Wii

Monster Lab

Name: Monster Lab
Brand: Eidos
Rating: 5.85 (360 reviews)

Released 11/6/08

Genre

: RPG

Also On PlayStation 2Nintendo DS

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Content Descriptors

Animated Blood
Comic Mischief
Fantasy Violence
Mild Suggestive Themes

Interactive Elements

No Interactive Elements

5.9

GameFly

from 360 users

6.5

GameSpot

official review

metacritic

Based on 11 critics

The hero wears a labcoat in this game where monsters roam the realm. The evil Baron Mharti rules the creepy Uncanny Valley. Play as an apprentice scientist and go a little mad! Your job is to experiment until you create your own monster, build up a monster army, free the Valley, and take down the Baron. Create your monster by tinkering with over 100 million(!) possible part combinations. Once your experiment's complete, turn your monster loose in the Valley. Complete quests, find ingredients to make new monster parts, battle other monsters, and play mini-games. Go online for multiplayer monster-vs.-monster combat or to trade parts and power-up your creation.

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Media (2)

Monster Lab GDC 2008 Demo

Monster Lab Official Trailer 1

User Ratings (360)

5.9

9-10

7-8

5-6

3-4

1-2

User Reviews (21)

Most Helpful

Most Recent

Sown Together with Customization, Style, and Fun!

In Monster Lab, you don the rubber gloves of an experimental mad man. You’ll be collecting and piecing together heaps of old junk in 22 different minigames to create arms, legs, heads, and bodies to maximize your creations’ physique. It is only by experimenting on several ingredients will you will find the right pair to whip together and failure is, rather frequently, an option. Once you’re done tinkering on your not so tentative drone, you’ll set it loose in the world, dictating its actions from the comfort of the mansion. You’ll send it off to fight other monsters, help desperate souls in need, and collect a few spare parts along the way. There are dozens of ingredients to find, millions of possible monster combinations, an online battle mode, and quite a quirky storyline to follow with spot-on voice acting to boot. There are a few problems including it becoming far too easy near the end, the absence of random matches in the online mode, some overly difficult minigames, and the absence of a proper shop. So, does this concoction deserve new life on your Wii or should it be sent to the scrap yard? Amidst the sheer joy of playing this game fall a few problems. What I found most saddening was that each maps’ monsters don’t evolve with you. It’s just too easy to play after beating the game. It pretty much defeats the purpose of refining your monster when you can kill foes with one blow. With the online mode, however, the game breathes new life. But that, too, is bothersome. Since you can only fight people you’ve traded friend codes with, you’re creations will be pretty much left out in the cold as random matches are out of the question. Even still, the game is a lot of fun. There’s well over 20 hours of play here and even more if you can find a buddy or two to go head to head with online.If you’re hungry for a game that brings both customization and style to your Wii, be sure carve a place out of your Wii library for Monster Lab!

ThaSquare (member since 2007)

reviewed on 11/24/08

7 agree

Truly lived up to my expectations

I had worries about this game but I had fun doing quests going on item hunts and making awesome monsters. The battle system is actually pretty and the boss fights are actually challenging (Or at least the last 3 bosses). Also the item finding and making games are really fun. Has for Replay value you can stick around after you finish to try to make the best monster but you cant really get into that. Also some mini games are very hard, boring, and tedious. But even with these minor problems I loved this game.

wgamefreak (member since 2007)

reviewed on 11/24/08

6 agree

A "Lab" to be tested before buying

The monsters have come alive in a cross between a simplified Final Fantasy and Frankenstein. Monster Lab at heart is just a RTS game where you create a monster and unleash it onto the world to fight other monsters (either controlled by the AI or another player). When you win, you get parts that you can place together to make your monster stronger, faster, and more resistant to damage. Or you can creature a brand new monster How do you do make those parts? By playing mini games that will have you hammering nails, smashing robots or guiding a wheel through an obstacle course. They're short, but fun. There's some sort of story about other mad scientists out to take over the world and you're out to stop them. And there are a many objectives for you to take on. But they're just excuses to get you into the battles, which play out like a simplified RTS; you attack, the other monster attacks, then you attack again and the monster attacks again, and so on. The battle rages on until one of you loses all health in your monster's chest and loses the battle. Be prepared to fight a lot; random encounters occur very frequently; too frequently for my tastes. But there's some joy in seeing your foe fly into many pieces when you deliver the final blow. And there's a huge selection of parts for you to make and attacks for you to discover in Monster Lab. But, those who are not fans of the "Take your turn by selecting an attack" sort of game like Final Fantasy will want to avoid this one. Still, I say rent Monster Lab, give it a test drive, and see if you like it.

JMichaud (member since 2008)

reviewed on 11/29/08

2 agree

Entertaining but repetitive .

Very good concept. Build a monster. Fight said monster. Continue on to make a better monster and fight tougher monsters. There are little minigame that you do to find parts and create monster parts. While the mini games are fun they do get very repetitive very quick. I played it for about 4 hours and I've had my fill of it. There might be more later in the game, but I didn't feel compelled to find out. For a 6-11 year old this game might work very well. However, for me it didn't go the distance. Fun, but too much rinse, wash, repeat.

CecilX (member since 2007)

reviewed on 12/15/08

1 agree

One of those "could have beens"

This game has a lot of potential but it really runs you down in the repetition. Look, I'm a big fan of customizing things and sending them into the wild. What I can't stand is my arm feeling broken after a few hours of this. The graphics are about 4-5 years dated, very large, and a volume that can't stay consistent with cutscenes (turn it up, turn it down, turn it up). The exercises you have to go through to complete tasks to get parts is simple enough but the variance is so low and the actions again repeat. So are the battles. The first handful are engaging but then it's all the same. Test for weaknesses, attack weaknesses, rinse repeat x1000 and there you have it. Grab it for a quick weekend of trial play and throw it back. I can't see a reason to even venture towards finishing this one.

ciordia9 (member since 2004)

reviewed on 11/24/08

1 agree

great to the end

this game was really fun until i beat the game, without any quests it has a low replay ability, but besides that it is awesome, i hope you at least give it a try

steven45 (member since 2005)

reviewed on 11/21/08

6 agree

Ehh..

The game is fun for a few hours but then you realize wow this game is one of the most repetitive games ever. Sure the are some different mini games but they all suck and to make monster parts you have to play the same boring mini game over and over again. But the battling is kinda fun, like when you blow off your opponents head with a shotgun.

PizzaFace (member since 2008)

reviewed on 11/26/08

4 agree

monster lab is OK

i think that monster lab is an ok game and good idea but it wasnt executed correctly.also the game is very easy i like a challenge dosn't everybody

narutopwns (member since 2008)

reviewed on 12/24/08

1 agree

Great game for many ages!

I was a bit skeptical of this game when I first got it, but am enjoying it immensely. It's got a ton of variety while remaining quite easy to pick up and play for someone of all ages. In it, you create monsters to go fight other monsters. It sounds a bit repetitive, but the minigames that let you create brand new monster parts are pretty fun and challenging. Then, the reward comes with making your own new monster with your parts! It's a very enjoyable game!

bobafett12 (member since 2008)

reviewed on 11/24/08

0 agree

Not as expected

Single player. Boring.

Suthrngal18 (member since 2017)

reviewed on 2/25/17

0 agree