Monsters vs Aliens Reviews

  • SuperEboySuperEboy260,602
    11 Nov 2009 08 Dec 2010
    9 3 2
    Monsters vs. Aliens did what it was designed to do, but not much else (besides a headache, perhaps).

    The game follows an extended storyline of the original movie which was released in theaters not long before the game came out. While you play, you cycle through three different characters (Ginormica, The Missing Link, and B.O.B.) to cooperately take down the aliens. Each one of them has a different style of gameplay that is designed to challenge a child's puzzle solving skills, finger coordination, and patience.

    The game designers did a good job attempting to add a lot of variety in the gameplay. While you play as Ginormica, you run down an set path and aggressively dodge obstacles. When playing The Missing Link, you play him in a platformer (which felt a lot like old school Crash Bandicoot). When playing as B.O.B, you solve mazes and take time to make correct choices. Those three cores being met in one game is no easy task, and while they had those three elements in the game, the play itself got boring and frustrating really fast. The problem I had was that I bonded with a certain character's gameplay, and when that scene ended, I felt stuck with playing something I didn't want to.

    Another problem is that cutscenes, cinematics, dialog and actual levels repeated themselves. While this added length to the game, this made me more discouraged to want to beat it.

    The co-op play was really sloppily done as well. They added the wonderful feature of allowing a second player to join in and exit a game whenever he or she would care to. The only problem is that the second player's gameplay was literally to control crosshairs and shoot stuff while the first player played. You wouldn't even know it was there. This grew frustrating seeing as the cameras are all fixed and moving every few seconds.

    [Edit: The voices that were in the movie made it to the game, they just didn't feel as synced and natural as they did in the movie.]

    The graphics, while being compared to the movie, were pitiful. This shouldn't shock anyone. While those graphics were compared to other family games, it actually did a fairly good job. I mean, B.O.B. was poorly designed and most other characters seemed blocky, but as far as environment and attention to movie accuracy, it grabbed my attention.

    Achievements would be have to be the sole reason I gave the game a looksie at all. With achievements like "Jump 150 times with each character" and "Eat 50 things with B.O.B.", few of them actually required much skill. The only thing that made getting them challenging was patience to get through the game to get them. I would consider it on the much easier side as far as achievement collecting goes.

    All together, the game had great potential but didn't make it much farther than the starting line. Had they taken more time and thought into the game, it could have made more than three stars in my book. I'm sure they'll be heartbroken.
    3.0
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    klobeastActually the credits for the game list all of the original cast members except Hugh Laurie as participating. They specifically list Reese Witherspoon, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, and Rainn Wilson.
    Posted by klobeast on 14 Jan 10 at 16:09
  • Removed Gamer
    Gamer has been removed
    2 1 0
    This game is okay is little kids that have a bunch of patience, which is good becuase thats who this game is geared toward. For the older audience this game will get old real quick. It is basically 3 levels played over and over and over again. Toward the end of the game the levels just seem to never end and it becomes a major chore just to keep playing.

    For the Gigantigirl all yo do is dodge things, half the time there are obsticals that you cant seem to miss.

    As BOB you have mazes, dodging stuff and more mazes. Nothing tricky just the same thing over and over. On the mazes the game will even tell you which way to go by hitting the left bumper.

    Finally the last level is where the fighting takes place. Again very repetitive but it is the most fun of the whole game.

    As you can tell I already feel this game is repetitive but I havent begun nailing that coffin yet. You also have 35 challenges in the game, all of which take you back to a certain parts of each level, and you have to meet certain criteria, whether it is time, number of hits or points gained.

    The graphics are good, nothing special but they do not deteriorate from the game.

    As for the achievements You will gain doing a general playthrough and challenges but there is some grinding to do for the last few achievements. Not a bad list and it does attept to make you play longer. The not dying 10 times total will be a hastle, but you can exit to the dashboard and it wont count against you.

    All in all it is not a terrible game, as long as you dont mind repetitiveness.
    2.0
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