King of the Monsters 2 (NEO4ALL) Review

Original release:

1992

Game details:

1-2 Players

Standard controller

VGA box

The following game was not officially released for Sega Dreamcast. It is emulated using NEO4ALL RC-4 developed by chui. This is an evaluation of the emulation of the game as well as the game itself.

Using Team RDC's release you can play this game as though it is a commercial game with only a brief loading screen.

Emulation

No complaints here. The game may as well have been natively developed for Dreamcast.

Gameplay

King of the Monsters 2 is a fun game at times. Other times you're wondering why you couldn't have developed this game so you could've shared the mountain of quarters that they surely raked in. This game is probably the worst example of being overly hard or having situations where you have no choice but to die so you would be forced to put in more quarters. This is the favorite game of a friend of mine, he's loved it since he was a kid and played it a lot and he spent just as much time dying as I did. Typically when you've had a favorite game for over 10 years, you'll be distinguishable from the guy who just heard about the game 20 minutes ago. There's another game mechanic that I've never gotten used to and never will that is also designed to drain quarters. When you're knocked down, your monster won't immediately get back up. He stays down and you have to tap a button repeatedly until he gets back up. It's not intuitive at all, and I've taken a lot of damage I'm sitting there staring at the screen wondering what's wrong with my monster.

That aside, this game is basically a boss rush. During the "levels" you probably won't sustain any damage; you can actually take out enemies by simply running into them. Your enemies will be all manner of jets and tanks, just think any giant monster movie since that's what this is. You'll fight other giant monsters at the end of levels who have a very cheap move set and will punish you hard. Having a friend around doesn't do a lot to help the myriad of deaths you will experience. The game does offer a versus mode however, which can be very fun. It makes for a good cool down after you've continued approximately 200 times against the last boss.

Graphics

The graphics are about what you'd expect from a 1992 arcade game. They're colorful and have a decent level of detail. There's a fair amount of variety in the buildings you'll be stepping on, so you'll never stop to wonder if one architect did the entire city. Pleasantly surprised was a good word to describe my reaction.

Sound

The sound is sort of up and down like the gameplay. There's a few great tracks, the third level's music in particular is excellent, but other times it's forgettable. Music in general seems to be an area where video games could step it up a notch, from the early days to the present.

Conclusion

You'll like it, you'll hate it. You're probably not going to swing the the like side enough to reach love it. I'd say don't go it alone, it's just going to frustrate you. This is a good game to tackle with a friend.

7.0/10