Master of the Monster Lair for Nintendo DS Reviews & Ratings by IGN

Master of the Monster Lair is an odd little game. Even though it's childish and repetitive, I still found myself compelled to grind through and keep digging down into my cave. I am the master of it, after all, and with such responsibility comes a certain amount of pride. Building your lair is a sluggish affair that requires coming and going over and over again while you raise your stats one measly point at a time. But there are certainly gamers (especially the younger set) that will be engrossed with what Master of the Monster Lair has to offer.



You are a young boy in a tiny fantasy village who lacks direction in life. When you happen upon a magic talking shovel the mayor decides you'd be the best person to start a dungeon. Monsters have become a problem, you see, and cultivating a welcoming "monster lair" will lure them inside. You are free to dig hallways in any direction one square at a time in order to customize your abode. Once you've attracted enough monsters a boss will appear, and defeating it will grant you access to the next floor.



That's the basic premise, which I like, but there are some strange design choices that make things more tedious than they need to be. Monsters won't show up unless you build "rooms" for them, and you have to purchase rooms in town. When a beast has taken up residence in a room, approaching it will draw the monster out for battle. Collecting items as trophies is essential to progressing, but monsters won't drop anything unless you arrange rooms in a very specific triangle so that you fight three at a time. The fact that you have to plan rooms this way stunts customization.



The way battles are set up, there isn't much room for strategy. Monsters will very often start out asleep, leaving you to attack them one at a time. Or, a goblin might stun you and you won't recover for many turns, allowing them to grind down your hit points unfairly. Eventually you will encounter a Mimic Slime that will accompany you, which does have the useful ability to imitate the attacks of any monsters you encounter.



There are a lot of RPG elements (stats, turn-based battles, dungeon exploration), but it's not a straight up RPG. You won't be embarking on an adventure -- the entire story unfolds in your hometown and all your efforts go into creating this one dungeon. You progress through the game at a snail's pace, repeating the same few mechanics again and again. I always wanted to find out what the next floor had to offer or what items I could get from new monsters, but only a niche audience will have the patience for this Lair.

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