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Planet Monsters

Score: 80%
ESRB: Everyone
Publisher: Titus
Developer: Planet
Media: Cart/1
Players: 1 - 4
Genre: Action

Graphics & Sound:

At first glance, Planet Monsters does not look like anything special. When compared to other titles available on the GBA, it seems very flat and lacking. But your eyes can deceive you, and although it may look simple, it is anything but.

Planet Monsters uses a style that is very reminiscent of Bomberman. As I said before, there is really nothing here that is going to make you wet yourself in excitement. Your monster, which resembles a furry hot dog with big feet, is animated very smoothly and even manages to show a few facial expressions - such as this evil looking smirk when he gets his hands on a jelly gun. The enemies are animated just as smoothly and show a little more creativity in their design. As you progress through the levels, the monsters start off in a simple 'baby' form, but as the level progresses they begin to evolve until they reach their final stage - which of course, is the level boss. While this was really cool to see, I couldn't help to feel cheated that my monster always stayed the same and looked as stupid as he does. It would have been a real boon to the game if your character could evolve as well.

Sound is about as simple as the graphics, with the only noticeable thing being the music. It's nothing memorable but it works well with the game.


Gameplay:

Now that we have gotten past the wrapping paper, it's time to get to the real gift in Planet Monsters. In order to keep the planet's monster population down, the World Monster Championship was created. So this all translates into them running through mazes and killing each other - I dunno. As my total ignorance to the plot shows, it is really not important. Anyway, after selecting your monster - there's not much of a choice, you can get either the green, blue, red, or purple fuzzy hotdog - you travel through 40 levels located all over the world and compete against some mutant monsters and the other three fuzzy hotdogs. Your only objective is to kill the fuzzy hotdogs; the other monsters are there to be a pain in your ass - something they excel at. In order to dispose of your rivals, you will have an arsenal consisting of things like the jelly gun, bomb, and stop watch. However, your main weapon is the blocks that make up the maze. This is where the game gets good. To avoid the long explanation (and trust me, trying to explain the actual mechanics of this game can get confusing), everything boils down to you pushing wall segments at other monsters while trying to not get squashed yourself. Yeah, it sounds stupid - but it is a lot of fun, especially when you throw in the four-player link cable support.

Difficulty:

Planet Monsters is not hard...no, wait it's hard...no, wait it's not hard. I obviously had a difficult time with this part. There is no real learning curve in the game since the AI is smart, but not so smart that it can't be tricked every once in awhile. I wish the same could be said about the bosses, which are stupid and stand in one spot for most of the battle. Planet Monsters does require quick reflexes and a quick mind, you never know where that other monster is or where that next block may be coming from.

Game Mechanics:

Keeping with the simplicity theme, Planet Monsters is easy to learn after the first level. I found the game very responsive all the time and for once my thumbs never got as sore as they do when I play some GBA games. This can probably be attributed to the speed the monsters move with and I never felt like I had to press down hard to get them to move fast - which is funny since the controls aren't even analog...eh, too much PlayStation I guess. Anyway, I want to get back to playing so I'm going to cut this short and say Planet Monsters is a very good game, especially for fans of Bomberman or if you're just looking for a good game to play with friends.

-Starscream, GameVortex Communications
AKA Ricky Tucker

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Game Vortex :: PSIllustrated