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Amazing fun!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 16
Date: January 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

It's like they took everything that I loved about the monster game genre (King Of The Monsters, Rampage), used it and improved it! So, yes you can feel the king of the monsters feel in it. But, it does it's own thing which is a lot bigger. The single player is very enjoyable and with solid A.I. and absolutely packed with features. You also have options of easy or normal, easy being challenging and normal being hard!. So far I've used Magmo and Ultra. You can really feel the differences. Magmo is super slow, but strong. He's just amazing to watch in action.

Ultra V will probably be everyones favorite. He's like using a transformer or samurai mech toy you had as a kid. Lazer eyes (Complete with the 'bzap bzap' sound effects), a plasma samurai sword and turbo boosters. Every monster I have seen so far is impressive. And, the intro is one of the best I have seen in a game in a long, long time.

The control system becomes 2nd nature within a few minutes of play and the camera is almost flawless. Playing the game with the mechs is an absolute blast. And it feels different then playing with the other monsters. It's hard to explian. Definitely, my favorite character is Ultra V. A Samurai Mech who knows Kung Fu, shoots lazers froms his eyes, has a grappling hookfor the classic 'Get Over Here' move', and a plasma sword. The sound effects of his jet boost are classic, and the metal impact his strikes and landings make are nothing short of spectacular. His Gundam voice has to be mentioned also. My friend has fallen in love with using Robo 47, the American Mech. A very cool robot if I do say so myself. Other cool ones are of course the lava monster, Magmo. Ultra powerful. The rock monster, Agamo who has the best voice in the game. His sound effects are amazing, youcan hear the rock against metal, or whatever surface he is hitting landing on.

The destruction of the city is amazing, eveything is destructible and it visually implemented to perfection. Smooth framrate throught the entire game, for both single and multiplayer modes. It's about as much fun as I have had with a game, maybe ever. It's hard to say whether it will go down as one of my all time faves, because I can't test it's staying power like that yet, but it's a blasr.

It feels like a monster movie come to life. I feel like a little kid playing it. As do my friends. Togera (the Godzilla/Beast from 20,000 feet below) has got to be one of the coolest looking monsters I have ever seen. Especially his Mecha-Togera outfit. His green fire breathe is cool as hell, a great special. I can say the same about all the monsters really. They are straight out of some great campy 50's Horror flic. The designers really captured that great work those old movies did, it makes your imagination feel great while you play. It's like a really great toy come to life. My friend I just got done playing a MARATHON session. We went at it tooth and nail late one night as his Ultra V took on my Robo-47 in an epic 'best of three' fight that took nearly an hour to complete. We unlocked a few secrets. The best being this (Not about Sweet Tooth, who is a secret character in the game!)....is that you can unlock skins! It's become apparent to me that the 4th version is either an entirely new design or an amazing offshoot to the original. This is a very cool treat in my opinion. Unlocking the 4th of each monster is almost like getting a new character. These aren't just skins, but new designs! Kudos to Incognito for including something so cool. And multiplayer, wow. Whereas bouts in most fighting games are over in a few minutes, you can make a single fight last for over 20 minutes. As you learn the levels, you start to understand how to best use the items, and can really keep things challenging. Health and energy icons spawn in specific locations to help make the fights about more than just beating on each other so their is endless replay value. This is some of the most fun I have had with a 'new' game in a long time.

A Fun, Albeit Short, Ride

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 13 / 16
Date: January 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

A week ago, I bought War of the Monsters, and today I have just beat it. That is to say, I have unlocked every single character, skin, level, and minigame, as well as having beaten the game with every character in "Adventure" mode. I've had a great deal of fun playing it, but now it seems like there's very little else for me to do, except maybe play through all the difficulty levels or see how long I can last in endurance, although there's little to motivate me to do so.

Graphics 4/5: Very sharp, detailed character models and skins. The levels are equally detailed (and quite destructable). I really loved the fact that most of the skins weren't just "different colors" of the original monsters (each monster has 4 skins, 2 of which need to be unlocked via tokens earned in fights), but actually unique from one another for the most part.

Music/Sound 3/5: I really loved this soundtrack, reminded me a lot of the old 50s monster movies which I always a big fan of. The sound, on the other hand, gets fairly repititive, though that's a given in most fighting games. I played the games mostly on a mono TV, so I can't comment on the stereo sound, but I imagine it to be pretty sweet.

Gameplay 3/5: Gameplay is on the surface incredibly simple - 2 buttons to attack, 1 to throw, and 1 to jump - but is a bit more complex than that for those willing to experiment. When I first started to play, it was nothing but random button mashing, but then I realized that there were actually *combos* in the game. A lot of these combos are real simple, though there are a lot I havn't found yet. For example, the average simple combo is around 3 attacks, but I've gotten some as high as 9 hits, and there's the chance that there are even higher ones.

The environments in the game, probably one of the biggest draws, are almost completely destructable. Anything you see you can most likely grab, throw, destroy, and/or pound into the face of your opponent. It may take a while, but it's possible to completely annihalate every building on a level, which is both a strategic advantage and disadvantage.

There are three single player modes of gameplay: Adventure, where you take a monster through a "storyline" of sorts (though its the same storyline for every monster, so it gets a bit dull); Free-For-All, the classic...err, free-for-all in which you can fight up to 3 computer controlled opponents; and Endurance mode, where you see how long you can last with just one life against an endless supply of opponents (but only one at a time).

Most of the fights in Adventure mode can be a little frustrating at first, especially those with more than one opponent (I spent ages on the level with the Insect monster and the Robot Gorilla, but spent even longer when I had to fight two dragons...), but as you develop your skills, it becomes like a second nature. That still doesn't mean you'll die a frustrating death, but at least it won't happen quite so often.

Multiplayer 2/5: Multiplayer modes are the aforementioned free-for-all; Elimination, which is like free-for-all except its only two players and when you die you pick another monster to play as; and three mini-games, which can be unlocked but are quite pointless. If there had been more, maybe the mini-games would have been better, but with only three it's not really all that exciting.

The biggest drawback to multiplayer modes, however, is the fact you can only play with two players. With four players, multiplayer would be fantastic, and make War of the Monsters a great party game. However, with only two, it definately loses some of its appeal. I can understand why there's no online play (though it would have been really fun), but what's the explantion for no four player mode?

Replayability 2/5: Possibly the worst part about the game, which in the end is its downfall. When you first start the game, you have 2 skins for every monster, with 10 monsters, and a few levels. As you play through Adventure or Endurance mode, you'll earn Battle Tokens, which can be used to purchase more skins, 2 secret monsters (each with 3 skins you can unlock), 3 mini-games, and 4 secret levels. This would be all fine and dandy if it weren't so easy to get tokens or if the prices of the unlocks were more expensive. Believe me, you can have most of the secrets unlocked within a few days of casual playing.

What's worse is that there weren't more monsters to play as. Yes, you get different skins for each monster which make them look totally different and great (check out the Electric Eye's 4th skin for a great example), but at the core they're the same monster. The two secret monsters make up for this, but I felt there really should have been an even 20 monsters alltogether, secret or not.

As far as unlocks, there should have been much more of them, or Incog should have made it a lot tougher to get them. Where's the fun in getting secret stuff if it's incredibly easy?

Overall 3/5: I'm a little biased because I just love games with senseless violence and destruction, and the fact it has giant monsters resembling all those favorites from the golden era of monster movies makes me love the premise of the game. But overall, I felt that there could have been more. Maybe I'm expecting too much from a fighting game, but for the love of all that's holy, at least a fighting game like this should at least have four-player compatability! Rent the game first, you'll probably "complete" the game in a few days. See then if its really worth it to buy it. As for myself, despite its many shortcomings, I still think its great fun to play with a friend, even if it may be limited.

MEGA MONSTER MADNESS!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: January 30, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Woohoo!! This game just has to be played to be believed! War Of The Monsters is all about good ol' carnage and mayhem.Pick whatever monster you like(from a giant preying mantis to an electric cyclops or even a classic japanese robot) and then go claw to claw with another beastie! Although this game is alot of fun with just one player,it's a total blast with two players.You are even given the option to add 1-3 computer controled monsters while you and a friend battle!

The whole style of this game is based on the low budget B movie horror flicks of the 60's and 70's and it fits in perfectly.The orchestrated horror movie music adds yet another great touch.The graphics are also very good,and the monsters move very fluently.

The only thing that keeps this from getting a five star rating is the following:

1.It would have been nice to add a level where the player acting as a monster could just go around and smash up the cities without fighting another monster(AKA Rampage).

2.Sometimes these monsters can be extremely brutal even on the easy level.Don't be suprised in the begining if you find yourself getting pummeled by a monster without being able to land one hit,or even block when hitting the block button!The shooting moves can get kind of old too.....the robots LOVE to shoot you a hundred times with their lasers:BEWARE!

3.Lastly when playing one player versus 2-3 computer controled monsters,I've noticed that both CPU monsters usually just attack you rather than fighting evenly among eachother as well.Also note that War of The Monsters features some typical "Mortal Kombat" moves;by that I mean,to do some moves you have to press 6 to 8 random buttons in rapid succesion.....something I've never been good at!lol

However these are minor gripes,and the good definatly outweighs the bad.Destroying an entire city,or throwing a giant mutant lizard into a building is always lots of fun.If you don't want to buy it,then at least rent it and check it out;you won't regret it!

Magnificent Monster Mayhem

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: February 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game was made by a software company called Incog Inc. Some of the key people in this company used to work for a now nonexistent company called Singletrac. Singletrac had a serious reputation of cranking out the best vehicular-combat video games ever made. Now those same people can claim to have made the best monster-combat game ever made.

War of the Monsters continues a legacy of fine action games including Twisted Metal 1&2, Critical Depth, Rogue Trip, Twisted Metal: Black, (and to a lesser extent Warhawk). These games not only had high playability, they contained heavy doses of humor, style or both. To keep the tradition alive War of the Monsters has a heavy 1950s sci-fi feel. If you can tolerate that you'll find much to enjoy here. But If you're a fan of '50s science fiction be prepared for destructive gaming bliss.

Simple concept: pick a giant warrior and duke it out among various battlegrounds with different play modes such as Adventure, Free-For-All with it's various sub-modes, and Endurance. Two players can fight amongst themselves or against the computer in customized battles. No more than 4 monsters at a time can be involved in any battle. That might seem limiting but it isn't when you consider the relentless tactics of the CPU monsters...even on Easy setting! Unfortunately there's no option for a two-player Adventure mode.

The control takes some getting used to. Once you get a handle on it, though, the fun ensues. Everything standing taller than the ground can be destroyed. There's an almost unlimited selection of items to be used against your enemies. Buildings and mountains can be climbed upon easily (Spider-Man wannabes will get a kick out of it). There's a sprinkle of strategy required in the boss fights throughout Adventure mode. It's all too much fun.

The visuals are splendid and do justice to the carnage that occurs during play. There is no slowdown in the animation at all. The camera does something neat when two players are involved. Normally it divides the action up into two separate pictures on your TV, known widely as 'split screen'. Each player has their own specific viewing area on each side of the screen. But here, when the two characters get close enough together and face each other, the viewing area merges into one full screen. It serves to better dramatize the action. It's great, trust me.

I must rave about the sound! It simply couldn't be any better, period. The music; appropriate and stirring. The sound effects; realistic and phenomenal. Crank the volume up with this bad boy using a home theater system and the neighbors will swear Armageddon is happening outside!

Like any good game this one has special unlockable items to strive for. And boy are there a lot! Each of the original 8 monsters has 3 more costumes to discover, and there are 2 locked monsters to get at also. Some of these costumes are totally outrageous...certainly worth unlocking. Battle tokens are used to unlock everything. They must be won in the Adventure mode.
There are 3 minigames to unlock as well, but I found them to be useless. They're strictly for two-players and add nothing to the meat of the game. Competitive friends will gain the most from these simple diversions.

Each monster has a separate ending revealing it's birth, viewable upon completion of Adventure mode. Unlike the endings in, for example, the Twisted Metal series, these are brief and unremarkable. If I could change only one thing I would make the endings longer and more amusing.

Bottom line: a superb action game with great two-player replayability.

Where Oh Where Has this Monster title Gone?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: January 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

War of the Monsters is, hands down, the best Monster fighting game out there. Don't pay attention to what the original reviewer said about the "weaknesses" of the game concerning the freezing when paused or being backed into corner and all the nonsense. None of those problems occurred for me. The sad thing about this title is that you cannot find it anywhere anymore. For some reason it just did not take off, yet it is an all around awesome game that got high marks in the gamer mags. Purchase it used from Amazon it is definitely worth the buy. Don't spend your money buying Godzilla: Save the Earth unless you are a fan of the Godzilla genre. War of the Monsters is 100 times better than Godzilla: Save the Earth (although I do like this game). I guess this game just suffered a similar fate to Prince of Persia (great game, just no one was into buying it) although you can still find many copies of Prince of Persia for $19.99, whereas War of the Monsters has followed its biological examples into extinction history.

The Facts not the Opinions

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 23
Date: January 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have been prescribed to OPM for a couple of years. One issue came with the demo disc for War Of The Monsters. I played and was amazed at what seemed to be a lame little destroy building pick up car to Real combat with other monsters and actually using your environment to your advantage. Now the real characters are as follows. I may not have all but this is what the OPM mag. says. Ultra V. a jap. robot. Agamo is like a giant tiki rock-like-being with flames. Togera is a reptilian sea monster. like a mini godzilla. Then Congar the king-kong type ape. ( playable in demo ). Robo-47 is your classic military robot. He has a huge machine-gun on his chest that he can fire. Preytor is a big praying mantis that can fly around the level. Kineticlops is a electric body and a huge eyeball. ( playably in demo ). That's all OPM listed but you may be able to unlock.....! Also it's [inexpensive]. That's a good price for a brand new recent game. War of the Monsters got 5 stars from OPM. IN case you've been wondering what OPM is it's Official Playstation Magazine. Ok, from what i'm looking at in the mag. Togera doesn't look mini. Sorry for that. The control is also very good and not complicated. So that's the facts not the Opinions. If this was helpful please click yes so that I know I helped. Thanks!!!!... Hope you have a good time.

Great Party Game - Miserable Single Player experience

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: September 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game has a great overall concept and characters and is a total blast to play with a group of friends or in a party setting. Single player, on the other hand, is frustratingly difficult. The AI for single player is unbelievably fast, strong and deadly accurate with thrown objects. Even on the EASY setting you'll be ready to chuck the controller at your tube in frustration. For parties, this game is a definite MUST PLAY - for unwinding after a long day of work or school, look for some other title, single player will only make your blood pressure rise.

Good game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

War of the Monsters has a very good idea going, but it kind of lacks the effort to make it happen. The game is about monsters from movies fighting each other in full 3-d battle areas. Where you can destroy buildings, pick vehicles up, throw parts of buildings at your enemy, and even grab a piece of metal to use as a sword. The game is good but not great and here's why.

Graphics: Very detailed, everything is nicely created, lighting is perfect, and absolutely nothing looks bad.

Gameplay: The game lacks a little in this category. It's a repetitive game, where sometimes u might fight more than one monster at a time. After destroying a monster tokens are given to you to use to get new costumes, new monsters, and some mini-games, which are fun to play. The storyline . . . well theres not much to the story. Basically you fight a monster from a different location, and you are not sure wether it's really happening or its a movie. The vs. mode is quite good with three options to choose from.

Sounds: The sounds are very well fitted to the game, the cars honk, people scream, guns firing, tanks rolling, monsters yelling, everything seems to be perfect and on time.

Overall this game is about a 3.5 but it has the ability to keep you entertained somehow. It's worth renting, but not buying right away.

Who would have thought a game could be so much fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I knew that this game had been released several months ago. However, I had never really considered buying it. I thought that it would be another stupid fighting game or a game similar the the very weak Godzilla games for the GameBoy. Well...I bought one of the PS2 JamPack disks which had a demo for this game on it. Wow! What a suprisingly great game! I ended up playing the demo for about 2-3 hours and just knew that I had to have the whole game.

Once I got the full version of the game, I realized how similar it was to Twisted Metal Black (another great game, but kinda difficult). It turns out that the same company made both games. This game is very similar to Twisted Metal, but with giant monsters instead of vehicles. There are healh, energy, and special attack pickups just like Twisted Metal and the fighting is fierce. This key difference is that Twisted Metal is a very dark, twisted game (not to say it's bad at all, but insane people driving recklessly shooting at other vehicles--this kinda thing only happens in LA). War of the Monsters plays out like a cheesy Godzilla movie--very entertaining and funny.

There are 10 monsters in the game (2 have to be unlocked). Each monster has 4 costumes which radically change their appearance (sometimes making them a whole different monster). Each monster has their own strengths/weaknesses, unique attacks, sounds, taunts, etc. Controls are simple--a few games and your able to hold your own in one-on-one battles. Similar to games like Virtua Fighter & Tekken, there are complex combinations of keys that can be pressed to unleash more special attacks...but you certainly don't need to use them to be successful. Almost everything the the game is usable by your monster. Cars, buses, planes, building pieces, rocks, etc can be used to attack other monsters either at close range or by throwing them (you can even throw other monsters). One of the coolest things is throwing a radio antenna and impaling another monster.

For one player, there's free-for-all, adventure, and endurance games. Free-for-all has you (one of the 10 different monsters) pitted against 1-3 computer monsters (4 monsters in one city = complete chaos). When you win or lose, you have the option of restarting without the buildings, etc being rebuilt--a few rounds and there may be nothing left standing. Adventure has 10 levels of varying difficulty with three bosses. You'll be fighting monsters that are not available in free-for-all. On the Easy setting, Adventure can be challenging but is difinitely not too difficult. You'll need some good stategy to beat the bosses, though. Endurance allows you to fight one monster after another to see how long you can survive. Both Adventure and Endurance allow you too earn tokens which can be used to unlock the two other monsters, costumes and mini-games. One downside is that you may have to complete Adventure about 10 times before you can unlock everything.

For two players, there's free-for-all again (with up to two computer monsters) and a game where you challenge the other player and must choose another monster and continue when you die. There are also three mini-games for two players. Each of these games is very simplistic with dodgeball being the most fun.

The graphics, sound, and storyline in this game are great. I am really impressed by all aspects of this game. If you are a fan of the old Godzilla-type movies, you've got to give this game a try. This game will have you sitting on the edge of your seat one minute, laughing the next, and perhaps yelling at the computer-controlled monster the next (wait...did I just admit to doing that?).

The game Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters wanted to be!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: December 01, 2002
Author: Amazon User

What a groovy game!

War of the Monsters is fast, frenetic, and incredibly fun! Players take control of a 50's-style monster movie monster. There's a glowing plasma creature with one great eye, a Kong-style gorilla, a lava monster, a distinctly American-style gargantuan robot, a sleeker Japanese-style robot, a giant praying mantice, and more.

Unlike the slow, hulking, Toyo Studios-style monsters in Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters, the beasts in War of the Monsters are fast and manueverable. These guys can scale buildings and leap from tower-to-tower.

They also use weapons, and it is amazingly cool. You can pick up a girder and use it like a bat. You can pick up a radio tower and hurl--impaling your opponent. This is Super Smash Bros. with fangs!

The game has enough options to give it semi-respectable depth.

The biggest drawback to this game happens to be Godzilla's greatest strength--four-player competition. Godzilla has it, War of the Monsters does not. You either battle the computer or a friend--a single friend.

You can place bots on the battlefield, but four-player or online battles would have been a great plus.

That said, Incog (formerly Incognito--the Utah company that created Twisted Metal Black), the Sony studio that made War of the Monsters, has done a great job with War of the Monsters.

Incog is establishing itself as one of the few great studios. They proved they could do car wars way back in their Singletrac days--The folks at Incog met at Singletrac, where they did Twisted Metal and Twisted Metal 2.

Sony probably made a great choice, a quiet game like War of the Monsters might well get overlooked during the Christmas rush. They delayed the game for a early 2003 release, and hopefully people will try and appreciate this totally groovy game.

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