GC:
"Activision and DreamWorks have another solid movie-licensed game ready for fans of the upcoming film. I still enjoyed Bee Movie Game a bit better, if only because it knew when to end. Monsters vs. Aliens starts to drag by the third act and when Act 4 started I dropped my controller in disbelief and went to get some dinner. Admittedly, the monster and level designs get cooler as the game progresses but the ways in which you interact with them are painfully repetitive. Nonetheless, this is a game that will surely delight the target age group and might even engage a few parents. Kids can let mom and day play as Dr. Cockroach and help them through the tougher levels, making Monsters vs. Aliens truely fun for the entire family."
Chris B. of TGF writes:
"By now most gamers are immune to being sucked in to purchasing a video game that is based off a movie. For the most part the games aren’t based off the movie itself, and are usually a side story created using loose parts of the movie to tell it. Developer Beenox and Amaze Entertainment, with publisher Activision decided to throw their hats into the ring and take on the project of creating the home based console and handheld versions of the movie by DreamWorks Monster vs. Aliens."
Movie-tie-ins are almost always universally panned by critics and are seen by the majority of the industry as an opportunity to cash in on something big at the box office. Usually criticism levelled at said productions is due to poor game play elements resulting from a short development time and a rush to release the game on a tight schedule, unfortunately for Activision Monster vs. Aliens fits this trend to a tee.
PGNx writes: "Monsters and Aliens battle it out in Activision's latest title. The game, based on the upcoming Monsters vs. Aliens feature film, is developed by Amaze Entertainment for the Nintendo DS. The general plot and gameplay is fairly similar to its console cousins though the game was obviously adapted for the handheld."
