PixlBit

Get on your ugly for this goofy monster mash-up brawler

King of the Monsters is a fighting game starring six monsters who all seem to resemble the all-time greats of monster movies. Developed and published by SNK, it appeared in the arcades in 1991 and was quickly ported to the Neo Geo. It was only released in Japan (although it was later ported to the SNES in '93). While the concept is awesome, the actual game is lacking.

The six monsters are the following: Geon--a Godzilla-like dinosaur; Woo--a giant gorilla resembling King Kong; Poison Ghost--a toxic waste monster; Rocky--a giant golem made up of boulders; Beetle Mania--a beetle monster (duh); and Astro Guy--a knock-off of the famous Ultraman of Japan. The monsters themselves are pretty good, although they all have the same moves except for a special attack each one has.

I said it was a fighting game, but KotM is really a wrestling game. Each area even has electric walls which form a ring; you can send your opponent into the wall and he'll bounce right back at you so you can drop-kick him or something. You can pick up and throw your opponent, do bodyslams, back crushers, choke-holds, you name it. The buttons are simple: one button punches, another kicks, and another has your monster charging forward. In order to throw your opponent, you have to be close enough, then just press a bunch of buttons and hope he does it. Sometimes your opponent will turn it around on you and throw you, which is really annoying. Sadly, there's not much strategy in the game; just go up to your opponent and press buttons.

You and the opposing monster both have lifebars at the top left of the screen. The problem is, you have to pin your opponent to win, making the lifebars pointless. In order to do this, you have to knock him down, then go over and jump on him, and the timer will count to three. Perhaps you cannot pin them until the lifebar is depleted, but they can still fight you even with all their life gone. After you win, stats are shown for the fight. The stats are Destruction, Contamination, and Casualties. Destruction means how much of the city you destroyed, but I'm not sure what the others mean. If you lose, you can continue right where you died and your opponent's health won't change, which is nice.

There are twelve total levels in the game, which means you'll fight each monster twice. Each level is in a different city of Japan (Tokyo, Yokoto, Kyoto, etc.). It's fun to crush buildings and see planes and trains move throughout the cities, along with other obstacles. You can pick up and throw certain objects, such as parts of buildings and vehicles. Fighting in the different cities is neat, some being during the day and some at night. Floating P balls will increase your monster's power; get enough of them and he will upgrade into a stronger form (he changes color), and you get to keep this upgrade even if you die or beat the level.

The game is also two player. You can fight one another or team up to fight two other monsters, meaning four monsters are on the screen at once! Yes, it's like tag-team wrestling, well, without the tagging.

Sadly, the game has one major oversight which is one of my pet peeves, and that is that you cannot pause the game. I understand that this is an arcade port and that's probably the reason why you can't pause, but is it really that hard to put in? The music is also very annoying, making the experience a little painful.

As awesome as this game seems to be, it's really a big let-down. It's not nearly as compelling as it should be, comprised of monotonous gameplay which is not really that fun. The monsters are neat, and it's cool to fight in big cities, but the game is lacking a lot of polish. The game itself has little to offer, with no extra things to do outside the main game. And with no strategy to speak of, the game is a simple button-masher that feels uninspired and dull.

Final Verdict--3 Stars: It's Okay

I don't hate it, but I was disappointed with KotM. Not gonna lie, I was really looking forward to playing it because it looked so cool! I love the Rampage series, so I thought this would be on par a little with that, but that's not the case. A little frustrating, annoying, and boring, that's what this game is. This giant creature wrestling game is a monstrous let-down, and you know what they say: the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Join me every Saturday as we take a look back at all kinds of retro games, good and bad.