Monster Lab – WII – Review

It is hard to find decent games for
the Nintendo Wii. The majority of the games released by third-party publishers
have been very sloppy ports of other games or a cheap knock off of popular Wii
games. Ever so often a game gets released with very little fan-fare and it turns
out to be a true diamond in the rough. Monster Lab can be placed in this
category. There has very little advertising for this game, and the box art is
not the greatest either. When players pop in this game they will find out that
it is always better to look beyond their first impressions as they will be in
for a nice surprise.

In Monster Lab, players take on the
role as an apprentice in the prestigious Mad Science Alliance (MSA). Player’s
goal is to become a full-fledged member by mastering the three Mad Science
disciplines: Mechanical, Alchemical, and Biological. Once players have mastered
these sciences, they will be able to create the ultimate monster to do their
bidding. Once players have done this, they will be able to take on one of the
MSA’s former members: Baron Mharti. This scientist has "gone off the deep end"
and is using his ultimate creation to plug the world into chaos. It is up to the
players to face off against the Baron and put his evil schemes to rest.

Many players will love this
storyline, but will be severely disappointed with the way the developers
followed through with it. Even though the premise is great, the developers did
not place too much emphasis on fleshing out the story. Most of the story is
given through cute cut scenes with over-the-top acting, but the real meat of the
story is still lacking. The game feels like it is empty, as players are not
given a real reason to keep pushing ahead to defeat this madman. Instead,
players will only continue just to get better parts to upgrade their creations.
This is a shame. If the story was woven more tightly in this game, the
experience would have been much better.


Monster Lab is broken up to into
several pieces, creation, exploration, and combat. The majority of the game
focuses on the creation of monsters. At the start of the game, players are given
a simple monster with that has a few spare parts to complete the mission. In
order to build a better monster, gamers will have to complete various puzzles,
mini-games, and quests to obtain better parts to upgrade their monsters with.
The deeper players get in the game, the better parts are unlocked. If players
cannot defeat a certain monster they can go back into creation mode and make
their character stronger to ensure the next time players will be victorious.
Players also have the option of either upgrading their existing monsters or
creating new ones from scratch. There are hundreds of parts available for
players to choose from, to create their ultimate monster.

Most of the actual gameplay is done
though various mini-games. The problem with this is that eventually players will
have played them all and get sick of them. For instance after each battle
players have the option to go into the field repair mode. All players have to do
is move the Wii-mote in a circular motion and the faster they move it the more
damage gets fixed. The problem with this is that this mini-game takes up a lot
of time, and obviously gets old since players will want to repair after each
battle. It would have been different if this mini-game was changed up
periodically, but since this one is central to the game. Gamers will grow more
annoyed each time it loads. This is the same with each of the mini-games; they
get really stale and redundant after a while.


When players are exploring a level,
they will often come face-to-face with another monster which shifts the game
into combat mode. The combat in this game is all turn-based, which gives players
ample opportunity to create new strategies based on what their enemy is doing.
When players get into a battle they will have their monsters information on the
left and the enemy’s information on the right. There are four key body parts on
a monster: head, torso, arms, and legs. When it is the gamers turn, they must
select a body part and then choose one of the two actions, then target a body
part of their enemy. The problem is that each action requires a certain amount
of energy to do. Soon players will be low on energy, so they will have to either
choose to recharge (give full battery but might take damage from next attack) or
dodge (give partial energy and avoid the next attack) during the enemies next
turn. The ultimate objective is to destroy the enemy’s torso, but players can be
cruel and destroy each key part then finish the monster slowly but surely.

Monster Lab also includes a
multiplayer mode where players can log in to the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection to
fight against friends or random people. The game still remains turn-based, but
now more strategy is involved since players will be fighting a human instead of
the computer AI. It is up to players to use their most powerful monsters in each
battle to see who has collected the best parts and put them together in the most
efficient way.

The various monsters that players
will create look great. Players will be amazed when they see their creatures in
action. The developers paid a lot of attention to the detail of each of the body
parts. This is made apparent when a monster is formed and players see how it
animates. Each creature reacts fluidly with its environment no matter what parts
are attached to it. The lighting and special effects also make each battle look
great! The camera always shows the best angle during a fight, which is always a
good thing since players want to see how the latest parts will behave. The only
problem with the game’s graphics is the actual environments that players will
transverse look bare in comparison to the monsters.

The music for this game is really
good, and matches whatever players are doing at the moment. The sound effects
are also decent. What really takes the cake is the over-the-top voice acting.
Even though it can get a little annoying at times, players will find that it
really fits in well with the rest of the game. 

Monster Lab is rated Everyone 10+


Review Scoring Details
for Monster Lab

Gameplay: 7.9
Players will love collecting the various parts and seeing what new
creations they will come up while testing them out in battle.

Graphics: 7.9
The graphics are pleasing to the eye but they will not knock players
socks off.

Sound: 7.3
The musical selection for this game is pretty good, since each world
has its own distinct theme. The voice acting is decent, but not great. The sound
effects are cheesy, but get the job done.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 6.3
While the concept for collecting items for battle is not new (Pokémon
anyone?) the implantation of the character creation and setting really make this
game extremely fun to play.

Multiplayer 7.1
Having the ability to play online against friends really extends the
lifespan of this game. The connection speed for the game is very good with
little to no lag found.

Overall: 7.8
Monster Lab is a good game that will stay in your Nintendo Wii for a
long time. Hopefully Eidos Interactive will create a sequel to this game that
fixes its shortcomings as they have a potential blockbuster in their hands.