Game Review - Aaahh!!! Real Monsters (SNES)

Aaahh!!! Real Monsters is a video game wholly based on Nickelodean's television cartoon by the same name. The game, having been released by Viacom in 1995, received rather terrible reviews (and rightfully so).

The storyline in Aaahh!!! Real Monsters consists of a similar one to that of the TV show. Basically, ugly, distorted, and disfigured monsters live in a nasty dump and travel around various parts of the neighboring city in order to scare its residents. Upon scaring residents, the monsters then report the incidents to their master Grumble. Grumble, a teacher of sorts in the Aaahh!!! Real Monsters world, reads the "scares" via an interneural video connection and shows the other monsters. Unrelated to this, the player's job is to guide three main characters (Krum, Ickis, and Oblina) in some quest to stop an evil-doer and scare people along the way.

The graphics in Aaahh!!! Real Monsters are rather good, but that's about all I can say for this game. For an SNES game they're actually quite wonderful; having seen the cartoon myself as a result of my children watching reruns of it, I can safely assess that the characters in the game are pretty much identical to the characters in the TV show. The backdrops of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters are very similar to those of the TV show, too, and while they repeat (like those in Scooby Doo the cartoon), they are reasonably detailed and have nice colors and full animations.

The sound in Aaahh!!! Real Monsters is terrible. Not only does the background music leave me less than enthusiastic, the sound effects aren't exactly great. They're fine as individual effects, but the level of audio repetition in Aaahh!!! Real Monsters is quite boring.

The learning curve in Aaahh!!! Real Monsters is abysmally simple. Basically, the game play consists of something similar to a platformer in which you run and jump across multiple levels in some attempt to stop some bigger "boss" of a foe. There are enemies abound, and you basically avoid getting killed by them.

Difficulty levels of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters are quite high; I actually had a hard time getting all the way through the game. That's not to say that Aaahh!!! Real Monsters is a fun game, however; not only do you not get any sense of enjoyment or reward out of this game, but it's nothing like its Mario platformer counterparts. You can't save your progress (progress is only denoted by a level password) and nothing really advances beyond your position in the game's levels (and most levels are repetition of previous levels...).

Overall, I can safely afford Aaahh!!! Real Monsters a one out of five. The abysmal sound tracks along with its lackluster sound effects and terrible gameplay leave me less than satisfied, if you know what I mean. This game simply doesn't live up to the cartoon, which is already not-so-great.