A game by SNK, King of The Monsters was originally released in 1991 in the form of quarter-chomping Arcade Machines. It was not until the following year that the game was ported over to the Current-Gen systems at that time – the SNES and Genesis. It is a single player arcade-style fighting game, with a two player versus-mode as well.
Overview. In the style of giant monster movies where humans become more of an ant-like nuisance than a threat, the objective of King of The Monsters is about as simple as it gets; kick the other guys’ mutated/prehistoric/otherworldly/really, really big behind all over the selected battleground. Do it for every single monster who dares not look the same as you (or look the same as you but with a different color), and you can declare yourself – you guessed it – King of The Monsters. It’s amazing how simple the times and titles were in the 1990s.
The game starts you out with choosing one of four characters: Geon, a familiar looking bipedal lizard (he’s not Godzilla), a giant beetle, a stone golem, and some guy wearing a bug mask who looks like the titanic ancestor of Captain Falcon. Supposedly there are more characters to select from in the Neo-Geo version.
So, with a great deal of immediacy, the game sends you straight into the action. The name of the first stage is Megaport. I think it’s safe to say based on the archipelago of Japan in the background that it takes place in Tokyo. There are additional levels you can fight on, but all of them take place in a japanese city. It wouldn’t really be in the spirit of giant monster combat if it didn’t take place in the home of such superstar city-killers as Mothra and Rodan, right?
Gameplay. In spite of how awesome the previous paragraph sounds though, first impressions were sent straight to the white fence and stayed there for a while. When the combat starts, you have little sense of how to play. Instructions are given to you in the main menu on both console ports. The first 20 seconds are spent running around like a headless chicken, walking on top of buildings like a giant sheet of bubble wrap.
It wasn’t until a bout a minute in the match when I realized something that should have been realized a little more quickly: this is played like a wrestling match! With that in mind I proceeded to grab my opponent and lay the proverbial smack down with flying head butts, body drops and the occasional piledriver.
Just when I was getting some momentum going though, my opponent proceeded to give me a few backbreakers, throwing me to the edge (which are electrified and marked by metro rails….at least I think they’re metro rails) and giving me a very nasty clothesline. Then, just when I thought I had seen everything, my opponent jumps into the sky, grabs a hovering helicopter and throws it straight in my face. It was through the skin of my teeth I ended up finally winning, after pinning him down for the thousandth time.
Afterward you’re given back health dependent on how much you tore the city open a new one, which implies that the next match does not guarantee you begin with full life. Needless to say that second bout ended rather quickly, with the other guy dragging around my head like a mop for concrete.
Controls.The controls overall are responsive in King of the Monsters, although the grapple detection proves to be a bit iffy on both console ports. Most attempts to try and get a grapple move off leaves the game to decide whomever it feels like favoring at the time. So having all of the timing in the world doesn’t help if the CPU always gets the move off. You could stand on top of him and it would make little difference.
In spite of the occasional spots of unfair AI there is some variety to be had in King of the Monsters. Holding down the punch and kick buttons allow you to charge a breath attack, which has the ability to grow stronger if you collect enough P-orbs by manhandling your opponent with grapple moves. I didn’t find anything noticeable in the power level of your character if you happen to level up; you merely change color and your breath weapon experiences a +5 bonus to your epic rating.
Genesis v. SNES. Aesthetically speaking, both versions look very different from one another. The Genesis version uses more bleached coloring and the characters seem more rounded. The SNES’ version seem to have their sprites much more boldly rendered, and there is much more going on in terms of the background frame. Based on still frames it looks much better than what can be seen on the Genesis.
Functionally though, the SNES shows occasional frame rate slowdown when everything gets busy, especially grappling monsters with burning buildings and helicopters hovering all over the screen shooting little blue bullets at you all try to occupy the same space. The Genesis, however, runs more smoothly and very rarely does the gameplay get jerky and sluggish. Overall though they are both the same game (No Wii vs. PS3/Xbox-sized differences), and their difference, especially in the timeframe we are now, are fairly superficial in the greater scope.
HDR (Humans = Diminutive Insects Rating): Despite its age, the game is still fairly fun to play. Unfortunately though, the charm of wanton 16-bit destruction wears off after a while, and the steep difficulty rise between matches will probably turn you off to playing the whole way through (unless of course you have Emulator Space-Time Rewind trick).
ESA Protected? If you own the original cartridge, the ROM for this game is downloadable for both the Super Nintendo and the Genesis.
