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| Dead bodies everywhere dead bodies every where!!!! | Is it hot in here or is it just me? |
The story behind Monster Madness is a simple one, your town has been taken over by flesh eating zombies and you and your friends have to do everything possible to save it! While the B-movie story might not sound like the most exciting thing on earth, the game it self feels very much like a virtual Shaun of the Dead. It's a very light-harded take on the whole zombie sub-culture that's doesn't take it self seriously. Resident Evil this is definitely not. And the cool thing about it is, it's not trying to be either. The whole idea of this title is to make fun of all of the stereotypical zombie movie cliché’s seen in the past 20 years while at the same time giving you as much over the top action as you can handle. And it definitely excels at both.
Upon booting up, you are given the option of select from 4 different characters. Then after a brief set of comic book style animated frames, you are thrust into the game and battling it out with the living dead! Oxymoron's aside, from the first second you are in the game you are surrounded by zombies, demons and any number of the other 50 or so different enemies in the game. What makes this all the more fun is the fact that you start out with no weapon, yes that's right not even a small stick. But fear not, as the game allows you to use almost any object in the environment as one, and I mean anything. From furniture, trash cans, lawn mowers, lamps, swords, guns and an almost endless supply of other objects in the environment's can be made into weapons. As you go through the game you can also upgrade your weapons and combined them with other parts to enhance their capabilities. This is all done by finding a guy named Larry, who is a trucker looking guy that has a mobile shop that he parks in different areas of the stage. He also gives you helpful hints on where to do and what to do from time to time as well.
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| One of the brief pauses in the action! | BRAINS!!!!!! |
The actual combat it self is pretty fun but a bit on the simple side. Easy button presses pull off most of your moves and abilities as well as basic combo attacks. It would be nice to see more depth in this area but as it stands don't expect much more than a standard button masher experience. The main problem with Monster Madness is basically the same problem we see with almost every game in this genre, lack of variety. The core combat is quite simple, as you are basically just going around killing wave after wave of enemies in the same fashion. You do get a good variety in weapons and enemies, but the end experience is still the same. There's no engaging story to keep you glued to the seat, there's no free roaming world to explore, there's just KILL KILL KILL! But that doesn't mean Monster Madness is not fun, as it can be quite enjoyable, especially with friends playing co-op over XBL.
Graphically speaking, Monster Madness is mixed back. Despite being powered by the Unreal Engine 3, some of the games textures are less than detailed, as are some of the character models and environments. But what help makes up for it is the bright colors and great effects that fill the screen. This isn't Gears of War here, but it's not trying to be either. The whole games art style is designed around a colorful cartoony look and the Unreal Engine pulls this off well. While the graphics could definitely use a bit more polish, the over all look of the game is not hard on the eyes at all.
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| Not quite sure how he ended up there | Safety on the truck |
Overall Monster Madness is a solid entry into a genre that has so far not seen a lot of life on Xbox 360. It's the type of game that is fun in bursts if you’re playing by your self, but is really designed to be played with friends. If you are looking for a good co-op game to play with friends then it's definitely worth checking out. If your one of those people looking for the next action title to hold you over to Halo 3 comes out then you should probably skip this one.
Top Game Moment:
TOP GAME MOMENT
Taking out the suicide Zombies before they went BOOOM!
