Ahead of the Game - Pet Clash is a strategy-slash-idle sim where you collect quirky woodland creatures to become the sort-of Monkey King
Kingly wood chopping and fish grilling abound
- Gather resources as a would-be king
- Collect pets that look suspiciously familiar
- Auto-battle your way through the forest for more goodies
Hello and welcome to Ahead of the Game, a series where we tell you all about an upcoming game that, despite not being out yet, is available for you to play at the time of publishing. Through this series, you can grab a chance to play games well ahead of their release date, be that through Soft Launch, Open Beta, Demos, or more.
Shakespeare did say that heavy is the head that wears the crown, especially when you're king of a forest filled with woodland creatures that have their own agendas.
From the title alone, Pet Clash can be pretty confusing given I was expecting some sort of battle arena where domesticated fluffs go head-to-head in cutthroat combat. Instead, it's an SLG where you take matters into your own hands - apparently after having been kicked out by a picky king you offered a piece of fish to.
If all that sounds a tad odd, that's because it totally is - Pet Clash puts you in the shoes of an enraged monkey who appears to be on a quest for vengeance. You're after the crown, it seems, and because your adorable avatar looks exactly like the famed Monkey King from Journey to the West, I feel like this is a bit of a loose retelling of just how you got the "King" at the end of your moniker in the first place.
I mean, it's no Sun Wukong narrative, as you're basically running around gathering resources to build your own kingdom from scratch. But it does let you recruit all kinds of "pets" from the Tavern to join you on your quest, and as confusing as that sounds, the charming visuals and cute character designs more than make up for the ridiculousness of it all.
So, essentially, you'll swim to fish, cut down trees for kindling, and grill said fish to fulfil certain tasks and build your forest kingdom. Eventually, as you unlock more characters - with everything from a chicken with a clove of garlic on its head to a furry feline that looks suspiciously like Puss in Boots - you can also assign these Pets to specific tasks to keep your operations going.
Battles are an easy, low-key, and totally idle affair, and as you level up your Pets and boost their abilities, you can also increase productivity to make sure your territories stay afloat.
Honestly, it doesn't reinvent the wheel where gameplay is concerned, but personally, the characters themselves are the main appeal here. I mean, I absolutely love how each one has a hilarious name too - just take the aforementioned Garlic Chicken and the literally named High Horse, for instance. Really. Whoever named these Pets deserves a raise.
So, how do you play Pet Clash?
Well, it's on Early Access according to Google Play in my region, but it's actually in open beta according to the official Facebook page. It's hard to believe Pet Clash is from the same studio that birthed Devil May Cry: Peak of Combat given the completely different genre, but since it's got an adorable shiba inu chonk as its app icon, I am all for it.
