WAR OF THE MONSTERS
Original Release: Sony, 2003, PlayStation 2
A "spiritual sequel" of sorts to SNK's King of the Monsters games, bringing the concept into 3D and delivering a mixed bag
War of the Monsters (PS2, Sony, 2003)
Where to Buy: Amazon
How to Emulate: PlayStation 2 Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
Throwing giant monsters into cityscapes to randomly brawl with each other whilst they smash everything up is a very solid concept ... as was proven by SNK's "King of the Monsters" games about 10 years before this came out. War of the Monsters is pretty much an unofficial 3D follow-up to those games, having the big hitters of the rubber monster world duke it out while smashing down buildings, throwing debris and vehicles at each other and just generally making a huge mess. I guess SNK didn't have much of a case for IP violation when both parties were liberally cribbing from the libraries of Toho Co., Bandai and RKO Pictures.
So the setup is that in the near future, the people of Earth manage to hold off an alien invasion. However, leaking radioactive liquids from the downed alien ships makes contact with assorted insects and fauna and mutates them into characters that are similar to BUT LEGALLY DISTINCT FROM Godzilla, Kong, Ultraman and so on. We pick a monster to play as while beating up all the other monsters in various settings around the world such as Vegas and NYC stand-ins, a nuclear site and an Air Force base.
There's an "adventure mode" but it really has no story, you're just shuttled through a sequence of monster fights with no dialogue. That aspect really isn't necessary, though. Adventure Mode and the "Endurance" fight mode are the only two places you earn "Battle Tokens", which are deployed at a shop in Marvel vs Capcom 2 style to buy various unlockables.
The game was made by development team Incognito, who almost exclusively made vehicle combat games aside from this: they picked up the Twisted Metal series when it moved to PS2 (Sweet Tooth is a hidden unlockable in this game), and they were also behind the fun sleeper mountain biking hit Downhill Domination. It's not bad, but it just feels sloppy all around. It feels more like a PS1 game with PS2 graphics overlaid, if that makes sense, and knowing the dev team's history it kinda jibes with them basically repurposing a vehicle combat engine of the likes of Twisted Metal and adding jumping and climbing to it.
The biggest problem, given that this is essentially a competitive fighter, is a seeming total lack of play balance. Fast monsters with fast swings are far and away the move here, as the basic attack combos are more damaging than anything else. With fast attacks you can swing first and interrupt opponent attacks, and fast movement allows you to follow them when they go flying and wail on them some more when they hit the ground. It's such a pronounced difference that I was breezing through the game with the Zorak-looking bug monster, who seems to be the fastest of all, but was struggling to even win one match with the rest of the roster.
The computer also abuses the wildly swinging camera, which struggles to keep up with the constant and loose movement, to the absolute fullest. I mean, it abuses the fact that it can always "see" you while you constantly have to re-lock-on and adjust the camera to keep track of it. Want to fight other humans instead? Probably a better way to have fun with the game, but you're limited to two players only (though arenas can have multiple CPU monsters brawling). The developers reportedly advertised four-player action pre-release then cut it at the last minute due to budget and time issues or something.
The lack of true multiplayer is a big hit to the game's value, as single-player options get thin very quick. The "adventure mode" is unfortunately interspersed with "boss battles" that are some of the lowest-effort I've ever seen in the 3D world; some asshat literally sits on an unreachable ledge and just throws stuff at you that you have to tediously throw back. Which would be fine if it was over with quick but it takes absolutely forever to peck their health down, it's like a Metroid Prime 2 boss.
Though this review sounds decidedly negative, I do think War of the Monsters has something to offer giant monster fans. It has a very nice presentation, the graphics and pulp 1950s incidental art are easily the best bit of the game. Sloppy though it might be, the gameplay is acceptable for something casual and fast to just pick up and play for fun with a friend. And in terms of emulation it's a very "light" PS2 game, only about 1 GB uncompressed and not demanding at all. You've got to anticipate something a bit amateurish, though, and definitely not much meat on the bone for the single player.
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