AAAHH!!! Real Monsters

"Filthy"

...when the game certainly plays like one.

But, back in the day, Nickelodeon was one of my favorite television channels merely just because of some of the great cartoons it broadcasted. Rocko's Modern Life, Doug, and even some of the episodes of Ren and Stimpy. Another putrid series that could just join these shows in the Hall of Awesomeness would have to be Aaahh! Real Monsters. And by putrid, I mean, the show itself contained some disgusting elements such as the majority of the show taking place in a dump and they ate trash. Good to know that the overcrowding of trash in our landfills could be taken care of it if only the monsters that haunt me under my bed were real. Back to reality, Aaahh! Real Monsters was a solid series that centered around the lives of three monsters: Krumm, Ickis, and Oblina. The show basically conveyed the antics of their daily lives centered around their schooling as monsters; going out, coping with, and scaring all things that are holy out of humans; and eating trash in the dump. They do all of this while dealing with the scrutiny of The Gromble, avoiding Simon the Monster Hunter and his horrid attempts of capturing them, and promising not to reveal the existence of their little world below the town dump. Enough of my reminiscing about the glory days of a fallen network…let's move on.

I remember back in the day when I liked the show a great deal. I was able to persuade my dad to invest some of his hard earned cash into this game for a Christmas present because I really liked the show and though this game would be good. Looking back on it, I'm surprised he didn't spank me for getting him to purchase a game which turned out to be candy coated dog crap. It may look nice and pleasant on the outside, but when you start to play the game, you realize how much this tastes like digested Puppy Chow.

Start the game and lo and behold, it's MID TERM EXAM DAY, and The Gromble is ready to dish out some assignments for the trio to accomplish. Ickis, Krumm, and Oblina must complete these assignments of scaring various humans such as a librarian or the local postman and obtaining objects like a shoe or a coffee mug. It's straightforward enough, but pretty uninteresting. With the stories presented in the television show, the game creators could have done more to actually give the story some gusto. I've just seen better stories from other TV show based games.

When you enter the first level, you'll find yourself immersed in the world of what a platformer game would look like if it was set up in the dump....oh, wait…this is the dump. I was just thrown off by the grunge of the place. Not the Soundgarden type either. Actually, after taking a second look, it is a pretty solid looking game for the time is produced. The monsters are detailed very similarly to their television counterparts. The creators put a fairly decent amount of detail into the environments, and you can even pick the loose tin can or two in the filth of the dump. The school and other real life environments also look fairly realistic. It's actually very pleasing visually but not all that mind blowing compared to some of the other SNES games which were released at the time.

On the other hand, I can't put it any lighter. The audio leaves a lot to be desired.. The background music gets extremely old after a while. The music is just exceedingly droning and the sound effects are about as annoying as a class of full of fourth graders. The random pings, zings, and buzzes just get repetitive after a while. The quality of the sound isn't really all that great either.

When you actually start to play the game is where the horror of realization begins to set in. It appears like a standard game affair. Life meter, lives, amount of times you can do an obscenely badass scare and such. But after a few minutes of going around and slinging trash at your enemies, you realize just how boring this game is. It's just a dull platforming game with nothing really all that exciting or groundbreaking to offer. First of all, it's not even fun. You throw fish skeletons at your enemies and when they run out, you throw begin to throw everything but the freaking kitchen sink, and for some reason, it's weaker. You can do nifty moves with all three members of your party to see farther, leap across huge gaps, and reach all new heights. While you get to do some cool moves, the game just seems to drag it out by giving you exceeding long levels that bore, not exhilarate. Enemies get very similar to the gameplay. And another thing, the enemies themselves are just lacking in grotesqueness. I can't put it any other way. They range from your standard large dump rat to your standard mall security guard. I really imagine throwing fish skeletons at a mall security guard will get rid of them. If you actually get far enough to say you've accomplished something, the game itself gets fairly hard. It's very probable that this game was too hard for its target audience at the time of its release. That's probably why I have more fond memories of skinning my knees while falling off of my awesome Razor Scooter than busting up rats in Aaahh Real Monsters.

While it may have been a pretty cool Nicktoon, Aaahh! Real Monsters makes a pretty putrid video game. You feel no compulsion to complete, much less actually finish and replay it. Save your time for other areas. In the end, just do yourself a favor and steer clear of this game.

Score- 2/10 for pretty colors and NOTHING ELSE

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 06/27/06