The storyline behind War of The Monsters goes like this; aliens have attacked Earth. Earth is getting its butt beaten by said aliens. Earth retaliates with a super-weapon that knocks down all the alien ships. Hooray! Victory for Earth. Or is it? It seems that the fuel from the alien saucers starts mutating common Earth creatures, creating gigantic monsters with a hankering for a fight. It's a simple B-movie plot, but thanks to the overall presentation of the game, it sucks you in and keeps you playing again and again as you try to progress through the adventure mode or the other fighting modes.

Gameplay

War of The Monsters starts out as a deceptively simplistic fighter. You choose from one of the monsters (you start with eight, and there are two unlockable monsters), pick a level and start making with the fighting. Simple enough, right? One could only wish it was that easy.

Let's start with the combat system, which might appear overly simplistic, but when coupled with the interactive fighting arenas, takes the combat to a wholly different level.. The basic moves are light attack and heavy attack, which can be chained together into triple hit combos and other basic combo moves. Pretty easy stuff to get used to. Along with the basic attacks, each monster has two special attacks; one for short range, one for long. Ok, that's also pretty easy.

The trick is, you won't survive long using those basic moves. You absolutely must learn the advanced moves, and learn to chain them together if you hope to survive anything beyond the first two or three fights. The manual (which is presented as a 1950's pulp novel) documents moves such as the dash, uppercut, throw and ramming, all of which you have to learn to get good at this game. None of the moves are complex to implement (never more than 2-3 button presses), but you're practically required to implement combinations of all the moves while watching for openings in your enemy's defenses if you hope to be successful. A button-masher this game is not.

Along with the hand-to-hand tactics, you have the environment to contend with. In the city for example, you might have military vehicles chasing the combatants around while taking potshots and just causing general havoc. Monsters can make use of the environment by picking up objects and using them as weapons, climbing buildings and using those same buildings as cover. Thanks to an excellent control scheme, it's incredibly easy to pick up object to use as weapons, or to climb buildings, for example. I have to say, there's nothing worse than having your monster impaled by a radio tower!

It's actually difficult to explain the depth of the combat system. As I've said, you don't have the standard "20 button" combos that you see in fighters such as Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. Instead, War of The Monsters relies on "smart fighting" where you use the environment and mixes of moves to do the most damage. Charging the enemy and pounding away on the controller will get you nowhere. But getting in a few good swipes, then grabbing your enemy to deliver a few more punches and finally throwing him across the city and into a building...that my friend, will do the real damage.

The AI in War of The Monsters can seem almost too good at times, especially in multi-monster fights. Expect to become very frustrated, especially during adventure mode, when two or more monsters basically tag-team you. Just when you think you're about to take down one of the beasts, his fully powered up pal will come to his rescue while he runs off to pick up more health power-ups. The AI is very aware of the environment, and will use it to its advantage, climbing buildings to escape you, knocking down other buildings on top of you, and picking up every piece of rubble in site to use as a weapon. Don't expect any mercy from the computer, as it will soundly thrash you on the more difficult levels.

War of The Monsters offers a free-for all mode (a monster bashing frenzy) along with endurance mode and adventure mode. In endurance mode, you take on one monster at a time until you lose a battle. Adventure mode is the game's single-player campaign, which takes you through plenty of fights mixed with some Earth-shattering boss battles. The bosses in adventure mode are a good mix of goofball B-movie villain and deadly combo-throwing opposition. Even the first boss in the game will offer you more challenge than you've seen in most bosses from other titles.

Graphics

War of The Monsters looks good, and I don't mean "it looks good for being a PlayStation 2 game". I mean this game has some of the best in-game graphics I've seen on any console. Did you ever play Soul Calibur for the SEGA DreamCast? Well, I have to say this; War of The Monsters is that smooth and pretty. Animations are so fluid, you'll swear you were watching a monster movie and not just playing a video game. There's a smoothness to the graphics that I've honestly never seen on the PS2, it's practically "jaggy" free.

The monsters themselves are diverse and well detailed. You've got Togera, the Godzilla knock-off, with his chubby reptilian belly, shiny scales, and clumsy movement. He moves how you'd expect a 200-ton Iguana to move. Then there's Kineticlops, which is solid proof the PS2's graphics engine still has a few tricks left in it. Kineticlops is a creature of pure energy with an eye floating in the middle. To see Kineticlops in action is to see the PS2 pushed to its limits. Electrostatic charges follow him around as his electrically charged body practically crackles and hums with evil energy.  His electrical attacks will light up your screen while the partial transparency of his body is amazing to see.

The combat environments range from cities to desert valleys, all of which are well detailed with plenty of destructive potential. You're not stuck fighting on the ground, you can climb up just about any surface, and your perspective will seamlessly change to follow. In the cities, crowds of scared humans run in fear, and actually change direction as you move towards them. While you can't pick them up (as King Kong would), you can squash them under your gargantuan feet, leaving a sickly yet satisfying smear on the pavement.

Sound

The sound in War of The Monsters is perfect for this type of game. Monsters roar, buildings crash, and helicopters whirr as they fly by. Even the musical score is on target as it matches the feel of the soundtrack from 50's monster flicks. There's no voice work in this game, which is perfectly fine by me, since monsters typically don't talk. The crowds do scream as you chase them (and who isn't going to chase a few crowds of people around, given the chance?) while the stomping of your monstrous footsteps sounds great in surround sound. Sound in War of The Monsters is right on the money!

Replayability

Thanks to the variety of monsters, environments and combat moves, you'll find plenty of replayability in this title. The powerful AI forces you to learn the strengths and weaknesses of every monster, practically forcing you to play them all at least a few times.

Along with a solid and highly replayable single-player game, there's the multiplayer aspect, which ranks very high in my book. Unlike most multiplayer games, which force you into split-screen for the entire game, War of The Monsters split-screen is adaptive. When combatants get too far apart, the screen splits vertically, but once you're in combat range, the screens merge into one. This splitting and merging is done smoothly without causing you to get motion sick during play.

Overall

If you've gotten to this point in the review, you can tell I really enjoyed War of The Monsters. With its great mix of monsters, AI, graphics and environments, you'll be hard pressed to find a better PS2 fighting title this year.  War of The Monsters proves that the PlayStation 2 is still a strong next-gen console, and that it still has a few tricks up its sleeve. If you're ever wished you were "that big monster" tearing up the cities in your favorite sci-fi movie, this is the game for you.