Monster Tactics takes many aspects from other games, mixes them up, cuts out a few things, and creates an almost new idea, but not really. The point of the game is to capture monsters. By completing in the Iraldy Kingdom's Monster Hunting Competition, our hero, Kevin, is dedicated to catching the largest and strongest monster any one has ever seen, thereby insuring himself as the champion.

By entering assorted dungeons, Kevin will engage in battle with assorted monsters. If he wins, he earns their skill, and their mark, or Montack, as proof of his victory. If he loses, he's sent back and will have to try again. With each win, Kevin becomes more powerful as he collects an array of attacks.

Finding the monsters is what makes this game different from all the other games so far. Instead of wandering around in an overworld, each monster is in its own dungeon space. The dungeon spaces are dark, and with the only light being the one you give off yourself, tactics and planning are more of an issue than which of you can deal out the damage. Kevin lights up eight spaces in the dungeon, in a 90 degree cone in front of him. As he can move in four directions, he can light up all around him eventually. The catch is, Kevin only has so much time before his turn ends, and the monster's begins. Each character can only attack during its turn, and helplessly waits to be attacked when it's not his turn. However, the monsters don't seem to be able to see you any more than you can see them, so it's more of a game of hide and seek. After a few rounds, the monsters will start hitting harder than Kevin each round, so trading blows will only insure defeat. To attack, and them move far enough away that Kevin won't be found before time expires is the key to victory.

While there's no trading in this game, there's still competitiveness with other players. Simply line up the IR ports of the two Game Boy Colors, and the games will compare the largest monster found, and declare a winner. It was not said if there would be a battle mode, but I feel it would make the game at least somewhat interesting if that were possible. Otherwise, after three or four of these dungeons, I lost interest in continuing, not seeing the point. For a monster collection game, it had its good points, but I still need to catch a few more in Pokémon Silver.