Spend Some Time in the Lab
In fiction, there are two kinds of monsters: those with origins largely unknown and human created monstrosities with a genesis that can be traced back to plain old curiosity and experimentation. The second category is the basis for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the DS title Monster Lab. Both play off the idea of inspired creation, but Monster Lab – being a kid-centered game – tosses away the idea of responsibility for one’s meddling and trades it in for a Pokémon-inspired collect-a-thon. It results in a gaming formula that, while potentially creatively lucrative, falls under the weight of dumbed-down mechanics and a limited combat system.
Few are inherently born mad scientists – rather it’s a process that takes ample time and energy. At the start of Monster Lab, you learn that your initial title is one of apprentice and your mentor, Professor Fuseless, holds the keys to learning the ins-and-outs of monster creation and experimentation. Resembling a mix of Igor and the Hunchback of Notre Dame, the self-appointed professor runs a castle equipped with all the latest in ghastly creation tools and assigns you tasks that revolve around collecting items – whether they be bent screws, magnets, or bits of wire – that he then throws into various machines to form parts for your soon-to-be creations.
Before you get into the actual nuts and bolts of the game, you have to find them. Once outside the castle, you can explore one of the Monster Lab’s six regions. These areas – like the town and swamp – mirror a Mario Party game. Instead of being 3D and open, or 2D and sidescrolling, they have a board game look, where you move your character from one tile to the next. This tile approach, while somewhat limiting in an exploration sense, allows you to spot monsters, quests, and items easily – and you’ll need to because Monster Lab is all about collecting.
If you accept a quest from someone, then you’ll be collecting. Running into one of several mini-games means collecting more stuff. Accumulation is the underwhelming name of the game. The majority of items you receive come from the large assortment of mini-games. You may dig for treasure, fish items out of a sewer, disable laser fields, or knock items out a tree, but this large assortment of mini-games shares one thing in common: extensive use of the DS stylus. When digging for treasure, you prod at the screen; when fishing for items, you scoop out from a river of green slime; when disabling laser fields, you trace lines; and when knocking items from a tree, you scratch the stylus furiously and collect items with a wooden bucket. So, yes, there’s variety from a conceptual standpoint, but since you’re always either poking the screen or simply tracing lines, the early allure wears thin rather quickly. It doesn’t help when stylus movements like flicking away angry mob tomatoes or smashing barrels refuse to work efficiently.
Since the castle is your laboratory, you can return there at any time (as long as you go to the right exit) and get to work on your creation. However, monsters require parts – specifically a head, a right and left arm, a pair of legs, and a torso section – so you have to use one of Professor’s many creation machines. To use any one, you chuck in some parts you’ve collected and then play through – you guessed it – a mini-game featuring the stylus. For example, once you throw items in the Weld-O-Tron, you play a welding game that requires you to trace sections of the screen and blow into your DS microphone should the tool get too hot. Another machine, The Robo-Evolver, features a game where you have to smash robots in a Wac-A-Mole fashion. Completing any of these machine-centered mini-games rewards you with a new part that you can attach to a monster. While the games themselves are pretty mundane, the randomized aspect of not knowing what you may get from combining two random items makes for an addictive result that should allow many to forgive the stylus-heavy gameplay.
The most important stop in the castle is the Lightning Room. There, you can take whatever parts you have and assemble a monster. You can drag whatever body parts you want to their respective area and…presto! You’ve got your own monster. Later on, should you decide that you don’t like one aspect of your monster – for example, they might have a crummy right arm – then instead of creating a brand new monster you can swap out arms, making the customization process simple. The culmination of the creative process is where Monster Lab really shines – it reminds one of a portable version of the Spore Creature Creator and, since there are tons of potential options in terms of monster parts, you’ll want to keep coming back to perfect a monster or build a new one.
Working in the castle’s laboratory may be fulfilling, but the central reason for it – throwing a monster into battle – is surprisingly underwhelming. Fights between your creation and other monsters never feel all that impressive. Instead of a brawl, the sessions look like a bout between Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, with your creature and another trading licks back-and-forth. To be fair, there is a small layer of depth to the combat: each of your body parts delivers different attacks, giving you a variety of moves. However, you always have to keep an eye on your battery meter, which is measured in units. These units determine how often you can attack, and a lot of the time you’ll spend recharging instead of attacking. Also, since the only way to defeat another monster is to destroy their torso, you rarely have an incentive to target any other part of your opponent’s body. You do have the option of repairing your monster after a battle by – you guessed it again – playing a stylus mini-game, where you continually spin a wheel around to heal specific monster parts.
Not only do the battles themselves grow tiring, but trying to avoid other monsters during your quest can be a pain in the neck. Since the areas in Monster Lab are laid out in tiles, you rarely have more than two choices of movement. This results in constant clashes with other monsters. While fighting is good in terms of advancing your rank – you can only use certain parts once you reach a particular level – the fact that enemies continually re-spawn and are hard to avoid moves fighting from an elective process to one that is mandatory.
Monster Lab does have a lot going for it: there’s a level of charm and creativity here that’s not present in many other DS titles, but charismatic intentions don’t always make for a good game. Making your own monsters is fun even if it feels cheapened by the Pokémon-like collection of the parts system. It’s too bad the stylus-intensive mini-games get in the way too often, giving Monster Lab the air of more of an interactive activity book than an entertaining gaming experience.
RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.8 Graphics
The impressive polygon work on monsters, painted Tim Burton-like character design, and short movie sequences add up to a nice graphic package. 2.5 Control
Largely hit-or-miss or rather tap, trace, and then potentially miss. Some of the mini-games provide stylus fun, but tire quickly. Other times the stylus doesn’t seem to register action properly (like flicking away tomatoes), leading to some frustration. 4.0 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Snippets of voice acting are performed well and the score continually thumps in the background, channeling a Danny Elfman vibe. 2.5
Play Value
Grafting random parts together to form new ones is an addictive process, but the constant brigade of stylus mini-games and lackluster fighting system weigh down the overall fun factor.
3.1 Overall Rating – Fair
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.
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