the release of Monster Trainer. You can get the free lite version of the full versions for 99 cents. So go get it and train your monster and maybe bring back some memories of your youth.

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After seven months in development and thousands upon thousands of dollars in expenses, Monster Trainer will begin trying to make it all back $0.99 at a time today.

Monster Trainer allows users to raise, train, and battle friends with their very own monster using an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad device. The application vaguely resembles last decade’s digital pets which thousands of people were so fond of.

Upon their first login, every user is prompted to pick their first monster from either Medusa, a witch, a zombie, Zeus, or a werewolf upon their first login. Training a monster rewards users in two ways: earning experience so the monster can level up and become stronger, and giving the user gold which can be used to purchase more monsters for their farm, buy items to enhance farm life, or diversify battle strategy against their friends.

Users can train up to five monsters per account. When delivered to the farm, monsters are infants and slowly evolve as they grow older. Every monster has a cute infant, awkward adolescent, and fully grown adult stage.

As monsters level up they receive skill points for their trainers to assign to one of several categories to build a fully customized monster. Users can then connect to friends or strangers all across the world via Game Center and battle it out to see who is the best Monster Trainer.

Advances in technology allow for higher entertainment value and less restrictive gameplay in Monster Trainer. Small annoyances like having to feed your monster every couple of hours, cleaning up your monster’s waste, and rudimentary graphics have been replaced with interactive battle versus friends or strangers across the world, engaging mini-games to train monsters, and full customizability of your monster’s skills.

Monster Trainer Lite is available for free on the Apple market for anyone curious about trying the new app, but many features can only be found in the full version.

The full version of Monster Trainer is only $0.99. “The initial feedback has been great, but the public seals our fate now,” said Ian Pribyl, the creator of Monster Trainer and student at the University of Texas at Austin. “I intend to update the app frequently as the sales start coming in, but I’m extremely confident in the level we’re launching at.”

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