Article by Anthony Roger? | October 30, 2010
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Monster Party Developer: Human |
Monster Party is... not a good game. Not in the traditional sense, anyway. The jump mechanics are terrible, the hit detection leaves something to be desired, and the graphics are nothing special. In places, the main character makes Simon Belmont look like a gymnast. The music wasn’t even very memorable, minus the title screen theme.
But if it fails to be the Citizen Kane of 8-bit videogames, it makes a good case for being the budding medium’s Plan 9 From Outer Space. It’s got an 8-bit approximation of a schlocky horror vibe, a hilariously awful localization, and the mechanics are worth suffering through just to see the game’s high point: the bosses.
The bosses in Monster Party are... well, cheap and not fun to fight, to be perfectly honest. But they’re also so completely bizarre it’s impossible to not want to see more. Where else will you find a plant that says, “HELLO! BABY!” before attacking? Or a boss that you don’t actually have to fight because he states, “SORRY, I’M DEAD”?
Super Mario Bros. was pretty surreal, sure, but it can’t hold a candle to happening upon Royce, a giant caterpillar laying on a bed. It’s like the creators took a bunch of horror tropes and nouns, threw darts at ’em, and made bosses out of the resulting combinations, bless their hearts.
Even the game’s plot -- a boy named Billy is whisked away from his nighttime baseball game by some sort of gargoyle griffin (named Bert) that says only he can save the world -- is ridiculous. But admit it: You smirked when you read that 100% factual synopsis, didn’t you?
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