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Monsters and Aliens battle it out in Activision’s latest title. The game, based on the upcoming Monsters vs. Aliens feature film, is one of the first games wholly developed by Activision studio Beenox. Looks like they’ve been brushing up over the years since Monsters vs. Aliens fits perfectly with the rest of Activision’s solid lineup of children-targeted movie licensed games.
Monsters vs. Aliens follows the movie’s plot. Essentially, an evil alien named Gallaxhar has a sinister plan to take over Earth and has enrolled many robots on his side to accomplish his goal. It’s up to the exiled monsters (including the recently captured Ginormica who grew to 50 feet tall on her wedding day) to fight off these aliens and defend Earth from this evil villain. The plot is light-hearted but it’s often satisfying, especially for children, to simply see monsters and aliens battle it out.
The game’s main campaign can be played alone or in jump-in jump-out “co-op mode” with a friend. You can play through the game’s levels with one of the movie’s three monsters: The Missing Link, B.O.B., and Ginormica, with appearances by Dr. Cockroach and Insectosaurus. The Missing Link is a half-fish, half-ape combo who provides the basic combat and acrobatic skills for the team. B.O.B.’s gooey nature allows him to swallow and spit out enemies and slip through cracks undetected. Ginormica’s nearly 50-feet frame provides a lot of the sheer strength for the game and the ability to lift insane objects. When playing co-op, the second player will control a cursor acting as Dr. Cockroach that can slow down enemies and grab certain items (a la Mario Galaxy).
The missions are tailored to the character’s special abilities. The Missing Link’s levels are most similar to typical action-platforming levels as you go around fighting monsters, jumping around obstacles, and looking for items. B.O.B.’s levels are less about fighting and more about avoiding obstacles (often by clinging to ceilings or walls) and enemies (often by swallowing them). Ginormica’s levels are on-rail races where you try to avoid robot armies or massive robots who throw things at you as you reach the end of the level.
Aside from the main missions, the game also includes Monster Challenges in which you can earn gold, silver, or bronze medals by completing specific challenges from the single-player campaign. You’re typically rated on how quickly you can rate the challenges. As you play, you can also unlock movie screens, audio commentary, concept art, ect which should be fun for fans of the movie.
In terms of console differences, The Wii version of the game uses some motion control functionality for some of the melee combat moves, which generally work well. It is also more useful to use the Wii Remote when controlling Dr. Cockroach since you’re likely to be more accurate when pointing the remote than moving the analog sticks around. As a Games for Window title, the PC version lets you use the Xbox 360 controller (which we used).
Graphically, the game is about par for a kids licensed movie title. The characters look very similar to their movie counterparts thanks to well-designed character models. The environments look pretty good but come across as bland outside of B.O.B’s levels. The Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC versions of the game obviously look better than the Wii and PlayStation 2 versions thanks to widescreen support, better aliasing, and better lighting. The character models are also slightly better but the differences are generally minor except for B.O.B. who looks more like his true gel self in the current-gen versions. None of the versions have graphics worth writing home about but are fairly good nonetheless. The game’s audio is very well done thanks to the great soundtrack. It sounds like something you’d hear in older sci-fi and monster movies and fits in perfectly with the light-hearted feel and plot of the game.
Overall, Monsters vs. Aliens is a solid videogame adaptation from the movie. The combination of standard action-platforming, more traditional puzzle-based platforming and on-rails races that you’ll experience with the different characters provides just enough variety and challenge for the game’s target market. If your child is a fan of the movie, you’ll want to pick up the game. -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Mar 25, 2009
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