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Monster Lab
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Graphics & Sound:
This game puts forward its best foot in this category, with pleasing graphics and some cool sound effects. You are constantly jumping around while playing, somewhat as you would expect in a mini-game compilation, with a mix of bird's-eye exploration of towns and close-up battle scenes that could be drawn straight from one of the recently released 3D Pokemon games for Wii, or some Action/RPG titles we've seen. The design of Monster Lab reminded us more than a little of another Backbone game, Death Jr. and the Science Fair of Doom. Think light and funny touches, with ridiculous characters set against well-designed backdrops. You spend a fair amount of time building your monster in Monster Lab, but the "lab" sequences always break to a mini-game that helps avoid the player being buried under endless menus or number-crunching. We can remember playing games like this in the past where you'd initiate the building process and then sit there waiting until your new creation turned up. Monster Lab forces you to be much more involved, which is a good thing.
The comedic touches in Monster Lab are reflected in some over-the-top voice acting, and we mean that in the best way possible, of course. Each mini-game is packed with visual, aural, and even tactile stimulation (through force-feedback on the Wii-mote). The music fits the theme, which is best described as a faux -horror/mock-creepy setting. The battle sequences are where you'll encounter the widest variety of sound samples, as each unique attack from your monster or your opponent will trigger some effect. It's a small thing, but the variety we're talking about helps keep the battles interesting and exciting to watch. Anyone that remembers Pokemon Coliseum , or has played its "Battle Revolution" update on the Wii, can attest to how battle animations, sounds, and music become stale if not injected with variety during the game. There's no way to skip most of the battle sequences, but you can fast-forward through any of the scenes that set up the various mini-games if you're someone that just likes to get down to business. |
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Gameplay:
The basic concept of Monster Lab is derivative, but at least it's well executed. Brands like Pokemon, Digimon, and most recently Spectrobes have mined the "collect, train, and battle" gameplay exhaustively for decades now. What is different about Monster Lab reminds us somewhat of titles like Jade Cocoon (I know... takin' ya way back) where just collecting a monster wasn't the point. Monsters and items were just means to an end, a way to establish recipes for constructing powerful creatures that weren't available otherwise to the player. Monster Lab strips this mechanic down using the idiom itself as inspiration. We all have the visual picture of Frankenstein piecing together his creation and bringing it to life, right? This is exactly the approach you'll take in Monster Lab, collecting parts and patching together lean, mean, and sometimes green, fighting machines. There are some strong mini-games that play a part in how monsters are created, and you can't get very far in the game without winning battles.
The introduction to Monster Lab is a tour of the gloomy castle where you'll work your magic on various and sundry cast-off parts. Working with very humble materials, you perform "experiments" to bring life to monsters that you then unleash on towns across the region. The flow of Monster Lab begins with the building of a basic monster, which you then use to complete some basic missions. The completion of a mission will require that you fight battles, some of which can be avoided. The motivation to fight is that you'll test your creation and collect parts that can be useful in upgrading your monster back at the castle. A mini-game or two is usually worked into the exploration segments, and you'll again be treated to spare parts as reward for your efforts. This highlights a failing of Monster Lab that is common to all games of this type; without a larger purpose than building and battling, players inevitably start to lose interest. Monster Lab offers the option to play against friends via Nintendo Wi-Fi, which definitely ups the ante and justifies keeping the game on your shelf a bit longer. At some point, there is a practical limit to how much monster you can construct with the parts available, but we still found sufficient depth in the game to be a right fit for most gamers. |
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Difficulty:
Younger players especially will enjoy the simplicity of Monster Lab, although the youngest may find its battle sequences too intense. The motion controls are a little jittery, and without options to control sensitivity in the game, you'll have to live with what you have. Highly sensitive controls sound fine until you get into some of the mini-games in the castle and realize that mistakes can cause a part to be ruined. This is a huge drag when you've worked hard to collect necessary items, but since there is a manual save system, you could conceivably restart the game and try your experiment again. The better answer would have been to recover items from a failed experiment or to have refined the controls more before the game's release. During battles, you'll find the controls much easier and in the spirit of a simple, turn-based strategy game. Mini-games are actually much easier at times thanks to the sensitivity on the controllers, helping you avoid throwing out your wrist or elbow. The side benefit to have very bounded areas for exploration is that you'll never be lost, and it is never unclear what your objectives are during a level. The downside of the linear approach that Monster Lab takes is that you start to feel a bit too lather-rinse-repeat about the whole collect/build/battle dynamic. More free-roaming gameplay would have created greater challenge by letting you face off against Monsters far above your current level. There are lots of insurance features built into Monster Lab to help make it accessible for younger players, the most obvious being the rock/paper/scissors approach the game takes to combat.
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Game Mechanics:
There are a huge number of parts and a slightly smaller but still impressive list of items you can tack onto your monster in the game, all filed into one of three categories: Mechanical, Biological, and Alchemical. Think of these as a triangle, where each point has advantage over its neighbor in a clockwise direction and disadvantage over its other other neighbor. You'll have options to create a monster after selecting a head, torso, two arms, and legs. These four combinations can be purely composed of one element, or can mix elements. Mixing creates some kooky looking monsters, but provides some benefit by allowing you to attack effectively against any opponent. Building a monster with nothing but Mechanical parts looks nice and gives you huge advantage over Biological foes, but leaves you defenseless against anything with an Alchemical attack. Many of the monsters you'll face include combinations of parts, leading you more in that direction anyway by necessity. Creating parts of a different element requires mastery over an entirely new set of mini-game controls, each tinged with the same humor and creativity displayed throughout the main game.
Battles are all about evaluating your opponents' weak spots and hammering on them until you disable the enemy completely or destroy its torso. Early into Monster Lab, you are advised by the in-game help system to look out for special attacks, strengths, or weaknesses a monster has that you can target. All attacks will do damage, except those that miss or that the monster dodges. You also can dodge, which recharges a bit of energy, or recharge a lot of energy and leave yourself exposed to attack. Each battle is turn-based, and one attack doesn't negate another, resulting in that rock/paper/scissors dynamic as you try and anticipate your opponents next move. If he always uses his feet, you can select from a list of about 6-8 attacks per monster and target those limbs for destruction. You can also focus on the torso, but you sometimes find that a well-armored monster can render you defenseless quicker than you can destroy his torso. In these cases, you're better off targeting extremities or the head. All this is balanced between the Wii-mote and Nunchuk nicely, but we suspect a bit of tweaking could have made Monster Lab a game that only required the Wii-mote.
Especially if you have friends with a copy of this game, you'll enjoy showing them your latest creations, but the limitations of Monster Lab for solo play are exposed quickly for more experienced players. Young gamers that may be burned out on Pokemon or enamored with that style of play and looking for something similar will enjoy Monster Lab. Lots of quality touches are embedded in the visual design of the monsters and their environment, and it is definitely fun to throw together a small army of unique beasties that you can even name. Think of Monster Lab as the kind of virtual pet that R.L. Stine might conceive and you'll get a sense of the kids that will enjoy finding this under their Christmas tree... |
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-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock |
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