War of the Monsters

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This article is for the video game. For the Gamera film which shares its name, see War of the Monsters (film).

War of the Monsters
Cover art
Developer(s)	Incognito Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Sony Computer Entertainment
License	Commercial
Engine	Twisted Metal: Black
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2
Release date(s)	USA January 14, 2003 [1] EUR April 17, 2003 JPN March 25, 2004
Genre(s)	Action, Fighting
Rating(s)	ELSPA: 11+ ESRB: Teen (T)
Media	DVD-ROM

War of the Monsters (known as Kaiju Daigekisen in Japan) is a 3D fighting game for the PlayStation 2 developed by Incognito Entertainment and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The game was released on January 14, 2003 in North America and April 17, 2003 in Europe. It was later released in Japan on March 25, 2004.^[2]

The game is set in the aftermath of an alien invasion of Earth where their hazardous fuels have spawned giant monsters that battle one another in city environments. The game is presented in the style of a 1950's science fiction and monster movie, making homages to films in those genres.

Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Characters 3 Plot 4 Reception 5 References

[edit] Gameplay

In War of the Monsters, players take the roles of large monsters in city environments. The game plays as a fighting game yet works differently than the traditional one-on-one structured rounds. Instead, fights can include up to 4 players in a four-way simultaneous fighting structure. The camera is in third person perspective, allowing the player to focus solely on their character.^[3]

Monsters have two status bars in each game, health and stamina. Like the standard fighting game formula, every time a monster takes damage, their overall Health bar drops until it is completely depleted, resulting in player defeat. Stamina determines how much energy a monster can attack with.^[4] The bar drops if a monster picks up another foe or performs a ranged attack. If the bar is completely full, a monster can perform special attacks, whereas if the bar is completely drained, they become temporarily immobilised.^[5]

Also unlike most fighting games, players are allowed to roam freely within the city area, which allows climbing of jumping from buildings and cliffs. Monsters can use the environment to deal out damage to their foes by making weapons of various objects found within the city, such as vehicles and rubble as projectiles, steel girders and stone columns as clubs and radio antennae as a spear to impale others, temporarily stunning them.^[6] There are also some environment pick-ups, which can increase health or stamina, appearing as green or blue orbs and floating radioactive signs.^[7] Buildings can be destroyed if a monster directly attacks or is thrown into it. In some cities, taller buildings can topple over sideways that can crush other monsters, killing them instantly. In the Adventure mode, along with a series of set fights with other monsters, boss battles are also present. They are much larger than the standard playable monsters and required certain strategies in order to defeat. "Tokens" can also be earned through Adventure mode, which can be spent at the "Unlocks" shop to unlock more cities, monsters, and monster skins. And you also can unlock mini-games like dodge ball or city destruction.^[8]

Multiplayer options allow 2 players via split-screen, which can be set to merge into one screen when both players a close enough to fit on the same screen.^[9]

[edit] Characters

Characters unlocked at start:

• Togera
• Preytor
• Congar
• Robo-47
• Agamo
• Ultra V
• Magmo
• Kineticlops

Unlockable characters:

• Raptros
• Zorgulon

Boss characters (unplayable):

• Goliath Prime
• Vegon
• Cerebulon

[edit] Plot

The plot is set in the 1950s where a fleet of alien flying saucer warships invade the Earth, causing massive damage. The scientists of the world manage to create a series of secret weapons, which, when activated, let loose shock waves that short-circuit the saucers and cause them to crash. Unfortunately, each flying saucer is fueled by a green radioactive liquid, which leaks out from destroyed crafts. Through this and follow up effects, the fuel creates giant monsters and turns man made robots hostile as a result. The player acts as one of these monsters and battles against the rest in fictional cities across the globe and the remaining UFOs.

The story mode of the game starts out in Midtown Park where a giant gorilla called Congar defeats a wave of Military forces but is fought and defeated by the lead monster. In Gambler's Gulch, the lead monster also defeats the Godzilla styled beast, Togera. After Togera's defeat, a military class mech called Robo-47 and the military show up and attack the lead monster but are defeated as well. At a military base at Rosedale Canyon (similar to Roswell), the lead monster is confronted by giant ants and a Transformer style robot, Goliath Prime. Prime and the ants are all defeated. The military then decide to test their new weapon, Mecha-Congar, on the high speed mantis Preytor, who was attacking Metro City. Before they could fight the lead monster appears and defeats them both. The lead monster then travels to Century Airflield and defeats Raptros the dragon and his mate. Later when Atomic Island suffers from a meltdown, a pack of Kinecticlops appear and must be defeated, and then the lead monster must battle a large plant Biollante like creature called Vegon. Two Robo-47s stop a UFO attack in Baytown and try to slay the lead monster and fail. Even the combined might of Agamo and Magmo in Club Caldera fell to the lead monster. After defeating two Ultra V robots at "Tsunopolis", the lead monster is abducted by an on-looking UFO that takes it back to the UFO mothership. There the lead monster has to fend off three Zorgulons before being abducted once more when the mothership explodes, causing the carrying UFO to crash into a Washington DC style Capital city. There, the alien leader Cerebulon attacks in a multi-layered battle suit like the Tripods from War of the Worlds. After Cerebulon is defeated, the lead monster victor watches as the last part of Cerebulon, a small timid insect like creature flees.

Each monster, with the exception of Raptros and Zorgulon, has their own unique end game cinematic that shows how they came to be.

(In Order)

Togera - awakened when a UFO crash-lands in an ocean and the fuel permeates down through the water and a sleeping Togera inhales it, waking him up and causing him to rise up in front of horrified Russian merchant sailors. The inspiration for him is most likely Godzilla.

Preytor - a scientist is conducting an experiment with a sample of the fuel by feeding a small portion to a Praying Mantis. The Mantis (probably a male character, because most females do not fly due to weight) is quickly enlarged and destroys the laboratory, killing the scientist in the process.

Congar - a destroyed UFO intercepts a rocket ship en route to home base. Upon impact, the monkey being transported is expelled from the explosion, through Earth's atmosphere, and, like Preytor, is quickly mutated and enlarged. After crashing into the Earth, Congar rises and begins his rampage. The inspiration for him is most likely King Kong.

Robo 47 - awakened after a destroyed UFO crashes into the warehouse where the now decommissioned Robo 47 is being stored. The fumes from the fuel reboot his system and cause him to come back online, except with destructive intentions. After rising up out of the warehouse, he looks down on an unknown target (target is looking up from your perspective) and fires a missile at it.

Agamo - residing in the ground and being regarded as a monument amongst a Native American tribe, a villager takes a wooden bowl full of the fuel and pours it into the fire headed but stationary Agamo as an offer to the god(s)he believes in. Shortly thereafter, Agamo begins to rise up out of the ground, revealing a fully structured stone body with Aztec or Myan designes. As he begins walking off to engage other monsters in combat, he steps on the villager that resurrected him. *his fourth skin is a special that can only be obtained through having a saved game of Twisted Metal Black. It consists of a Sweet Tooth head with a body designed after the infamous ice cream truck that is commonly associated with the Sweet Tooth character.

Magmo - after a UFO crash-lands in a volcano, the fuel leaks out and spawns the four-armed, lava/molten rock beast

Ultra-V - built by Japanese scientists and engineers, Ultra-V was brought to life when a suspended UFO had fuel syphened into the robot. However, Ultra-V, intended to be a protector, was subject to destructive habits because of the nature of the UFO's fuel. *the fourth skin of Ultra-V is a female modification of the character, featuring a female color scheme, female bodily characteristics, and a Sultan-esq sword as opposed to the traditional katana sword.

Kineticlops - a crashed UFO lands in a set of power lines and a police officer, acting as a night guard for a power plant, surveys the damage. Once he sees the UFO entangled in the power lines, he flees the scene, terrified. Rampants wires turned live by the fuel land on him and electrocute him, leaving nothing but a large eye surrounded by a body of electricity.

[edit] Reception

Reviews

Publication	Score
IGN	8.9/10[10]
GameSpy	4.5/5[11]
Eurogamer	8/10[12]
GameSpot	7.4/10[13]
Official Playstation Magazine	5/5
Game Informer	6/10[14]
Game Revolution	B-[15]

War of the Monsters gained generally favourable reviews upon release with an average critic score of 79% based on 73 reviews at Game Rankings.^[16]

Most reviewers praised the game's style and monster roster, being a homage to classic monster movies. IGN stated that "the game draws its inspiration from movies like The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, King Kong, and the aforementioned Godzilla, the characters immediately appear to be offshoots from the great Ray Harryhausen", going on to say "each of the game's 10 gigantic beasts are as fun to play as they are to look at"^[10] while GameSpot said "a slick presentation gives the game the style of an old drive-in movie or news telecast, and it really works well to accentuate the game's retro theme and characters."^[13]

GameSpy was equally impressed, noting the destructible environments, that "WotM captures the joy of destruction more so than any game I've ever played. Did you think knocking over buildings was fun in Rampage? It's ten... no, twelvety times better in WotM".^[11]

Game Informer however complained about certain aspects of gameplay, that " the unblockable attacks are just downright unfair" and that "the lazy camera produces numerous blind spots throughout a battle".^[14] Game Revolution noted AI issues, that "the monsters routinely demonstrate a strong sense of self-preservation", which they called "extremely frustrating behavior".^[15]

[edit] References