PixlBit

Tired of Football? Jump into the future of sports with Monday Night Combat!

Monday Night Combat, to me, looked like the best XBLA exclusive on the floor. While I didn't take personal hands-on time with the game, since it looked a little more complex, I watched a developer showcase the game, himself, rather than play it.

I'll say the developer did a pretty good job, he managed to sell me on the game. In fact, at one point, the fellow said something along the lines of "Monday Night Combat has just about everything one could want in a game." I replied with the question, "Does it have bacon? I feel bacon is underrepresented in today's video games." To my surprise, I received a "Yes it does!" Subsequently, I was shown an achievements-style screen with purchasable rewards, at least one featuring bacon. This story is entirely true, though the exact conversation is paraphrased due to how my mind works.

Anyway, the point is simple: Monday Night Combat seems to be a full-fledged multiplayer third-person shooter. It's based on an imaginary, futuristic sport, where two sides, red and blue, defend their own money balls, while attacking each other's money balls. When I suggested the class-based system seemed a little like Team Fortress 2, the developer was quick to say that wasn't the case, but I believe we misunderstood each other. See, Monday Night Combat has six classes available, and each class has unique weapons, stats, speeds, and sizes that differentiate them all from themselves. However, in Monday Night Combat, there's quite a lot entirely different from Team Fortress, like respawning bots, designed to just for assault on the opponents money ball, or turrets, designed for defense. In addition, destroying the competitor, his or her bots, or his or her turrets netted cash for ability and weapon upgrades.

Strategy appears to be a major component of Monday Night Combat. Each class has a variety of abilities, some have a double jump or an ability to hover. The assassin class can turn invisible after a few upgrades, and attack with a bit of stealth. Comparatively, the engineer can heal others and hijack turrets, giving teams a solid territorial advantage. There's several game-types, each with a different number of max players, ranging from four to twelve. The single-team co-op mode provides combat against waves of bots, similar to the above money ball-combat mode, but without an assault component.

Monday Night Combat could provide a nice fix for those who like fast-paced combat and team-based shooting with some tower defense mixed in. It'll be available as part of the Summer of Arcade promotion on Xbox Live Arcade, but the official release date has not yet been announced.