King of the Monsters 2

"A fun arcade-style fighting game"

King of Monsters 2 was ported over to the SNES several years ago, and it still retains the same building smashing fun of the original, combined with the cool fighting elements. The game plays like a cross between a street-fighter and a tournament-fighter. Levels consist mostly of small stretches of city, when you progress through fighting off small enemies like planes, tanks, or underwater creatures. You can smash just about any building or sturcture you see to earn extra points and pick up special power-ups. At the end of the level, you face a boss character. The bosses are varied and cool, though pretty easy. You can also play this game as a two-player cooperative, or 1 vs 1.

The moves are simple to perform, and mostly consist of single button presses to perform them. The three giant characters, Geon, Cyber Woo, and Atomic Man, all have different but similar moves to perform. The location of the levels vary from New York, to Paris, to the Grand Canyon, and even to underwater. Though fun, this game is very short and very easy to beat.

Gameplay: Fun and easy to learn. You can pick up the controller, having never played this game before, and quickly become a decent player. Though the game is easy, it is never boring, and smashing things is always fun :). The most engaging part of a battle is when you grapple your opponent in a shoulder hold, and rapidly press back and forth to try to do a special move. It's fun for a while, but kind of gets old quickly. Not much replay value. 7/10

Graphics: Large characters, detailed cities, and interesting bosses make this game fun to watch. Nothing spectacular, but nothing bad either. 8/10

Music/Sound: Nothing special here. Neither the music or sound effects stand out in any way, but this game really doesn't rely on those to be good. 6/10

Overall: Nothign spectacular, but nothing horrible. It's good fun for two friends to play though the cooperative mode together, and certainly the only reason this game has any replay value at all.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99