Monstrously bad controls ruin this well-intentioned game (War Of The Monsters (PS2))

Member Name: Wolfzilla

Product:	War Of The Monsters (PS2)
Date:	14/01/07 (131 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Can be good fun, Graphics and sound

Disadvantages: Controls!

It's quite ironic really, given that they own the American distribution rights to the character, that Sony's PS2 console was the only member of 'the big 3' that didn't recieve a port of Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee. I've no idea why this happened, and the PS2 got it's own port of the game's sequel, Godzilla: Save The Earth, but up until that point, fans of Giant Monster movies, be they B&W classics, schlocky Atomic mutant movies or Japanese Kaiju Eiga, had to make do with Sony's own War of the Monsters.

Nothing to do with the Gamera movie of the same name, is really like an updating of SNK's King of the Monsters via Capcom's Tech Romancer. You see, like Capcom's game did for Manga and Live Action Giant Robot films and cartoons, Sony's effort aimed to do for giant monsters, yet much like SNK's game, no movie or character licenses were purchased, so the game includes a cast of homages, or depending on how cynical you are, rip-offs, of various famous cinematic monsters or trends.

Being a huge fan of not only the Japanese Godzilla films and all of their spin-offs, but the giant monster movie genre in general, from King Kong to Konga, Gorgo to The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, naturally this game appealled to me. I was it's target audience, and as soon as I had a PS2 in my possession, I went about hunting it down.

Now, the giant monsters and kaiju of the cinematic world had never really enjoyed a smooth transition to videogames. For some reason, Toho had steadfast refused to release the Godzilla license, producing odd games like Godzilla: Monster of Monsters and Super Godzilla themselves, before finally relinquishing the rights to Sega, who released Godzilla Generations and it's sequel, Maximum Impact for their Dreamcast console, before Atari landed the rights, and released the two aforementioned games, as well as a Game Boy Advance spin-off.

Naturally, the absence of a license didn't stop various companies over the years trying to cash in on the popularity of the giant monster flick, and the two most notable were SNK's game, which wasn't really all that good, but stood out amongst their hundreds of Streetfighter clones, and Midway's Rampage, the granddaddy of all Giant Monster games. With the exception of most of Toho's bizarre games, the majority of games featuring giant monsters had been fighting games, but Rampage was different. In this game, up to three players played in a semi-cooperative, semi-competitive simultaneous smashing of a city, whoever smashed the most got the most points. This was a huge hit back in the Golden Age of gaming, and saw ports to basically every console up to the Master System, before Midway tried to re-animate it for modern audiences in the ill-recieved Rampage World Tour and it's 2 sequels.

However, a little heard of Dreamcast title from Capcom was probably Sony's biggest inspiration for this game, Tech Romancer proved that even without a license, a good game could be made, and while it's fighters were based on characters like Ultraman and Great Mazinga, they weren't too far removed from Godzilla, Kong and their cronies, so surely it couldn't be that tough?

War of the Monsters is a 3D fighter where, you guessed it, giant monsters go to war with each other in various destructable cities, with the world's fate hanging in the balance. The plot of the game is pretty simple. An attempted alien invasion of the Earth was thwarted when humanity united to create a force field like transmission that screwed up the UFOs, causing them to crash. However, a mysterious green slime that powered them was released, and has caused all sorts of bizarre mutations, as well as malfunctions, all of which are now angry and smashing up cities, as well as each other. Ok, so the game has even less plot than the recent Godzilla games, which is a bit of a bad sign right away. Despite the fact it's characters were new, part of Tech Romancer's success lay in it's marvelous story mode. While the FMV endings we get after completing single player mode, which display your monster's origin, are neat, some kind of substantial plot would have been nice.

Your seleciton of monsters ranges at 8 to begin with, with 2 more being unlockable. You have your Godzilla rip off, Togera, King Kong wannabe Congar, giant Mantis Preytor, Atomic age death robot Robo-47, Mazinger Z-a-like Ultra V, Giant Tiki Idol Agamo, Lava beast Magma and electric monster Kineticlops comprise the starting cast, with the Rodan-like dragon Raptros and the alien invader Zorgulon being unlockable. What is cool about the characters, is that they each have up to 4 unlockable costumes, and while some of them are simple colour changes, some are really nifty, turning Raptros into a living skeleton of itself, Congar into Mecha-Congar(reminiscent of MechaniKong) and one of Togera's costumes even makes him look a little like North Korea's Godzilla rip-off Pulgasari. Naturally they each have their own strengths and weaknesses, special moves and gameplay ticks.

While I could bicker about some characters, my main gripe is maybe that 10 was a few too little. While all the major bases are covered, and that isn't counting the boss characters that only appear in single-player mode, like the helicopter robot, Them! like ants or the Biollante-plant beast, but then, it raises the point of why the helicopter robot, or the final boss Cerebulon, couldn't have been made unlockable fighters? They aren't much bigger than the regular cast.

While the game does feature some mini-games, like dodge-ball and so on, it only really has one single player mode, where you take on all of the enemy monsters, as well as a few bosses, to see your 30 second ending.
The single player mode of the game gets old pretty quickly, and gets frustrating even quicker. You see, some fights feature yourself plus two other monsters duelling to the death, only it's the two of them against you, which isn't very fair. These stages can be ungodly tough at times, but the 1-on-1 fights are ludicrously easy, meaning that you jump from one nigh-on infuriating fight, to one that is over in seconds.

What carries on piling in woe, is that the game simply doesn't play that well. You see, my first complaint isn't really a fault, but a personal gripe with the game, and it's the size of the monsters. The beasts are about King Kong sized, big enough to climb skyscrapers and stuff, without towering over them. Personally, I'm more a Godzilla man, and these piddly sized monsters didn't really do much for me. I'm used to seeing monsters the same size as skyscrapers, not able to climb them after about a minute.

But preference of monster size isn't the game's biggest problem. The game features a lock-on function, most useful when fighting 2 monsters at once right? well, in theory. Yet, the game insists you hold onto 2 buttons to lock-on to your enemy, this is not only painful when done for any length of time, but also obstructs proper use of the other buttons, due to the uncomfortable poise your hands are in. Not only that, but more often than not, the game doesn't lock-on to the monster you want it to, leaving you looking at a building that has a monster on the other side of it, while another beast thumps you over the head with a battleship.

The controls, in general, cause nowt but frustration. You have a light/distanced attack, a close but strong attack, jumping capabilities and a pick up/throw button, all of which work fine, but the actual controlling of the monsters is at times infuriating, as they seem to refuse to go or aim at what you want them to. With a control overhaul, this game could have been so much better.

As with Atari's Godzilla games, there are various power-ups strewn about the place. You can pick up health boosts, as well as Energy, which regulates how many special attacks you can use. While this is quite cool, it does raise a problem, in that the game often becomes less a case of monsters fighting to the death, and more a hit and run for power ups game, one that, when played on single player, the computer always wins.

To the game's credit, when played on 2-Player, it can be a hoot. I say it can be. It uses a rather ambitious system, which I hadn't seen since Toejam & Earl, where the two players have split screens, but they combine into one-full size one if the two are close enough. While this is a great idea, the split-screen doesn't totally work, and leaves you wishing they had included the option to do this on a system link of sorts. What makes this so frustrating, is that when the wars are going on, it's great fun. Pick up almost any piece of scenery from the well designed, and huge, stages, see the buildings take on realistic destruction as you punch your opponent into them, it can be great fun, especially for fans of giant monster flicks. However, it also raises another point, in that, the game allows you to include up to 2 'bots' in versus mode, meaning 4 monsters at once, but why isn't it multi-tap supportive?

It's a shame really, because at times, the game plays like a giant monster fanboy's dream, with good hit detection, and general capturing of the essence of what makes these movies great.

A whole lot of this is down to the presentation and atmosphere of the game. From the Drive-in title screen, to the old-school movie posters during loading, this game will strike a chord with old B-Movie fans everywhere. It's sound is even very evocative of those movies, with it's overblown score seeming to have been lifted straight from some classic monster flick, and one of the tracks sounding very much like the theme of Gamera from the 90s movie trilogy. The sound effects are also good, all of the monsters geared up with a nice and unique roar, as well as the great thudding sound caused when you throw them into a building or wall.

While the game isn't a graphical revelation, it is certainly very impressive, with all of the monsters looking and moving well, and the selection of cities on offer being meticulously detailed and brilliant looking in almost every way, even when chunks of the buildings are flying off because Togera has just punched Congar into the side of one. The lighting effects and pyrotechnics also look top notch, and graphics, along with sound, is one of the few fields I can say I'm completey pleased with when it comes to the game.

When all is said and done, War of the Monsters has to go down as one of the most infuriating games ever. It had the potential to be an outright classic, and proof that a license wasn't needed to make a great game, but it's turned out nothing more than a decent and entertaining game, if only for those who like giant monster movies. It's probably, in general, about the same level as Atari's Godzilla titles, but for the simple fact they control better, and feature licensed monsters, I would recommend it over this. War of the Monsters is a game that features a bad point for every good one, but yet still can offer gamers a lot of fun, providing it isn't all that expensive and they are fans of the genre it pays homage to. While it could have been a classic, War of the Monsters will instead have to live with life next to another B-Movie inspired PS2 game, Monster Attack, on 3 stars and a recommended. In many ways, it's quite fitting really. The game aims to bring all the fun of a B-movie to your gaming life, but in turn ends up beign a videogame equivalent of a B-Movie, a B-Game.

Review also posted on Epinions.com

Summary: Godzilla/King Kong fans will get some fun out of the game, but it isn't great by any means.