RSVP or bust.
PLAYERS: 1
PUBLISHER: Bandai
DEVELOPER: Human Entertainment
GENRE: Action platformer
RELEASE DATE: June 1989
At the heart of Monster Party is a boy, a baseball bat, and an overwhelming desire to not go to school. Young Mark, the protagonist of the party in question, hates school so much that he willingly ventures into the Dark World. His mission? To beat the living crap out of each and every monster he sees, including Fish-Men (with slacks, no less), Onion Rings, and Naked Legs. The graphics aren’t that good, but the animation of Mark swinging his bat as hard as he can against these monsters is hilarious. Every ounce of him wants to bludgeon these poor creatures out of existence. Sure, they may be the bad guys, but I’d argue that Mark is the true sadist in-the-making. Occasionally, Mark pops a pill and turns into a dragon named Bert (oh, that it were that easy). Bert can fly, shoot lightning bolts out of his mouth, and is just legitimately better than Mark in every way. Eventually, though, the pills wear off, and it’s back to Mack-Daddy Mark and his Whuppin’ Stick. It’s not necessary or wise to kill every monster, unless you need the copious amounts of health they drop for the bosses. There are multiple bosses in every level, and each one of them needs to be killed before you can progress to the next stage of the party. The bosses require very little strategy. Avoid their attack, then beat, typically in that order. What distinguishes Monster Party from pure dreck is the strangeness permeating throughout the game. I particularly like the one-liners the bosses belt out before fighting you, and the stage transformation in level 1 was nothing short of horrifying (needless to say, I’m surprised Nintendo let it through their screening process). Without its random bits of bizarre, Monster Party wouldn’t hold anyone’s attention long. Its commitment to surprise and entertain makes it worth seeking out, but Monster Party‘s a ghoulish one-night stand at best.
C+
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5 replies on “#432 – Monster Party”
This was certainly an odd one. I never got too far on it unfortunately, but I remember loving the dark nature of the game. It reminded me of Monster Squad which makes this one endearing to me.
Sleepyweasel
This game, not Super Mario Bros, was the first game I ever played on my NES! Which I have owned ever since Christmas 1989. My parents felt bad that it only came with Mario so they rented this beauty and a couple of others for the holidays so I would have a variety…for a few days anyway. I now own this game due to sentimental value.
It’s a corker of a game, all right. I’m glad it’s remembered fondly, even if there isn’t that much to it.
A little late but after some external researches decided to purchase a copy of this game, fortunately it cost me less than 8 bucks in an excellent condition, never played this one when I was a kid but is never to late to do it, thanks for the review dude.
I loved hitting enemy projectiles back at them.