Game Card
Monster Madness: Grave Danger (PS3)
- Publisher:
- South Peak Interactive
- Developer:
- Psyonix Studios
- US Release:
- 09.2008
- EU Release:
- n/a
- Number of players:
- n/a
- Type:
- Arcade
- Reality Factor:
- Fantasy
- Perspective:
- Third-Person
- Extra:
- Comic Style
- Age:
- Modern Times
Review
We play Monster Madness: Grave Danger...
Earlier this year I was in Spain for the Sierra Spring Break. No, I'm not telling you that in order to show off or wave my obvious rock and roll, games journalist lifestyle under your noses; I'm telling you because there I was shown a game called Zombie Wranglers by Sierra Online.
Zombie Wranglers was about four stereotypical teenagers: the Skater, the Emo Kid etc. whose neighbourhood has been overrun by zombies. The object of the game was to run around suburbia taking out these zombies using whatever comes to hand; a garden spade, a monkey wrench, whatever you'd expect to find lying around a typical American garage.
The game looked good, looked quirky and definitely looked like it would be an excellent game to play with your mates and have enough meat in single player to keep you interested and justify the price tag.
Right. So why am I telling you this story? Well, those of you who played Monster Madness last year on Xbox 360 will already know: it's because Monster Madness is that game. It's exactly the same in concept and almost identical in execution. Now before you all quite rightly point out that the 360 version came out last year and thus Zombie Wranglers is obviously a blatant copy of Monster Madness, don't bother, as I already know.
So what's up? Well, the last bit: the price. You see, Zombie Wranglers was an Xbox Live Arcade title, not a full price game. If Monster Madness fell into this category, I'd be telling you all to rush and buy it and be singing it's praises from the rafters. Never has a game been better suited to PSN/XBLA: cartoon graphics, episodic by the fact that each character has an individual story, with its own unique quirks and skill-sets, loads of downloadable content options to beef out the price but moreover the kind of pick-up-and-play gameplay that Live Arcade and PlayStation Network games.
However, considering that when you buy Monster Madness: Grave Danger you're expected to fork out the same money as any other boxed title then you can be forgiven for feeling rather short changed. The gameplay has some good ideas, mind. The fact that almost everything in the game is destructible is a nice touch. (apart from the levels' borders of course) I also liked the fact that each object behaved differently when used: the washing machine threw, well, like a washing machine and the very heavy axe swung wildly differently than the flimsy saw, for example. This means that each weapon has some kind of advantage and disadvantage and encourages you to choose wisely depending on what situation you find yourself in.
The problem is that you'll soon find one weapon-set (you can cycle between two) that you're comfortable with and that's that. In fact, there's nothing I couldn't handle through most of the game with the 'Goth-chick', whose name escapes me, if I use the aforementioned household saw and the twin-nail guns. This is a shame as the there is the option to create weird and wonderful weapons at the bikers' truck which you'll find littered around the game map. All you need to do is explore the game world a little more thoroughly and you'll soon find red toolboxes left open for you to raid. Grab the tool parts and take them to the truck and build some weird and wonderful weapons that, as I said before, are fun to try but you'll always end up going back to your preferred choice.
Monster Madness: Grave Danger is fun…for about one or two hours. After that it's simply rinse and repeat the whole way through. The gameplay is broken up by comic-style cut-scenes that pepper the plot with angsty prose that really didn't once cracked a smile on my otherwise rather affable face! I jest. It simply isn't funny and the voice acting is really "take it or leave it," at least in this reviewer's opinion.
The gameplay is in very short bursts too, so you never really get into the game's atmosphere. You're simply set a task, you complete it, cut-scene, start over - which is exactly why if it was available as a budget downloadable title then it would have suited that kind of stop/start gameplay perfectly. However, when I pay top dollar for my game I want immersion, atmosphere: I want to be part of something. With Monster Madness: Grave Danger, you never are.
Top Gaming Moment: Killing everyone on screen with the twin nail guns.
Zombie Wranglers was about four stereotypical teenagers: the Skater, the Emo Kid etc. whose neighbourhood has been overrun by zombies. The object of the game was to run around suburbia taking out these zombies using whatever comes to hand; a garden spade, a monkey wrench, whatever you'd expect to find lying around a typical American garage.
 |
 |
|
| It might be difficult to see what's going on but just hammer the melee button and you'll be fine. | Graphics are colourful. That's a positive. |
The game looked good, looked quirky and definitely looked like it would be an excellent game to play with your mates and have enough meat in single player to keep you interested and justify the price tag.
Right. So why am I telling you this story? Well, those of you who played Monster Madness last year on Xbox 360 will already know: it's because Monster Madness is that game. It's exactly the same in concept and almost identical in execution. Now before you all quite rightly point out that the 360 version came out last year and thus Zombie Wranglers is obviously a blatant copy of Monster Madness, don't bother, as I already know.
So what's up? Well, the last bit: the price. You see, Zombie Wranglers was an Xbox Live Arcade title, not a full price game. If Monster Madness fell into this category, I'd be telling you all to rush and buy it and be singing it's praises from the rafters. Never has a game been better suited to PSN/XBLA: cartoon graphics, episodic by the fact that each character has an individual story, with its own unique quirks and skill-sets, loads of downloadable content options to beef out the price but moreover the kind of pick-up-and-play gameplay that Live Arcade and PlayStation Network games.
 |
 |
|
| Just an average night in Suburban America! | The ample-chested popular girl kicking zombie butt! |
However, considering that when you buy Monster Madness: Grave Danger you're expected to fork out the same money as any other boxed title then you can be forgiven for feeling rather short changed. The gameplay has some good ideas, mind. The fact that almost everything in the game is destructible is a nice touch. (apart from the levels' borders of course) I also liked the fact that each object behaved differently when used: the washing machine threw, well, like a washing machine and the very heavy axe swung wildly differently than the flimsy saw, for example. This means that each weapon has some kind of advantage and disadvantage and encourages you to choose wisely depending on what situation you find yourself in.
The problem is that you'll soon find one weapon-set (you can cycle between two) that you're comfortable with and that's that. In fact, there's nothing I couldn't handle through most of the game with the 'Goth-chick', whose name escapes me, if I use the aforementioned household saw and the twin-nail guns. This is a shame as the there is the option to create weird and wonderful weapons at the bikers' truck which you'll find littered around the game map. All you need to do is explore the game world a little more thoroughly and you'll soon find red toolboxes left open for you to raid. Grab the tool parts and take them to the truck and build some weird and wonderful weapons that, as I said before, are fun to try but you'll always end up going back to your preferred choice.
 |
 |
|
| These things blow up and hurt you, if you hadn't already guessed. | My old friend the twin nail guns in action. Lovely! |
Monster Madness: Grave Danger is fun…for about one or two hours. After that it's simply rinse and repeat the whole way through. The gameplay is broken up by comic-style cut-scenes that pepper the plot with angsty prose that really didn't once cracked a smile on my otherwise rather affable face! I jest. It simply isn't funny and the voice acting is really "take it or leave it," at least in this reviewer's opinion.
The gameplay is in very short bursts too, so you never really get into the game's atmosphere. You're simply set a task, you complete it, cut-scene, start over - which is exactly why if it was available as a budget downloadable title then it would have suited that kind of stop/start gameplay perfectly. However, when I pay top dollar for my game I want immersion, atmosphere: I want to be part of something. With Monster Madness: Grave Danger, you never are.
Top Gaming Moment: Killing everyone on screen with the twin nail guns.
-
Trailer
Posted 15.04.08
Length 01:04 Views 1306 -
Golden Gameplay Trailer
Posted 31.07.08
Length 00:33 Views 558
User Comments
By ScythSoulces (SI Core) on Sep 24, 2008
By sfabobby03 (SI Veteran Newbie) on Sep 24, 2008
By smnlx (I just got here) on Sep 24, 2008
By RastaKid (SI Veteran Newbie) on Sep 24, 2008
