Mon Mon Monster (MSX)

There's two particular types of nonsense that have long since been exorcised from the language of modern games design. Rick Dangerous nonsense is when a game's made up of nothing but memorising the locations of invisible threats, and then demonstrating that knowledge to avoid them in succession (because they're invisible, and it's impossible to avoid them without foreknowledge of their locations). The other is Tower of Druaga nonsense, whereby progression through a game is blocked by obstacles that need to be tackled in a certain way, with no in-game clues as to what those means are, or often even that the obstacles themselves even exist. Mon Mon Monster (also known as Mon Mon Kaibutsu) is an example of the latter kind.

 

The first stage is pretty normal, to lull the player into a false sense of security. It's split into a few segments, but each one just has you going from left to right fighting enemies and punching blocks, until you find the door to the next one. Eventually, you'll reach the boss, and can punch him to death. The second stage is a lot less clear. It seems to take place on one massive map, there are doors that lead nowhere, doors that send you to an earlier part of the stage, and the boss awaits in a hidden room, behind two destructible walls that don't stand out in any way, and have no clues pointing towards them. The third stage seems to take a moderate place between the previous two, being semi-linear with dead end passages if you take a wrong turn. Though I haven't yet been able to reach the end of stage three, so maybe there is more nonsense to look forward to there.

 

I should probably also describe the game itself, right? Well, other than the implementation of Druaga Nonsense, it's a pretty typical eight bit platform game. You play as a little Frankenstein's monster guy, and you can punch and jump. When you punch, you also shoot out a projectile attack. Enemeis can be hurt by punchs and projectiles, but bosses and blocks have to be punched up close. Sometimes blocks have items in, that might power up your projectiles, restore your health, or give an extra life. In terms of quality, it's not up there with the big names of the era, but it's still a little above average. It mostly feels good enough to move around, jump, and so on. There's a weird technical quirk that means your projectiles are sometimes invisible, but they still hurt the enemies, so it's not a big problem.

 

That's all I really have to say about Mon Mon Monster, to be honest. It's a robust enough platformer, especially considering its age, but I just don't have the patiences to keep searching for invisible routes to progress. Other than that stuff, though, it's not that difficult a game! If only the developers had designed their stages without the assumption of clairvoyance on the part of the player, this would have been a much better game.