King of the Monsters | SNK Presents 1996 Japan

[00:00:00] Hey, Aaron, what's your favorite kaiju? Mothra is pretty cool. Mothra? Really? I wouldn't have ever pegged as a Mothra man. Wait, no, King Ghidorah, the three-headed guy. I lied. Okay, see, that was gonna be my answer. Oh, man, we're kaiju bros. This is Neo Geo Go. We're also dick twins. Chocolate and vanilla dick twins. Hello, everybody. Welcome to Neo Geo Go.

[00:00:39] Aaron wasn't expecting me to say that. Holy shit. Oh, man. Hey, you can be, hey, man, you can be dick twins regardless of skin color, regardless of, I mean, like, hey, you could just match, you know? It's possible. That's true, dude. So, we are here to talk about King of the Monsters, King of the Monsters, rather, released on February 25th, 1991, developed and published by SNK. What a surprise, Aaron.

[00:01:08] And King of the Monsters is a wrestling game, basically, where you pick one of six kaiju and you battle it out in a destructible city like Godzilla, right? Like, if anyone remembers games from the early 2000s, like Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee and shit, like that was a fucking big GameCube game and shit. Like, King of the Monsters is where they got that idea from.

[00:01:30] Oh, dude, my cousins and I played the shit out of Destroy All Monsters Melee. That's right. I developed my love. My infatuation with King Ghidorah was there. Oh, and Mecha King Ghidorah. That was also my shit after we fucking beat the story mode and unlocked him or whatever.

[00:01:47] But I like how, like, in this game, there's a really cool variety with the monsters. Like, there's the slime dude. There's the stone man. There's fucking just Godzilla. Godzilla. I forget if, um, I know, like, the second one has, uh, what the fuck is his name? Is it, like, uh, um, like the, the, the whatever man, Ultraman? They have, like, an Ultraman clone in the second game?

[00:02:13] Yeah, yeah, they do. And this, and this game has, like, fake-ass King Kong, basically. Like, there's, like, a monkey guy, you know? So they're, they're getting all in it. Yeah, like, this game came around at the right time for me, Aaron, because I was starting to get interested in Japanese tokusatsu, basically, at this time. Because in the early 90s, in syndication, like, Saturday morning, like, part of Saturday morning cartoons, they started to show Ultraman.

[00:02:40] It wasn't, like, the 60s Ultraman. I think it was, like, a more current one, probably one from the 80s at that point. But, like, I was legit starting into Ultraman, so much so that my mom got me, like, the Ultraman fighting game for SNES for, like, Christmas 1991. Yeah, dude, that was, like, one of the first, like, SNES games. It's not a very good game, believe you me. But it does give good Ultraman. And, dude, it has, like, the Mode 7, because, you know, Ultraman grows really big.

[00:03:07] It has, like, Ultraman growing, like, in Mode 7. It's so fucking rad. That's, like, the best part of the game. So, actual game, not so good. But anyway, yeah, so I was starting to get interested in that type of shit. So, King of the Monsters, seeing this at the arcade, obviously, this is before the SNES came out here. So, but, like, yeah, it really, like, piqued my interest, you know, as an almost nine-year-old at this point. Yeah, and describing it as a wrestling game is really cool, too.

[00:03:34] Like, even if you've played, like, Destroy All Monsters, that was more of, like, it felt more like a brawler kind of thing or, like, a beat-em-up kind of thing. But this one is just straight-up wrestling. Like, you're grabbing each other, throwing each other to the fucking ground, beating each other with, like, you can catch a fucking jet in midair and then just beat your opponent with it. You sure can. You can rip a goddamn skyscraper out of the ground and use it like a bat and just bash your fucking opponent.

[00:04:01] It's, it's rad as hell. It sounds rad as hell, but, man, the game just kind of doesn't feel great to play. Like, you have to position yourself just right in order to actually hit your opponent. Because if you're off by, like, you know, just a little smidge, your little weird punch animation isn't going to actually hit anybody. And that kind of, like, pissed me off.

[00:04:23] Yeah, for anything that's, like, you know, on the, on the scrolling plane like that, like a beat-em-up basically, it needs to be a bit more generous, you know? Like, in most beat-em-ups, you don't need to be on the exact pixel plane as, like, your opponent to, like, punch them or something like that. You need to be reasonably close. But it doesn't need to be exact. This feels like you punch through each other a lot in King of the Monsters. So, it just doesn't feel great to play in that regard.

[00:04:48] And really, the concept itself is, like, more exciting than the actual gameplay. Wouldn't you say? Just because it's, like, it's cool that they made, like, fake-ass Godzilla and, like, all the other kaiju that look like reasonable enough rip-offs without being, like, the real thing. Right? Like, because obviously, again, in the 2000s, y'all were spoiled with Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee. Like, that was, like, the real-ass characters. This was, like, some knock-offs, which is fine, you know? Which is all you could really expect back then.

[00:05:18] But, like, it is, at its core, a very basic wrestling game. Look, maybe this is just me. I don't think most wrestling games of the time are very exciting. That's true. I've just never felt that way, personally. I feel like they get better later. And, obviously, like, for people our age, especially as we get into, like, the 3D era with, like, the N64 wrestling games. Like, people talk about those to this day. Right? I have never been, like, at this time, I think I still watched wrestling.

[00:05:48] But I would get out of the habit real soon. And I've, like, never watched wrestling since. Like, I watched in, like, the late 80s, very early 90s. Okay, the last person I remember being introduced in, like, the WWE is, like, The Undertaker. Oh, shit. That was, like, over 30 years ago. That was, like, the new wrestler at the time. So, that's I haven't watched since then. It's been a hot minute for me, too.

[00:06:12] I watched with my Uncle Kevin a lot back in, like, the, like, maybe the late 90s. But, like, I didn't watch it much after that. And then my little brother used to watch it all the time when John Cena was big. And I think that was, like, that was the early 2000s, like, 2005, maybe? Was it around then? And see, I was even going to say, like, no, it wasn't, like, late 2000s, early 10s, because that was, like, other people. Never mind. I think you're right. I think it was before that.

[00:06:42] Something like that. Was The Rock still the shit then? See, like, I'm out on all that stuff. Like, I don't even remember. I only know about Stone Cold Steve Austin because of, like, people talking about it. I have never seen that man wrestle in my life. Yeah, I know. So, like, I'm like, I don't know. Point is, at this time, I was into, like, wrestling to some degree. So, I was like, okay, cool. I get it. But the games were never really that fun.

[00:07:07] And, like, Aaron, I think what it is for me, the button mashy, like, you grapple, right? In the wrestling game, you grapple, and then God knows fucking what happens. Are you supposed to mash the buttons? Are you supposed to do a directional while you mash? Like, I genuinely don't know what to do. That's where my brain never catches up with the wrestling game. I just have no idea what's happening. In this game, so other wrestling games, there's a little bit more, like,

[00:07:37] like, deliberacy, maybe, is the right word. I don't know if I'm using the right. But at least, yeah, with the wrestling games, you know, you'll plan when you go into attack. Or attack, I guess, whatever. You plan when you go into attack, and then, you know, your mind starts throwing together a plan. And then what I'm getting at is, like, with King of the Monsters, I feel like that doesn't fucking matter at all. Like, it was just all pure luck.

[00:08:05] And, like, just button mashy as hell. Because, like, your opponent, in King of the Monsters, when you're attacking your opponent, and you're comboing them, they can combo you right back, like, while you're still hitting them. And that kind of feels very garbage-y. And then, yeah, when you grapple each other, it's all up to luck, I guess. Or whoever taps the button the fastest. I don't know. It all feels just luck-based. And, like, skill is just thrown out the window.

[00:08:35] Which, like, quite honestly, that's okay if you have all the other stuff to go along with it. But King of... Almost like King of Fighters. King of the Monsters doesn't really have that. Like, yes, you can destroy the buildings. Yes, there's, like, helicopters and planes and shit. Like a Godzilla movie, right? Like, where they're attacking Godzilla. However, that has such little impact on gameplay, it's all just, like, a neat visual. Which, again, that's fine.

[00:09:04] But that's really all it is to me. You even do the thing where you like in wrestling where you sling them off the ropes. But in this game, you don't have ropes. You just have that electric field. They just go zappy, zappy, zappy, and then they come back into play. So, you know, again, that's unique, but not super exciting. Also, the intro, Aaron, is, like, barely an intro. It says, like, SNK Presents, right? And then, like, there's a shot of the entire globe. And it's, like, zoomed in on Japan.

[00:09:33] And then it says 1996 Japan. And then that's it. King of the Monsters. Boom. The title. It's like, what? What happened? That felt like the beginning of an intro that you didn't show us. It just showed Japan. 1996 Japan. King of the Monsters. Okay. Sure. Yeah. It feels like they could have done a lot more, man. Because now that I think about it, the chaos to the game would be pretty cool if it was actually pretty fun.

[00:10:03] But, no, it wasn't very fun, really. Like, the vibes are there, but it's just not great. Yeah. I have to agree with you. Aaron, I'm going to have to give it a C. It's just a flat C. Cool visuals. I like Kaiju, but that's really it. Yeah. I also gave it a C. Like, it could be better, but it could be worse, too. Like, yeah. By no means this is, like, a terrible game.

[00:10:32] It's just not particularly exciting. God, when I was a kid, I loved it, though. You know? Of course I did. You know you would if you were an 8 or 9-year-old. But, I don't know. Now, nowadays, maybe not so much. All right, Aaron, what are we talking about next time on Neo Geo Go? Next time, Alpha Mission 2. We're getting to some good shit. Hell yeah. All right, see you then. I need to Neo Geo Go pick up my hemorrhoids medication for Walgreens. Thanks. Ha ha ha ha.