Draft:Areena (video game series)

Areena
Genre	Management game, turn based
Creator(s)	Seppo Suorsa
Publisher(s)	Areena Games
First release	Areena 1 (1991)
Latest release	Arena 8: Liberatio (2021)

Arena (Areena) is a gladiator management game series developed by Seppo Suorsa from Kempele, Finland. In the games the player’s task is to assemble a team of gladiators representing various races familiar from fantasy literature to compete against other teams. Players recruit, train, and equip their gladiators, aiming to rise through the divisions toward championship glory.

Arena is one of the most well-known Finnish freeware game series and has enjoyed a loyal fanbase since the 1990s. The latest installment of the series, Arena 8: Liberatio, was released in 2021 for Android and iOS.

History

The game series originated from Seppo Suorsa's idea to combine football management with fantasy role-playing. Suorsa released the first Arena game for the Commodore 64 in 1991. With the exception of the first Arena, the games in the series are available as freeware.

The Finnish Game Museum, which opened in 2017 in the Vapriikki Museum Center in Tampere, included Arena 5 in its "100 Finnish Games" exhibition as one of one hundred games that have significantly influenced Finnish game culture.

Gameplay

The player manages a team of gladiators, with the goal of guiding them to ascend the ranks and ultimately win the championship. Gladiators are recruited from familiar races in fantasy literature and games, each possessing unique strengths (such as a skilled healer or a durable zombie). Players must oversee the training and equipment of their gladiators; in addition to melee weapons (such as clubs, axes, swords, and spears), gladiators can also be armed with ranged weapons (bows and crossbows). Besides weapons and armor, gladiators can cast spells during battles to heal injured teammates or confuse opponents.

Team performance is measured in battles, which the player can either let the AI manage or control turn-based actions for each gladiator from a top-down perspective. Success in matches allows the player's team to advance to higher divisions and earn money from ticket sales and victory bonuses. It is the player's responsibility to invest these funds back into the team, whether through training gladiators, purchasing new gear, or recruiting better fighters. Additionally, player expenses include gladiator salaries. The Arena games combine tactical combat in matches with economic management outside of them.

Main Games

Areena 1

Text-based game for Commodore 64. In Areena 1, players control a single brave gladiator, battling through five intense divisions against a variety of unusual opponents. The main objective is to win the league championship, which rewards the victor with freedom granted by Caesar.

No longer publicly available.

Areena 2

The first version of the series released for PC in Visual Basic. Unlike the first Arena, Arena 2 was not solely text-based but also included graphics, including an isometric overview of the battlefield. A unique feature of Arena 2 was battles against wild animals, such as reindeers, which were not seen in later installments.

Areena 3

Was the last version compatible with Windows 3.x. The battle mechanics in the third installment were more diverse due to the inclusion of bows and spells. Arena 3 laid the groundwork for future releases, as Arena 4 and Arena 5 were much more based on the third installment than their predecessors.

Areena 4

Regarded mainly as an improved and balanced version of Arena 3.

Areena 5

The game builds on its predecessors by introducing numerous innovations, including new races, spells, and seasonal heroes. Matches can now feature twelve fighters instead of eight, and players can select from various difficulty levels (easy, normal, hard, and impossible).

Players can choose from four melee weapons: spears (cheapest, least knockback), swords and axes (moderate), and clubs (most expensive, highest knockback). Additional ranged weapons, such as bows and crossbows, offer different firing capabilities and damage. Each race has unique attributes like strength, speed, mana, and endurance, with one race's god gaining superiority each month, doubling damage and spell effects for that race.

Gladiator abilities are influenced by morale, injury levels, and spells. Players select a formation of six gladiators to control during division and cup matches across four divisions, starting in the fourth and aiming for the first. Gladiators can develop through combat and training, retiring at 35 years old. The game concludes if the player resigns or if their reputation falls below 10, with the board determining reputation based on match outcomes. A low reputation makes the player a target for an assassin.

Areena 6

Was the first web browser version of the series as well as the first game in the series with English language option. Compared to its predecessor, the game remained relatively unknown, and Suorsa later described it as the series' tentative first steps into the world of browser games.

Areena 7

Completely differed from its predecessor with a new user interface and more modern graphics. For the first time in the series, music was included, and the game characters were illustrated by artist Vesa Valkonen, raising Arena 7 to a new audiovisual level compared to its predecessors. Nevertheless, the game did not contain all the content of Arena 5. Some of the old playable races were offered to backers of the Arena: Gladiator League board game.

Arena 8: Liberatio

A mobile game released in May 2021 for Android, iOS, and iPad devices. The mobile game closely resembles the classic Arena 5.

Other Releases in the Series

• Gladiator Manager (2008) was the first English-language release of the game series. Gladiator Manager mirrored the game mechanics of Arena 4 and Arena 5. Battles were again fought with four gladiators against four, and unlike the open battlefields of the fifth installment, the arena was filled with obstacles such as trees and rocks. Comic Sans font was no longer used in the game’s internal texts.
• Gladiator Manager Mobile (2008) was a mobile game released for Java phones. In Gladiator Manager Mobile, the player managed their team and controlled battles using the mobile phone's number keys. Designed for phones of the era, the game resolution was 240 x 320 pixels, which significantly reduced the size of the battlefields. Like Gladiator Manager and Arena 4, battles were fought with four gladiators against four. Only an English version was released.
• Arena: Gladiator League (2018) was a board game set in the world of Arena games. Designed by Tuomas Anttonen in collaboration with Seppo Suorsa, the game borrowed thematic material from the main games in the series but did not include gameplay similarities with them. The illustrations were also produced by Vesa Valkonen, who worked on Arena 7's graphics. Funding for the game's release was raised through crowdfunding; the project gathered 333 supporters and nearly 13,000 euros on the mesenaatti.me platform. Rush Games published the game on March 31, 2018. After its release, the board game received criticism for its simplicity and reliance on chance; the flow of the game was perceived to be based mainly on the random results of drawn cards. The game's visual execution received praise.