Ploughing through to the end
There are plenty of weapons on offer in Monster Madness, many of which can be picked up from searching around one of the 20 detailed and great looking environments such as 'The Shopping Maul'or the park. There's a massive range of interesting melee weapons, such as umbrellas, spades or swords and dozens of projectile weapons such as grenades launchers and flame-throwers, but for the most part, it's the visual impact of the weapons on the semi-destructible environment that is impressive rather than the perfect accuracy of the shot or the smooth mechanics of handling them.
That's not to say there isn't fun to be had in Monster Madness, because for all its downfalls there are some good ideas and humorous situations. One of the highlights is weapon customization. Though the game is linear in nature you can explore the environment to a certain extent, mooching in people's back gardens, behind their parked cars or trash cans, in order to find weapon parts which can then be used to build more powerful weapons' such as a launcher that fires out CDs or the superb glue-gun which can stick an enemy firmly to the floor. Once you've gathered these parts you then visit Larry's Tool Trailer and spend your monster tokens, which you'll pick up when you kill enemies. Larry will then construct your new powerful weapon for you.
Click for larger imageThere are some great ideas in Monster Madness that do break up some of the tedious fighting sequences, such as setting off traps to kill monsters. In Jack's house at the beginning of the game the kitchen is flooded with water and you can press a switch to turn in a lamp that's lying on the floor. If any enemies are walking past they'll be electrocuted. In each level you'll find a number of these death traps and they're certainly more fun to use than merely just ploughing through the levels wacking enemies out of the way. Driving vehicles is another welcome addition, for example you ride a UFO, Go-Kart or Hovercraft or whilst strolling around the park on the look-out for evil clowns you can jump on the Swan boat moored in the lake and use its cannon to shoot down pirates.
Artificial Studios have obviously spent some time thinking about how they could make an engaging monster slaying game and they should be commended on some elements of the game that work really well, such as the atmosphere that's been generated by the style, well-detailed locations and good use of physics. The most fun to be had in Monster Madness is watching the animations and enjoying the humour of the game rather than the gameplay itself. There's an offline 4 player co-op mode and a fair amuont of online modes to get your teeth stuck into, including capture the flag and king of the hill, but despite all the decent online options you'll still be just pressing those buttons like a maniac. Nevertheless, whilst Monster Madness won't be everyone's cup of tea I've got a feeling that the game could pick up a cult following and bizarrely I'm looking forward to seeing what Artificial Studio's next game will be.
Pros
Stylish
Great animations
Funny
Cons
Poor unresponsive controls
Repetitive fighting
Dodgy cameras
It's great!! No...it's awful. Oh, we don't know...it's...er...an average monster bash, but at the same time, just a whisker away from being a classic.
HEXUS Awards
Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia - Xbox 360
