Monster Madness

by Troy Goodfellow on September 11, 2007

Monster Madness involves four very different friends being forced to fight all manner of undead and creatures of the night, learning along the way that together they can take on any challenge, even telling the cute Goth girl that you have a crush on her.

Your experience playing Monster Madness will be very similar. You must fight the controls, fussy camera angles and unclear instructions, only to learn that this is the kind of game that works much better when you have friends you can count on. If you try to stop the zombie menace on your own, you will almost certainly die.

This title has got a lot of character. The four kids you can choose from are fine representatives of Stereotype High School, and the voiceovers are appropriate. The nerd is excitable, the Goth annoyed, the cheerleader loudly inconvenienced. Things blow up well, and the “bestiary” of beasties is diverse enough to provide a treat at every level. It is readily apparent that the art design team at Southpeak games had a lot fun thinking up the cat-flinging zombie granny and the undead biker gang.

Of course, the only adult in sight is a refugee from American Chopper, ready to make a quick buck selling you weapons cobbled together from spare parts littering the landscape. There are some neat weapons, but to get them you often need to jump from the ground to ledges to roofs, made difficult thanks to the overly fussy control scheme. Driving a vehicle is even worse, trying to steer, accelerate and shoot at the same time.

This is where your friends come in, of course. Add a couple of other slayers and all of a sudden things seem doable. One can kill while another drives. This is a game made for co-op, which is great if you have friends willing to at least give it a shot with you.

If you are on your own, you’re really on your own. It can be frustrating to die over and over again, especially since you know that if you could just shanghai one person to dispatch the trash monsters, you could get through it. Zombie killing is, I suppose, a social activity. Find a pal to commit to the enterprise, and you’ll have a much better time.