Xbox 360 Review: Monsters vs. Aliens

When it comes to game based movie adaptations the rule of thumb is usually: if you’ve seen it theaters skip it on the console. Outside of already knowing how the story will unfold and eventually end, most movie (and even novel) adaptations suffer from clunky gameplay, moderate to low fun levels, lackluster graphics and an overall lack of attention in designing a game with enough nuances to provide hours of enjoyment. These types of titles tend to sell enough units and then some solely off of the movie hype. So, publishers more often than not hand these projects off to their secondary design teams while their A-teams get the original properties.

Monsters vs. Aliens is a game that bucks the trend on one level – fun. You will still find the same frustrating gameplay and graphics that seemed hacked down from the original DreamWorks’ film, but you will be compelled to play on as Dr. Cockroach entertains you with his playfully maniacal banter.

You begin your adventure with an epic introduction. Dr. Cockroach, B.O.B., The Missing Link, and Ginormica have been imprisoned by the humans. After a daring escape, Dr. Cockroach guides his three convicts on a daring escape mission that would make Prison Break’s Michael Scofield thankful he understands the meaning of subtle.

The first character you play as is Ginormica, a 49-foot-11-inch tall woman who wishes everyone would just call her Susan. Your powers include super strength, the ability to leap tall red lasers in a single or double bound, and limbo skills that would make Gumby jealous. However, instead of really using any of these skills, you’re reduced to playing through each level on the game on skates made out of cars. When you begin the game this is extremely fun. The pacing is fast as you rollerblade to freedom with Dr. Cockroach urging you on with his frequent tips and quips. You can dash through robots with chained QuickTime events, while jumping over red laser beams and limbo under green ones. The only problem is on each level there are about two to three Ginormica scenes. And, in each one you will do exactly the same thing. The only thing that changes is the landscape. So, instead of skating through a military prison facility while ducking and jumping, you’ll skate through San Francisco while ducking and jumping.

If I never see B.O.B. again it will be too soon.

B.O.B.’s scenes are no different. And, it’s in his scenes that you will immediately become aware of the redundancy in gameplay. Why? Because it sucks to be B.O.B. It really does. Everything about B.O.B. is laborious and awkward. He’s a gelatinous blob that likes to eat. I get it. But, that’s all you’ll do during his scenes. As a blob, you’ll be able to goo your way through fences. If you want to make sure you don’t fall through a grate, then eat a well placed box or a guard, and you’ll temporarily become solid until you spit the object or person out. You’ll find yourself moaning and groaning on more than one occasion as you forget to eat something, or just fall off the map to your death. Navigating the tricky landscape is a difficult task on its own for B.O.B. Regardless of what you do, and how careful you are, B.O.B. will find a way to fall off of a floating floor or through a grate that you were sure you weren’t standing on. I honestly do not understand why B.O.B. is on the cover of the game box. You would expect that he would be the best character to play with – even though he really is the worst.

The Missing Link is easily the most fun character to play with. His obstacles and boards are coincidentally the most diverse. Outside of having a standard set of attacks like a strike and a tail whip, The Missing Link can do some pretty cool things. You can take control of missle launchers and attack enemies. If a remote controlled turret starts shooting at you, you can jump on that turret like you’re at a rodeo and pummel it as it tries in vain to shake you off. The boards aren’t all side-scrolling either. Some of them require you to scale the walls of a giant alien machine. Gamers get to actually run on gigantic screws, like a hamster wheel, in order to unscrew bolts to disconnect machine parts. There’s just a lot of versatility with this character. Although Ginormica had her fun moments, it makes me wish The Missing Link was the sole character in the game.

The graphics and animations are great to look at. They have a nice CG feel. However, when held up against the Monsters vs. Aliens film, they seem textureless. I did not play the Nintendo Wii version, however I can hardly imagine there would be a difference between the Xbox 360 and the Wii release. It does not look as though there was any additional attention made in fully utilizing the 360 engine and HD capabilities to give gamers a fully immersive cinema feel.

And, the Award for Most Likely to get Skipped on Box Cover Art goes to…

Monsters vs. Aliens has about five to six hours of gameplay. However, you’ll get the added bonus of the DNA Lab, which offers you several bonus missions and tons of unlockables for added play. Instead of just unlocking movie stills, you can unlock tons of original animatics which are cool to watch. Also, you can unlock character commentaries – making this somewhat like a home movie release. If you playback through missions you’ve completed, the characters will comment on the mission as you play. This is a definite unique and fun bonus. The added challenges tend to revolve around time trials or “escape without injury” challenges in boards you have recently beat. Depending on how you do you will get a bronze, silver or gold medal. I found myself wanting to get the gold medal every time and didn’t mind that the boards where recycled from boards I had already played. However, with B.O.B., I was fine with foregoing the gold medal.

The music was a nice background track to the gameplay, but it didn’t really scream memorable. I they did a great job with the voice over on this title. However, Dr. Cockroach’s narration got redundant after you complete the first level. All of his jokes are recycled after that, pretty much because his commentary is based off of gameplay that has been recycled.

Overall, Monsters vs. Aliens is an enjoyable game that suffers from redundant gameplay. B.O.B. scenes are laborious, but it’s worth playing through just to be The Missing Link. The game really wins out on the DNA Lab addition. It offers enough bonus features to boost game time and make you feel satisfied in your gaming investment.