Mail Order Monsters

Commodore 64 · 1985 · WOR

Publisher: Electronic Arts · Developer: Evan Robinson, Paul Reiche III, Nicky Robinson · Genre: Strategy

Mail Order Monsters is an action/strategy game, identified by some people as a precursor to the Pokémon series. The player or players create a variety of monsters, bestow them with different traits and equip them with modern and/or futuristic weapons to do battle. Monsters can be further customised through buying special abilities, such as adding tentacles to use advanced weaponry. Two players can fight against each other, play capture the flag, or compete for a high score against a computer-controlled horde. In single-player mode, the computer controls an opponent to fight. Battles take place on various different maps that can have tactically significant effects, such as mountains for agile monsters to hide behind during combat. Monsters can be stored on diskette and can be upgraded by victories against other monsters or computer opponents.