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Title: King of the Monsters
Author:SNK
Rom Player: NeoRAGEx
Reviewer: Dr. Boogie
Synopsis: A recent study has shown that saying, “oh no, it’s Godzilla” while playing this game will cause anyone nearby to punch you in the face. King of the Monsters sets you up as one of six giant, bizarrely named monsters that must have one knockdown drag-out wrestling-style match with the other five and a doppelganger to determine who deserves the aforementioned title. Each match lasts for a set amount of time, or until one of the monsters wears the other down to the point that they can be pinned. There’s also a two-player one-on-one style match and a two-player tag team co-op match. As if that weren’t enough, battles are set in, well, more like on, Japanese cities, which you wind up demolishing in the course of each fight. The weird thing is that the local folks have set up these nifty energy barriers on the sides to prevent the monsters from getting out, but at the same time, bouncing the fighters back in like the ropes in a wrestling ring. Even more amusing is the fact that trains, airplanes, jet fighters, tanks, and the like will file in, allowing you to grab them and hurl them at your opponent. However, the majority of the fighting is done one-on-one. Each fighter holds some feeble punches and kicks, a running attack, a slew of grappling maneuvers, and one crazy charged up projectile attack. The grappling moves do the most damage, but grappling it self is a tricky business. The game seems to use some kind of random generator to determine who has control in a grapple, and the computer has an uncanny knack for seizing that bonus. This gets to be irritating, as the computer will make every attempt to get in your face and grapple. Still, if you can get the advantage by either getting it immediately or tapping the buttons like mad, you can do moves for throwing, rebounding them off the energy barriers, and some special moves that do good damage and cause them to let loose a little power sphere. These things, when you collect ten of them, make you and your projectile attack more powerful. The game chooses to illustrate this by changing your colors, making even more odd-looking. You can easily pound these out of your opponent once they get really weak, but doing it for a while may result in them getting a second wind. The projectiles require a little bit of time to warm up, but can really help you out if you time them right. What the projectile is depends on whom you’re playing as. One of the fighters shoots a big rock, another shoots out a stream of fire, yet still another shoots an energy beam. The sound effects for this monster bash are interesting. Some fights begin with a news reporter in the background talking about the scenario. Plus, the sounds consist of noises made by the monsters, some of the most amusing of which come from this humanoid character named “Astro Guy,” and noises from the passing vehicles. The music is ok, but you’ll probably be too busy smashing the crap out of the other guy to notice. One of the problems with the game, however, is the frustrating level of difficulty. Other than that, getting to see big monsters duke it out is pretty damn cool.
Best Cheats: Nothing Entered
Game Play: 6
Graphics: 6
Music/Sound: 7
Originality: 9
Overall Rating: 7
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