PSone REVIEW:
Remember when your mom and dad used to tuck you in bed at night when you were a little tike? The lights are out and you begin to get an eerie feeling like your not alone perhaps? You start hearing weird noises and you ask yourself, “Is there a monster hiding in my closet”? Damn right there is!!
There is a cool twist to this story, which I liked. In the Monster Inc. world, monsters are down right frightened of little children. Just the thought of a child near them or worst yet, touching them sends even the biggest monster running in horror. If I only new this as a kid, I probably would not of had these kinds of thoughts alone in the dark. Anyway, this is no way for any respectable monster to act. So a monster training camp was formed. As you might have already guessed, the goal of this game is to help two monsters named Sulley and Mike to complete their Monster Training program and get over their fears. In return you will become a new member of the elite Scream Team.
Sulley is the big blue hairy guy with claws and a voice like John Goodman, hmmm. Mike (who is my personal favorite) is a feisty little green fellow with one eye. I have to say he is a little touchy about the one eye thing. The training takes place at Scare Island. Scare Island has many different training grounds to name a few there is a Desert and Artic training ground. The player can choose to play as Sulley or Mike. Starting out, the player must complete the training initiation before progressing into gameplay. Here you will learn how to utilize Sulley’s and Mike’s capabilities like pouncing, jumping, climbing, tail spinning, and other defensive moves. The player will also be told to check out the mailboxes within the levels for helpful hints. I found this to be very useful at times. A few things to remember in gameplay are; stay away from toys - they are evil, and collect as many goodies as possible, especially ooze. Ooze plays an important role in this game. The player needs to collect enough ooze so they can scare the Nerves. The Nerves are children robots put on the training grounds for Mike and Sulley to scare. The player needs to get close to them and hit the o button to make them scream until they explode. Some nerves are harder to scare than others where the player will need to hit other combos to make them explode. Scaring 5 nerves in a level will win you a bronze medal, a CG movie outtake, and a passageway into a new training ground.
There is plenty to explore and accomplish in the levels like collecting medals, ooze cans, calorie packs for energy, scaring nerves and puzzles to solve. There will also be a few races to compete in. Some are pretty challenging, like racing down this crazy hill trying to collect 100 coins while trying to beat the speed-training monster that cheats if you ask me. It took me about 5 tries to beat this little lizard monster. Each level gets progressively challenging, fortunately the controls are very simple including the combos.
The graphics were surprisingly pleasing for a PS1 game. The characters are imaginative and colorful; they also carry that Disney/Pixar flare that everyone loves. The levels display nice 3D effects and details and I thought the particle and lighting effects were well done. Dust kicks up when running, the water is shimmering and splashes up if the character lands in it, and shadowing effects were used to tip the player off that something was above.
I dug the voices of the characters and the sound effects were well done too. Sulley’s voice sounds like John Goodman and Mike’s voice sounds like one of Billy Crystal’s impersonations. I say, “sounds like” because only the movie clips are the real voices of Billy and John. In any event, these were great choices, the monsters sound just like they look and act. The background music varies from mysterious to adventurous and gets more intense during stressful moments. Sulley likes to growl and be intimidating but Mike is the comic. Mike’s favorite line was ‘not bad for a guy with one eye” or “ouch” when he gets hurt. He also likes to say BOOGA, BOOGA, BOOGA while scaring Nerves. Not to mention poking his own eye then passing out from the pain. This is why he was my favorite character.
FEATURES:
· Inspired by the movie Monsters Inc. from Disney/Pixar
· Play as Mike or Sulley in over 15 huge levels
· Learn to become a top scarer
OPTIONS:
• 1 Disk(s)
• CD Media
• 1 Block required on Memory card per save (min)
• Up to 1 Players (without Multi-tap)
• Uses Dual Shock Pad Buttons
• Uses Dual Shock Pad Analog Sticks
• Uses Dual Shock Pad Vibration facility |
