War of the Monsters
The guys behind Twisted Metal: Black take a stab at something a little cheerier, and with interesting results. Full review inside.
Published: January 28, 2003
There's something utterly satisfying about throwing a good four of five punches, then just letting loose with a shot that knocks the other guy 30 feet into the base of a skyscraper, splaying rubble across busy streets, then watching - almost in slo-motion - as the gutted mass of steel and concrete gives up its battle with gravity and topples down onto the beast sitting dazed at its base. War of the Monsters lets you do this, and many times over, something that managed to endear it to my heart within seconds of picking up the controller. The folks that brought you arguably the best car combat game ever made have seen fit to unleash their creativity on 50's-era B movie stereotypes with absolutely stunning results. Unfortunately, as dee-lish as all the camp and nostalgia is, it's also very reminiscent of the source material; pretty, stylish, but ultimately rather vapid when it comes to depth.
That's not to say the game is without subtlety, and for an experience that revolves around chucking 100-foot tall monsters into buildings, subtlety is a rare treat, but don't go into things expecting Street Fighter-level depth here. War of the Monsters, above all else, is a very classic brawler that borrows heavily from old-school hits like Rampage or Double-Dragon. The result is something that immediately harkens back to the simpler days of gaming, and for those of us eternally longing to return to our youth to experience a simpler time in gaming, this game is a blessing.
So here's the story as it stands before you make with the punching and the kicking and the tossing into buildings: As we've always suspected, we are not alone in the universe, but the visitors that finally make contact with our little blue world do so with lasers rather than outstretched hands/tentacles/drippy appendages. On the cusp of human annihilation, scientists of the world unite in building towers that broadcast a UFO-smiting pulse. Within hours, Earth is nearly saucer-free. Unfortunately, those big flying discs weren't powered by 92 octane from Chevron, so when the ships crash to earth, the fuel leaks out, mutating various creatures from around the globe and apparently motivating them to throw down against one another. Thus begins the War of the Monsters.
Your stable of combatants is, again, deliciously corny. All the 50's staples are here; the giant lizard, the Japanese robot, the giant praying mantis, the huge ape, etc. In all, there are 10 different monsters to pick from, two of them unlocked. Aside from special moves, though, the monsters tend to function more or less the same. Some are faster, some jump higher, some deal or take more/less damage or unleash combo attacks easier, but ostensibly you're looking at 10 different skins for a basic monster design.
That design includes the ability to lay down a handful of punches (square button), kicks (triangle), grabs and throws (circle) in order to accomplish the singular goal of reducing your opponent to a growling pulp. There are easy enough combos, of course; mashing on the punch or kick buttons will get you a slowly building flurry of damage, but the real fun lies in discovering random combos and using the environments to your advantage. The environments are what keep the game from slipping into complete tedium, since nearly everything you see can be used against your opponents.
What's that? Example? Can do. Say you see your opponent rounding a corner into the same open area you're standing in. You stride over, pick up a gas tanker, and chuck it at your approaching attacker. The tanker explodes, lighting your opponent on fire. You walk up, throw a handful of punches at his face, then let loose with a backflip-kick that sends them flying into a building. As they hit the building, the outside explodes in a shower of rubble, leaving a steel and stone skeleton behind. You leap to the top of a nearby building wrench a radio antenna from the rootop and hurl that at the attacker. It impales him, leaving him open to attack. You jump down, mash circle to pick him up, then dash a couple feet away only to turn around and lob him gently as the aforementioned skeleton building. The building cracks and falls, crushing the opponent.
What I've just mentioned can be done on the first level. That's the beauty of WotM: the simple fact that the environments are not only fun to interact with, they're a crucial part of playing the game, and factor into your move set at all times. Through 10 levels, you'll toss cars, strips of rebar, slabs of concrete, and just about anything else you can pick up. The problem isn't what you can do in the levels; it's the levels themselves.
See, WotM's biggest flaw is the fact that it's about as linear as games can get in the single-player adventure mode. Since this is the only way you'll be able to unlock the ending for each monster, and since you'll get the biggest payoff of tokens (which can be used to buy unlocks like levels, mini-games, costumes and new characters), you'll be playing this mode a lot. The same 10 levels with the same set of monsters await you every time. Add to this the fact that the game only supports two players and absolutely BEGS to be played online, and you'll find a game that might not be deep enough to support plopping down $50.
Should you decide that it's worth the plunge, however, you'll be treated to one of the prettiest games on the PS2. It's obvious that the folks at Incog are familiar with the PS2 hardware, and it shows. War of the Monsters runs on the Twisted Metal: Black engine (albeit modified quite a bit), which means super-smooth, super-clean images with gobs of detail. The game honestly doesn't even look like it's running on a PS2, and if you were to stash a controller and the PS2 somewhere and just let the game run, anyone who's not up to date on PS2 games would probably mistake it for a game for another system.
The attention to detail - especially on the worlds themselves, which seem to share a bit of the same color palette but still manage to look almost nothing alike - as well as some of the smaller touches like the crowds of literally hundreds of people fleeing in terror and the Twisted Metal cars zipping through traffic add a fantastic sense of scale. The amount of debris that's shed from a skyscraper when you toss a car or enemy into it is just astonishing, and the best part is those chunks of concrete can instantly be picked up and used as a weapon.
Likewise, the effects and music feel just as polished. While the music feels very TM:B, with epic, brassy overtures complementing the brawls, it's perfectly suited to the whole feel of the game; Slightly retro, very over-the-top, and absolutely at home with what's on screen. The effects world was actually handled by Tommy Tallarico Studios, and the attention to detail on the aural cues rivals that of the visuals. Some of the effects, like Godzilla clone ALDKFJALJ, feel so authentic you'd swear they were ripped from the archives of those B-movie studios. The punches connect with plenty of oomph, and the various screams, squeals and roars just feel... right for lack of a better description.
There's little doubt that War of the Monsters is a polished, beautiful addition the horrendously overcrowded fighting game genre. There's enough here to keep it from slipping in with the more forgettable crop of brawlers, but with a rather under whelming finish, I just can't see myself recommending this game to everyone at the current price. I'd wait for the game to hit Greatest Hits status, and then snap up a copy. At a slightly lower price, this is game that should be picked up without hesitation. Just steer clear for a little while or give it a rent to see what all the hooplah is about.
That's not to say the game is without subtlety, and for an experience that revolves around chucking 100-foot tall monsters into buildings, subtlety is a rare treat, but don't go into things expecting Street Fighter-level depth here. War of the Monsters, above all else, is a very classic brawler that borrows heavily from old-school hits like Rampage or Double-Dragon. The result is something that immediately harkens back to the simpler days of gaming, and for those of us eternally longing to return to our youth to experience a simpler time in gaming, this game is a blessing.
So here's the story as it stands before you make with the punching and the kicking and the tossing into buildings: As we've always suspected, we are not alone in the universe, but the visitors that finally make contact with our little blue world do so with lasers rather than outstretched hands/tentacles/drippy appendages. On the cusp of human annihilation, scientists of the world unite in building towers that broadcast a UFO-smiting pulse. Within hours, Earth is nearly saucer-free. Unfortunately, those big flying discs weren't powered by 92 octane from Chevron, so when the ships crash to earth, the fuel leaks out, mutating various creatures from around the globe and apparently motivating them to throw down against one another. Thus begins the War of the Monsters.
Your stable of combatants is, again, deliciously corny. All the 50's staples are here; the giant lizard, the Japanese robot, the giant praying mantis, the huge ape, etc. In all, there are 10 different monsters to pick from, two of them unlocked. Aside from special moves, though, the monsters tend to function more or less the same. Some are faster, some jump higher, some deal or take more/less damage or unleash combo attacks easier, but ostensibly you're looking at 10 different skins for a basic monster design.
That design includes the ability to lay down a handful of punches (square button), kicks (triangle), grabs and throws (circle) in order to accomplish the singular goal of reducing your opponent to a growling pulp. There are easy enough combos, of course; mashing on the punch or kick buttons will get you a slowly building flurry of damage, but the real fun lies in discovering random combos and using the environments to your advantage. The environments are what keep the game from slipping into complete tedium, since nearly everything you see can be used against your opponents.
What's that? Example? Can do. Say you see your opponent rounding a corner into the same open area you're standing in. You stride over, pick up a gas tanker, and chuck it at your approaching attacker. The tanker explodes, lighting your opponent on fire. You walk up, throw a handful of punches at his face, then let loose with a backflip-kick that sends them flying into a building. As they hit the building, the outside explodes in a shower of rubble, leaving a steel and stone skeleton behind. You leap to the top of a nearby building wrench a radio antenna from the rootop and hurl that at the attacker. It impales him, leaving him open to attack. You jump down, mash circle to pick him up, then dash a couple feet away only to turn around and lob him gently as the aforementioned skeleton building. The building cracks and falls, crushing the opponent.
What I've just mentioned can be done on the first level. That's the beauty of WotM: the simple fact that the environments are not only fun to interact with, they're a crucial part of playing the game, and factor into your move set at all times. Through 10 levels, you'll toss cars, strips of rebar, slabs of concrete, and just about anything else you can pick up. The problem isn't what you can do in the levels; it's the levels themselves.
See, WotM's biggest flaw is the fact that it's about as linear as games can get in the single-player adventure mode. Since this is the only way you'll be able to unlock the ending for each monster, and since you'll get the biggest payoff of tokens (which can be used to buy unlocks like levels, mini-games, costumes and new characters), you'll be playing this mode a lot. The same 10 levels with the same set of monsters await you every time. Add to this the fact that the game only supports two players and absolutely BEGS to be played online, and you'll find a game that might not be deep enough to support plopping down $50.
Should you decide that it's worth the plunge, however, you'll be treated to one of the prettiest games on the PS2. It's obvious that the folks at Incog are familiar with the PS2 hardware, and it shows. War of the Monsters runs on the Twisted Metal: Black engine (albeit modified quite a bit), which means super-smooth, super-clean images with gobs of detail. The game honestly doesn't even look like it's running on a PS2, and if you were to stash a controller and the PS2 somewhere and just let the game run, anyone who's not up to date on PS2 games would probably mistake it for a game for another system.
The attention to detail - especially on the worlds themselves, which seem to share a bit of the same color palette but still manage to look almost nothing alike - as well as some of the smaller touches like the crowds of literally hundreds of people fleeing in terror and the Twisted Metal cars zipping through traffic add a fantastic sense of scale. The amount of debris that's shed from a skyscraper when you toss a car or enemy into it is just astonishing, and the best part is those chunks of concrete can instantly be picked up and used as a weapon.
Likewise, the effects and music feel just as polished. While the music feels very TM:B, with epic, brassy overtures complementing the brawls, it's perfectly suited to the whole feel of the game; Slightly retro, very over-the-top, and absolutely at home with what's on screen. The effects world was actually handled by Tommy Tallarico Studios, and the attention to detail on the aural cues rivals that of the visuals. Some of the effects, like Godzilla clone ALDKFJALJ, feel so authentic you'd swear they were ripped from the archives of those B-movie studios. The punches connect with plenty of oomph, and the various screams, squeals and roars just feel... right for lack of a better description.
There's little doubt that War of the Monsters is a polished, beautiful addition the horrendously overcrowded fighting game genre. There's enough here to keep it from slipping in with the more forgettable crop of brawlers, but with a rather under whelming finish, I just can't see myself recommending this game to everyone at the current price. I'd wait for the game to hit Greatest Hits status, and then snap up a copy. At a slightly lower price, this is game that should be picked up without hesitation. Just steer clear for a little while or give it a rent to see what all the hooplah is about.
