It's one of those sorts of questions that we all had as kids: Who would win in a fight out of my brother and your brother? Could Wonder Woman beat Cat Woman? And so on. Dreamworks has largely followed the same premise with their latest film Monsters vs Aliens. Unfortunately the Aliens have nothing in common with Ridley Scott's beast other than they both come from outer space. But hey, this is for the kids and, well, Mum wouldn't really approve of a slavering acid-for-blood Xenomorphs. As with many of today's blockbuster kids CGI movies there's a game tie-in, and this one is courtesy of Beenox (Bee Movie, Kung Fu Panda and more). Given the publishing power of Activision is this game a truly worthy film tie-in or just another lazy cash-cow piece of shovelware?
As far as film tie-ins go Monsters vs Aliens isn't a bad game, fans of the film will have fun, but only for a limited time. It's a little unimaginative, very repetitive and doesn't provide enough entertainment for Player Two. Invariably if a game aimed at a younger audience is fun for the adults to join in, then it usually lasts multiple replays. But how can I put this in a way that a child thinks? Ok… I know! Which would win out of Monsters vs Aliens and Lego Star Wars? I really don't need to answer that one.
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."
