Mantrid's Journal: Sleeper Playstation 2 hit? War of the Monsters!

Well I was really down to the wire - EB lets you exchange a game if you don't like it one time - they give you two weeks. This is actually quite generous compared to most places which basically refuse to exchange games at all (though I suspect you could return an opened game to Wal*Mart with a sufficient stink given their 'official' return policies...) I had picked up Hearts of Iron and while with most games I know within 20 minutes if I'm going to have to return a game, with HOI I was down to the last day before I decided it wasn't the game for me.

Anyways Master of Orion 3 is a no show thus far (probably end of February at this point), Soul Calibur 2 is two seasons away and I really wasn't sure what I was going to pick up. However last week there were some rumblings on gamerankings.com about War of the Monsters for PS2. I had glazed over that release, thinking it was just Rampage 3D. But at some point I clued into who the developers were...Incognito, and thus brought to mind their previous track record:

- Twisted Metal
- Twisted Metal 2
- Critical Depth
- Twisted Metal: Black

(games that stood out for me anyways, particularily TM2 and CD) Then I realized just what War of the Monster was: Twisted Metal with Monsters!!

Now TM2 is a 'college classic' with many hours having been burned away playing single and two player games (right up there with Star Control 2 or X-Com it was). So now my interest in WOTM had increased and finally, having an exchange to do anyways, decided to take the plunge and bought WOTM.

So far I am very happy with my choice! WOTM is like a breath of fresh air to me in some ways, it's light hearted overall and a blast to play. Twisted Metal Black was qutie difficult and a bit dark for my tastes (though coincedentally I'd been plunking away at it for the last few weeks) - WOTM is just plain fun. Grab your monster, beat the crap out of another monster all the while destroying real estate. You can throw cars and gas tankers, skewere opponents with radio towers and cause large chunks of debris to fall on their heads. If someone throws a car at you and you have a girder in your hand (or similar) you can whack it away baseball style! Or you can play catch, and hurl it back at them!

The whole game has the atmosphere of an old monster movie flick from the music to the levels. It's just a joy to play! The melee attacks are a bit redundant when compared to say, Virtua Fighter 4, but this game is about exploiting the levels and exploration as well as clobbering other monsters. And being the developers that they are, Incog has went all out with creative levels.

Haven't gotten too far yet, but so far WOTM seems to be a great action movie. It might be worth checking out for TM fans!