Based on the popular film
from Disney and Pixar, Sony’s Monsters Inc. allows players to relive the
adventures of Mike and Scully interactively. While the action and gameplay are a
bit predictable, this is still a solid title. Decent graphics and some
challenging levels add to the fun, making this an enjoyable title that should
appeal to younger players. Older gamers will enjoy the hidden extras but the
most appealing aspect of Monsters Inc. is that the humor of the movie is clearly
in abundance throughout. The Laser peers through a crack its closet door to see
if this is as much fun as the movie.
As a rule, video games based on movies don’t work at all for the most part.
Most movie tie-ins are slapped together to cash in on the license and end up
leaving a bad taste in players’ mouths. The good news about this latest tie-in
title is that Monsters Inc. captures the feel of the movie and is also a pretty
enjoyable title in its own right. This title focuses on the big blue guy named
Scully for the first part of the game. Like the movie, you are introduced to
other monster characters, who’s scare kids for a living. Everything is going
well, until a human child named Boo accidentally enters the world of
Monstropolis. Unfortunately, monsters are as scared of little kids as they are
of monsters. This means that the main objective is that Scully has to rescue her
from the Monster police. While it follows the plot of the movie closely, most of
the action in Monsters Inc. is fairly straightforward action-platforming.
Players maneuver through the various levels and look for objects or switches to
hit during. Scattered about each level, there are treats and power-ups which can
be used to restore your health, plus Icons which completely restore your energy
bar. Scully is a powerful beast and can jump, climb and run through the large
levels. Scully has some other tricks up his sleeve. The most important of these
is that he can unleash a scream at certain points during the game which has the
effect of scaring other monsters and mice.
Even though Monsters Inc follows the path of the movie,
it’s designers haven’t which gives each level a unique feel. For example,
the early levels are straightforward, but later on, there are more complex tasks
and more difficult obstacles to face. While the initial levels are quite simple
search and recovery missions, later levels introduce more skills such as long
jumps, complicated boards with multiple objectives and jumping conveyor belt
trains while ducking approaching bars, which keeps the player challenged and
gives the gameplay some variety. Some of the levels are quite challenging and
can be quite long. These will take quite some time for the player to get
through. It must be said, that how much fun you have with the game depends on
what your skill level is. Experienced gamers should blow through the game
without much effort, while average players may find some areas in the game too
frustrating at points. Players who persist will be rewarded with some really fun
and enjoyable levels which are quite creative and surprisingly interesting while
never losing the film’s trademark slapstick spirit.
Controlling Scully is quite easy to understand because
onscreen move indicators label which buttons you need to press to perform a
specific action. This makes the game completely accessible and easy for all
ability levels to understand. The interface makes playing through the game a
breeze, and players should be able to traverse the game’s obstacles with
little effort. Fighting the enemies isn’t terribly taxing, requiring only a
quick scare or a tail swap to complete. The overall approach to the game is
smartly designed for the most part, though the various camera angles can get a
tad glitchy at points. This isn’t perfect and can make for some really odd
viewpoints during the action, making it difficult to judge where you should move
next. It gets annoying in a hurry as you plunge to your demise too often when
you can’t see what’s in front of you. The good thing about this interface is
that you can manually move the camera around using the right analog stick, which
makes things much easier throughout and compensates for the camera problems,
though obviously more intelligent positioning would have improved things
dramatically. When it comes to controlling the character, there should be little
problem. Aside from the typical issues with the camera, its interface almost
makes things too easy. For the most part, the simplified controls are intuitive
and work well, allowing the player to concentrate on the action. To help players
even more, other monsters in the game can also give you hints and tips if you
get stuck. This makes progression much easier since if you pay attention at all,
the next task should be pretty obvious.
From a visual standpoint, Monsters Inc is decent, but won’t win any awards.
This doesn’t suffer from the same anti-aliasing problems that plague other PS2
titles, though the simplified environments are probably the reason why. It runs
at a decent frame rate, but lacks the visual polish of other titles.
Unfortunately, the texture mapping, light sourcing and character animations aren’t
as slick as players have come to expect on the console, making the game feel a
bit drab in comparison to other titles. This isn’t to say that Monsters Inc.
looks awful, just that its appearance is immediately noticeable in comparison to
other PS2 titles. The overall production polish is decent but its still not as
sharp as other PS2 releases. While it can’t touch the quality of the movie’s
animation, Monsters Inc has some other elements that make it feel like the
movie, with the excellent monster designs and animations featured in the movie
making a fairly decent transition to the console. Unfortunately, the actors in
the movie didn’t do the voice-overs in the game, but the actors used make a
decent substitute for the real thing, and the humorous jokes included stay true
to the feel of the original movie. While the game is pretty good in its own
right, one of the coolest things about the title is its extensive selection of
extras. These extras are almost as much fun to go through as the main game and
their presence is really cool. You can take a backstage tour of the famous Pixar
Animation studio, see interviews with animators and get a behind the scenes look
at the making of the game and the movie which is an added bonus. Additional
features are unlocked as you progress through the game, including clips and
short segments from the movie that appear between levels in the title. This
seems to be a new but extremely welcome trend in video games, and adds a lot of
value to Monsters Inc.
So while it won’t challenge or tax the more sophisticated game players out
there, it’s still a fun game that accurately recreates both the visual feel
and the humor of the movie. Some of the action is a bit dull, but there’s a
lot of variety in the different levels, and the interface is simple enough that
most players should enjoy it. It’s too bad that the game is a bit easy and can
probably be beaten in a weekend rental by most adult players. However, the
process of playing the game is still a lot of fun as the gameplay conventions,
while a bit clichéd at this point are still appealing in their simple
pleasures. The camera issues can get in the way, but aren’t bad enough to ruin
the experience. Still, this is a surprisingly enjoyable game, considering how
much worse it could have been, and the DVD-style extras add a lot of extra
entertainment value to the disc. Overall, this isn’t a bad title and is
recommended, especially for younger gamers who enjoyed the film.
