War of the Monsters is like a cross between Power Stone, Virtual On, and classic science fiction. If you have an affinity for any of these, you’ll probably enjoy War of the Monsters. If you’re a fan of all three like me, you’ll probably love the game.
War of the Monsters comes from Incog Inc. (aka Incognito), the studio behind Twisted Metal: Black. Tonally, WotM is about as far from the grim TM:B as you can get. WotM is campy, silly, and laser-focused on paying homage to the creatures from 50s to 70s sci-fi (mostly from Japan and Hollywood).
The game has takes on King Kong, Mazinger Z, Godzilla, Mars Attacks aliens, Them!, and more. A consistent art style allows all of these robots and creatures to seamlessly coexist in the game world.
War of the Monsters is a fighting game, but it doesn’t always feel like one. The melee combat feels similar to Power Stone, running around an arena and picking up items to attack with. There’s a great deal of verticality in the arenas, mostly due to the ability to climb up buildings. But don’t get too comfortable at the top of a building, because pretty much any one of them can be destroyed (in spectacular and satisfying fashion).
Ranged attacks are a crucial part of combat in War of the Monsters: some battles can only be won using them. Ranged combat can take a couple of different forms: shooting (limited by your energy meter) or throwing (limited by objects you find in the environment). It involves a lot of locking on and strafing, and honestly gives me Virtual On vibes.
Combat generally consists of battles against 1-4 monsters similar to your playable character, but the real highlight for me were the boss battles. These are conventional video game boss fights where you’re dodging attacks until a weak point is exposed. The boss battles are great in the context of WotM because they require you to really be mindful of movement and positioning in a way that’s different from regular fights. Personally, I loved the cinematic set piece feel of the boss battles; to me these fights are the best depiction of the game’s aesthetic ambitions.
Also on the cinematic side of things, there are brief cutscenes between fights that add a bit of context and flavor to the brawling. Playing through all the battles takes about 30-45 minutes, and you’re rewarded with a cutscene exclusive to your monster once you complete the game. Between stages you can save and see how many battle tokens you earned, which can be used to unlock outfits and minigames. This is where WotM gets its replay value.
I love this game, but it’s certainly not perfect. Sometimes combat can feel a bit too chaotic, and an occasionally ineffective lock-on made me feel completely helpless in some fights. But at the end of the day, I feel like War of the Monsters achieves exactly what it was going for, both artistically and mechanically. A true gem in the PS2 library.
All screenshots and video here were captured from the PS5 digital version of the game.
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