For Zach to kill all these bad guys, Monster Madness features weapons o’ plenty. The basics such as shotguns and kitchen knives are available but in the build we played there were a couple of badass weapons, from guillotines and flaming grenades to taser, gravity and glue guns. After putting in a few hours in the single player mode (which only featured a few levels as this was still a debug build) I wanted more, and the developers of Monster Madness are giving it to me. The final game will include 4-player co-op (storyline) as well as some crazy versus modes with ten maps that will easily add hours of replay value to this game. The levels we played either all took place inside Zach’s house or in parts of his surrounding neighborhood, but the developers assured us that the final version of the game would include many different locations.
The graphic style of Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia is a mix of cel-shading and cartoon type anime. It is easy to see that Artificial Studios is trying to take casual gamers back to Saturday morning cartoons but still keep it looking good enough to show off the power of the Xbox 360. There are a few camera issues that are caused simply by the co-op style gameplay that Monster Madness features. Because the game is meant to be played with more than one player the camera is a static, non-movable thing that can cause more than a few moments of frustration. Personally I loved the graphical style of this game and it really reminded me of when I was a kid, and why I loved cartoons so much. Everything from the cookie cutter character types to the downright lame storyline just screams Care Bears meets the Tick.
When I finished playing through the build that the developers brought I found myself wanting more, something I rarely do with an uncompleted game. If you find yourself getting bored of the same old first-person shooters or sports titles you should definitely look into Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia. The quirky (and sometimes funny) dialog is spoken by professional actors and the control scheme is simple enough even for the casual young gamer. Because this was just a debug build there are many many things we did not get to try out, but the little taste we were given was just enough to get me excited.
Stay tuned to Planet Xbox 360 for more information and a full review as the game’s April release date nears.
