War of the Monsters 20th Anniversary Retrospective

[@JordanGrimmer]

I absolutely loved this game when I was a teenager. Me and my mates would play the multiplayer for hours and just go around destroying all the buildings before actually fighting. Such an underrated game, shame more people didn't know about it at the time.

[@Hugsloth]

Played this so much with my friend in multiplayer that he 'lost' the game at one point because he was so sick of playing it lol

[@chrismassey9892]

Good For You

[@edwincruz9951]

It’s still on plantation 4 market

[@MrHammers]

One of the best local co-op games on the PS2. Spent countless hours passing controllers with a group of friends battling with this game

[@sebastiangonzales46]

Miss this game and my friend who owned a PS2 back then, we used to play all the time. Sadly he already passed away so this game holds a special place in my heart

[@katlynklassen809]

Same. Literally. Rip ben

[@kanabis134]

Sorry about the loss of your friend

[@kanabis134]

​@@katlynklassen809and about your loss too

[@Ashley_J.W]

Damn

[@VexAcer]

Incognito Inc. was full of technical wizards in general. Their next game after this was Downhill Domination which was basically SSX on mountain bikes with a little bit of Road Rash thrown in. It had lush environments with massive draw distances, foliage, & weather effects all running at a brisk 60fps, it's a bit of a gem. Even in 4-player splitscreen it still mostly maintains 60fps which is insane, even if they do have to lower the draw distance to accomplish it.

[@oddheader]

For a brief time period there Incognito Inc was my favorite developer. All of their titles were super underrated and it was disappointing as hell to see then fade into obscurity.

[@teaganp5011]

Played the absolute shit out of both those games as a kid.

[@DIZeLAN]

There's a cycling game called "Descenders" which gives me a similar enjoyment to "Downhill Domination". it's available on PC, Mac OS, and Xbox One.

[@StevenSenile]

I miss these "cause as much chaos as you want" type games that came out during the ps2/ps3 era. They were always fun

[@BBasiliscus]

This game wasn't just a love letter to its genres, it was a love letter to me. 50s B movies? Giant monsters? Giant robots? It was everything I gravitated towards as a teenager. You could play as a dracolich for christ sake. Its always going to have a special place in my heart. I wish I'd ever met anyone in real life who liked it as much as I did.

[@HoboHunterRik]

When I was a kid, this was the holy grail of rentals. Only a single Home Video store, a town over would ever have it. It was also rented nearly every time we went too. Only ever got it twice but we'd play that game so much over that week.

[@impulse_xs]

I remember how hard this game was to buy/rent too. My local Blockbuster would sell the videos games you could rent for fairly cheap without the case. That’s the only way I was able to purchase a copy at the time.

[@buzznugget]

I want a modern kaiju game where the monsters intentionally look like rubber suits smashing through cardboard buildings

[@sameoldsameold9239]

Gigabash is the closest, even includes some Godzilla kaiju.

[@JackDoesVoicesPoorly]

Godzilla Save the Earth

[@buzznugget]

@@JackDoesVoicesPoorly I want the graphics to look like 60's special effects. Rubber monsters, miniature cars and tanks, cardboard buildings, blue screened people running away

[@Sanguivore]

Fantastic idea! :D

[@animezilla4486]

​@@sameoldsameold9239yeah I got that game it was amazing have you heard the news recently they're going to include characters from the Ultraman series that DLC will be available in November

[@doitallYT]

One of my fondest memories of this game was picking up Twisted Metal Black so I could unlock the secret Sweet Tooth character by having a save of the game on your memory card. Sure, Twisted metal Black mortified me as a kid, but the memories made it worth it!

[@some-replies]

What?!?!? Never knew that!

[@MrJans3n]

This was almost my experience exactly, although I think at the time I was too young to really get how messed up some of the stuff in Black was

[@ChaceEvans]

It is an absolute travesty that this game has not received a current gen remake or even a sequel of some sort. It was one of my favorite games from my childhood that deserves so much more recognition than it gets.

[@TheTrveMothlord]

Yep it’s so weird we haven’t gotten more. you could keep the gist of the gameplay but add way more unlockables, like lots of cosmetics, maybe move sets/perks/mutations, game modes, bigger levels, different mission types and a create a monster mode. That would be chefs kiss.

[@paulbreenis5764]

I had a PS2 demo disk with this on it. I remember Id have my friends over and we'd play the same level, same 2 monsters over and over and over again. Take turns beating the shit out of each other, destroying the city etc etc.. good times

[@drinkinouttacups2665]

Loved those demo disks

[@pendantblade6361]

Man the nostalgia hits hard.

[@TheCoolclassic]

My cousin and I used to rent this game all the time until we each bought copies of it. Honestly very fun and it solidified my early childhood love of B movies and science fiction. Destroy All Humans took it much further. Honestly wouldn't be surprised if we saw War of the Monsters remastered or just upscaled to capitalize on the old memories.

[@EnyoTaiz]

Me and my brothers played the crap out of this, so many memories! One of the best fighter, and ps2, games ever. One of the rare games that is just so full of love, you can feel the passion of the devs in every aspect of the game.

[@donovaneckstrom]

I had an Xbox but I remember being super jealous watching Electric Playground covering this game. As someone who loved kaiju movies as a kid I really wanted to play it.

[@MajoraZ]

An issue a lot of Kaiju games run into (and that War of the Monsters thankfully handles well) is not having a sense of scale that befits their premise: The Pipeworks Godzilla games, Gigabash, etc often feel like you're just fighting as a normal or slightly large creature in a miniature toybox set. One would THINK that War of the Monsters making it's monsters only being like 30-50 feet tall and having to climb up rather then tower over buildings might make that issue worse, but instead it (and the less overhead, more behind the shoulder camera it permits) largely solves it: You're often so close to, getting knocked into, or leaping over or climbing onto buildings that it's impossible to NOT feel like you're innteracting with buildings and rampaging across whole cities. It's not ideal, perhaps, since you don't quite get the power fantasy of just pushing over skyscrapers and stepping on office buildings, but the playable Monsters being more King Kong and less Godzilla sized means that, even if you were to strip away all the textures and other visual details and just have grey blocks without the context of how big things are, the size of your playable character compared to the stuff you walk past and jump on at least would feel like a jungle gym: You're still interacting with things that feel big relative to the player, but not so big that they become obstacles, which strikes a good balance between a normal game where you play as a person and buildings define your playspace/pathing, or on the other extreme being so big and you dwarf buildings so much that they feel like toys rather then a full scale urban space, and it takes clever camerawork and other things to sell the sense of scale correctly. Anyways, I also just think the game is a joy to play: it's not deep, but climbing up buildings and throwing radio towers around like spears is just fun, and there's a awesome sense of weight and energy when you knock enemies around and they go flying into a skyscraper and the entire facade of the building crumbles. Even if the destruction isn't particular granular or dynamic relative to say the Battlefield Bad Company games, it's enough to make the battles feel fun, especially with the secret natural disasters you an activate.I think the Monsters, despite effectively being reskins in gameplay terms just with different super moves, also still manage to feel distinct through their animations, and the unlockable costumes are great, too. I think it's a real shame this never got a sequel: As is I think it's the best Kaiju game ever made (though I haven't played the PS4 godzilla game, which seems awesome as a sort of Godzilla sim: it looks like it NAILS the tone of the Toho films and seems like it does the sense of scale better then the plpeworks titles) and with more fleshed out destruction and combat and higher fidelity, that alone I feel like could make it a legitmately amazing game. You criticize the story mode and lack of content but honestly I feel like the unlocks offer a lot already, and while the story mode is short, it's challenging enough and has enough unique encounters that it's pretty fun.

[@CheapCreep]

I loved the robot's "Scorpion" special attack where you could harpoon an opponent and yank them towards you.

[@gizmonovack]

Or have a catch with projectiles

[@onceuponatimeonearth]

This game is AWESOME. Played the demo forever, throwing tanker trucks into buildings, then finally got the full game years later.

[@kadnhart6661]

Fun fact: There's an underrated BMX racing game called Downhill Domination, and if you play that with a War of the Monsters save on your memory card then the electric cyclops becomes available as a secret racer

[@PoyoPancakes]

I absolutely love this game. It had/has such an atmosphere to it. Something that kinda put you on edge and made you feel slightly uneasy almost as if the monsters were real. I wish there was a sequel.

[@sameoldsameold9239]

For me, it's easily still the best kaiju game to date and a shame it hasn't had many imitators.

[@gizmonovack]

It had one a year ago but it’s not good

[@gizmonovack]

Most Godzilla games aren’t that good either

[@Sanguivore]

One of my absolute favorite games as a child! ^-^ Everytime I'd have friends over, we'd spend hours and hours just getting into shenanigans in this game and we never got bored of it! :D

[@PapaPercules]

Wow. Used to play this game with my stepbrother. Fantastic memories, I miss him and that life so much

[@izizica]

Thank for covering this absolute gem of an often forgotten game

[@Crispman_777]

What a game! I still own this and was one of the first games I had in mind for my emulation library I've been building on my PC. I can't believe it's never had a reboot look in

[@bebeconor]

Never has a game been more deserving of a remaster. I remember renting War of the Monsters from Blockbuster as a kid and being completely enamoured with it. It was everything I wanted in a game as a child and to this day is still criminally overlooked.

[@schmiddi5768]

This game was the shit, I couldn't get enough of it as a kid. My friends would come over and we'd play for hours. Would love a spiritual successor to this, imagine how well you could pull this concept off with the power of a modern console

[@KobatheASMRbiker]

Such a damn guud game! Destructible environments always have a soft spot in my heart and I miss them days. And it was really impressive for its time. I highly recommend checking out Incogs other two games like Kinetica and Downhill Domination. Very underrated games.

[@Sanguivore]

Holy hell! Kinetica is the game I've been looking for literally since I was a child, but could never remember the name of or find any information on! Thank you SO much, dude!! :'D

[@DrSarcasmo]

My wife and I Loved this game! Hard to believe it's been 20 years since release. So nice to see someone else appreciate it's glory.

[@martymcfly1833]

I just stumbled upon this in the PlayStation store and got mega nostalgia. I bought It immediately. I played this game so much, played with each monster Multiple times. Good times.

[@souloftherisingsun8274]

What memories… I remember my dad had a PS2 demo disk (I think it was Jampack: Summer 2003) that was showing all of the upcoming releases and this was one of them. You only had the ape and the electric monster. It wasn’t until 2006 that I got this game, Downhill Domination, and Amplitude for my birthday. Man, what a blast! I remember doing lots of wacky stuff in this game, like timing the grab button to catch weapons being thrown at you, or using the offensive special attack from the electric monster on a downed enemy. For some reason it would make the enemy fly extremely high in the air! But nothing will ever top throwing enemies from buildings and just general chaos

[@SquareEyedJak]

Nice to finally see past the second boss. Only got there once, not for difficulty but just getting tired of the exhausting fights taking so long. Love the video mate!

[@oddheader]

For some reason your community post made me think you were covering Urban Yeti. As one of my favorite games as a kid, War of the Monsters was an awesome surprise!

[@richardvlasek2445]

i'm so glad that series like earth defense force exist to carry on the spirit of the early 2000s "watch giant monsters level an entire city block built entirely out of cardboard boxes" third person action game subgenre

[@daddyyu-gi-oh4330]

Love this game as a kid, and introduced it to my son who loves playing it

[@Smol-Ha-Chan]

I used to play this game with my kid next door. It was a good time. We play this game every weekend on old TV.

[@Godzillafanfreaks]

I have this game downloaded on my PS4. Still play it from time to time. Fun!

[@miecraftandmoregames]

i played the demo so many times as a kid. the electrib eyeball monster is so iconic.

[@NicholasTamachaski]

I spent the night my sister's house when I was little. My nephew is only 6 months younger than me. He rented this game and we played it all night. Since then, it's always been my favorite PS2 game. It was so much fun. I'd love if they remastered this game

[@LightningMelon]

The recent game, "Gigabash", pretty much hits the same vibe but modern. I've enjoyed playing that one with my buddies for sure! Worth checking out.

[@setsers1]

Awesome! Happy 20th Anniversary

[@GlazeonthewickeR]

Man I played soooo much of this as a kid. Thanks for covering it.

[@Ron__Solo]

Played this game with my little sister when I was like 9 or something. We played it again yesterday, I'm 27 now 😁

[@some-replies]

YESSS!! For years this game lived in my memories as "the kong vs Godzilla game". My cousin and I would play this game for hours on end back when it came out and I love it so much. For about 6 years misremembered the name and couldn't find it. Finally hit me one day and now ive got it running on an emulator. It feels so good

[@Godzillakuj94]

I didnt have a PS2 for awhile when I was younger so I'd always see the box art in my grocery/video rental store and immediately knew I needed to play it. Buddy of mine was nice enough to let us play at his place with his PS2 when I rented it. Such a good love letter!

[@chimaeraarts]

Awesome video! Also shoutouts to Gigabash! Its nice to see the game where Gigabash was inspired from

[@entorix4763]

Just realized that the intro to this game has a cameo by 4 cars from Twisted Metal Black. Roadkill, Shadow, Crazy 8, and Yellow Jacket! Very neat!

[@SebaZavaK]

Hadn't heard of this one before! This should be interesting (as always). :)

[@darkwingdaffy1991]

Same bro

[@Feitlebaum420]

I still remember the day I bought this at a GameStop in the used bargain bin. I remembered renting it from Blockbuster or Hollywood Video several times. When I took the game to the counter the clerk said "wow! I didn't know we had this the whole time!" I really was happy that day.

[@ferenczpeter1592]

everytime you make a video of a game i have never heard of I get the itch to play it its the minimme magic

[@IAMXoX]

Oh, my. I remember playing this game with my siblings when we were kids. I had so much fun! I didn't remember the name at all until I watched this video. Anyway, great video, thanks for bringing back some memories from my childhood.

[@ItsGage]

Happy to see a video about this classic! Was literally just playing it the other night, brought back a lot of memories.

[@Boney_McBonerton]

I love this game even now as an adult, one of my favorite memories of this game is where I was playing Kineticlops and my older brother was playing Ultra-V on Club Coldera, he was low on health and running around the back of the volcano panicking because my electric orb projectiles were following him endlessly in a conga line of crackling doom!

[@OneSecretPerson]

The demo was so good and I adored Kineticlops' design so much that I wanted this full game so much. One of the things I was happiest to get from my parents.

[@sammccarthy7360]

Loved playing this on the ps2 when I was younger and now I have it on my ps4 to enjoy forever. One of my favourite fighting games

[@marcelruetters]

Used to play that game together with my dad. We had a local store where we could rent games. so every weekend my dad came home with a bunch of new games. but War of the Monsters was the one he always rent. So we played the whole weekend and it was so amazing. Haven't played it for some years, i think it's about time!

[@breadpanda8429]

I actually still have War of the Monsters in my PS2 game collection... good times...

[@BugsyFoga]

Truly the greatest kaju fighting simulator.

[@NickCowell]

Absolute banger of a game, so glad to see it getting it's due

[@masam9700]

War of the monsters was one of the first PS2 games i've ever played, it will always have a special place in my heart when it comes to ps2 games

[@bendman336]

My heart sank when I saw this thumbnail, I TOTALLY forgot about this game!!!!

[@fconstraints]

Dude! That same demo disc from Play Station magazine is how I experienced this game. I only ever got to play the demo, not the full game, but I played it ENDLESSLY.

[@spartansfan1026]

Played loads of this game, as it was my first PS2 game. I could play with just about anyone because the retro style and homages to classic movies made everyone I know at least want to give it a try. My mom bought it for me along with the console at a garage sale back in 2004. She didn't know, but the seller accidentally left a Blockbuster copy of GTA: San Andreas in the console. Being only 10 at the time, I made sure to play that one after everyone had gone to bed!

[@animezilla4486]

What was your favorite monster

[@spartansfan1026]

@@animezilla4486 I liked to play as Ultra V

[@animezilla4486]

@@spartansfan1026 oh that's cool mine is Togera

[@Rozza2k]

I loved this game, still can't believe it didn't get a few sequels

[@Robster881]

Absolute hidden gem, I was so hyped for this game and was in store on release day to grab my copy as a pre-teen.

[@MickZarco]

An online multiplayer with giant monsters would be so great. They could even release content almost regularly.

[@MarvinNeumannOfficial]

I regret never owning the game. But I cherish the fact that me and my brother always played the demo on the official demo disc. One Level. Just a handful of monsters to choose from. But we had the fun of our lives.

[@jasonfoth14]

I loved this game so much! thank you very much. I have many fond memories of playing this when I was 9 years old. I used to go play at my neighbour's house, great 2 player fun was had.

[@TheTwistedTraceur]

oh that game, so much fun, i used to play it so much, forget about it, remember after 2 years and played again, rinse and repeat. it gave me many great memories

[@jetfire245]

This was my childhood game. Miss it so much.

[@GearShotgun]

My sister and I used to love this game. I still have it and the memory card with my old save with everything unlocked. Everything except for the Sweet Tooth skin, because I didnt know you needed a save of Twisted Metal to get it.

[@UltraGalaxyify]

This game is in my top 3 favorite PS2 games of all time. My fondest memories are when I was in middle school and visit my mother for the summer, playing with my friend. We lived in the same apartment complex, with him being right below me, and I'd spend hours at his place playing this game, Robotech: Battlecry, and Zone of the Enders. My top picks were usually Togera, Ultra V, and Raptros, whereas he'd prefer Raptros, Preytor, and Congar, and we'd either play against the CPU, or when it's just us we'd just DEMOLISH the city for funsies. Hell, this one time, another of his friends come over with(I think) Dragon Ball Z: Budokai(forgot which one), and we'd game on it for a bit, then he caught sight of the games I got, and he'd never seen War of the Monsters before. We booted that up on the PS2 and Budokai was almost forgotten about for roughly an hour and a half, as this guy was enraptured by the large-scale environments and just how destructible everything was.

[@jimmyjimjims7483]

One of the BEST games ever for the ps2, I played it for hours with my friend back in 2003. I actually still have it to this day (and my old fat ps2). When its a nasty day out or I have the day off I'll turn it on and play for a bit until I get to the canyon level and become irritated lol

[@LegEmJohn]

Purely legendary sleeper hit here! They were going the fuck off around this period of time, all of their games were fantastic.

[@nicks4802]

The first time i played this game was at a friends house in 2002, he rented it for the weekend and called me over to come try it out. I INSTANTLY fell in love with this game. From the moment my friend told me you could fly as preytor, something just clicked. I wasn’t able to get a copy of it until what felt like years laters (it was only 3 years, but it felt like a decade…. The PS3 was on the horizon at this point) until i spotted it at a Blockbuster, used, for $10. I ran home as fast as i could, and i begged and begged and begged my parents for JUST $10. I probably mentioned how badly i wanted to own this game at every chance i could, for about 3 weeks, And one day my mom picked it up on her way home from work one day. It was that game that after i played it, it sat at the front if my mind every time i went to a shop to look at what games they had. Like it was GTA San Andreas or something, I always asked if they had a copy, and i was always told no/never heard of it But that one time i saw it, I did everything in my power (as little as i had as a 10 year old boy) to make sure that the 1 copy i saw in the wild would be mine. Its one of those “being determined payed off” stories. You’ve gotta want something REALLY bad sometimes, in order for you to make it happen. I’d have climbed my way out of hell for a copy of this game back then. My love for this game, and the part of my childhood that it made into such a great time…. Puts a lump in my throat 🥲 they really don’t make anything this cool or special anymore. This WAS my chase game. The one i almost couldn’t get, and when i finally did…. You bet your bottom dollar, i DID wake up at 5AM the next morning so i could play it for 3 hours before school that day. P.S. i WAS that kid who loved to bash action figures together. Ninja turtles and spider-man lol

[@pmgmsd]

Thanks for covering this!

[@RWSCOTT]

thanks for the nostalgia! I remember it well. really fun little game w/lovably chonky aesthetics, good times. Another game from that era that had full freedom of movement and a similar living world feel was Battle Engine Aquila. Unlike most shooters that used war as a backdrop, Aquila was the first I can remember that used RTS mechanics & made you feel like you were *part* of a campaign that was directly affected by your actions. If you missed that one (and most did) I recommend it.

[@thomasmoller1210]

My winter soldier programming kicks in whenever someone brings up this game

[@michaelince7998]

Very well put together video. Thank you

[@gojibear68]

Dude we need a War of the Monsters 2 in 2025, this game was way ahead of its time and GVK is hot rn it’s a good time to make a sequel

[@fakeplastictree1000]

Was just talking about this game with my brother, great retrospective.

[@SquiidGravy]

After catching your stream the other night it got me to give this game another run though. It really was something special honestly I would love to see this given a modern remake. Thanks for the daily dose of nostalgia as per usual and great vid!

[@Icewallowcome012]

What a gem this game is! In todays age a sequel to this would most likely be lackluster and lazily made but man did I wish this game had a sequel back then it was just really fun

[@wetfeathers9971]

I haven't thought about this game I'm 20 years, me and my cousin, who had a PS2 at a time, played it all the time, I thought it was a fever dream.

[@tylarusch2882]

Man this is such a blast from the past! It's that game you remember playing with old friends growing up.

[@HillsideVids]

This game was a blast to play with friends back in the day.

[@MyNameIzMittens]

One of my childhood favorites. This need a remake!

[@PSXman9]

i remember playing this game with friends for hundreds of hours when my dad randomly bought it for me when he was in a store.

[@San_CD]

I was born in the mid 2000's and for a first game to practically ever play I do miss it I still have my PS2 slim with the working cables

[@ghostpants3770]

This game was legitemately awesome

[@ShupperDupper]

Great video, thanks for bringing back some fond memories of gaming with buds.

[@brandonp7503]

My experience was similar. "Wow, this is AWESOME!"... "Wow, this... isn't great."

[@johnkapwn]

I played this game on a Jampack soooo much as a kid, I loved it.

[@zmokolo]

This and seek and destroy were my childhood. Aways love your vids, just a big nostalgic high for me. All we need now is a video on seek and destroy.

[@entorix4763]

I recently replayed Seek and Destroy. Such a nostalgia trip!

[@spechti2045]

all friends of mine instantly liked it. its the type of game you get recommended by a friend, same,for me.

[@xMadDonaldx]

I loved this game so much growing up, played it with my sister for endless hours and never even beat the game

[@Caluma122]

What a game! They absolutely nailed this game! So much fun. Me and my friend just used to total the city. Some of the levels had many levels of destruction was great!

[@adnvdn]

I loved WotM! When I realized it was on sale on PS Store I bought it instantly and caught a nostalgic trip to my childhood. We really need a remake or a sequel for this. It's so much fun.

[@adnvdn]

This, and also Downhill Domination

[@jacobwilliams2246]

Blast from the past. Thanks for this!

[@dangerbuoy]

Always wanted to play this game when I was younger! Great choice for a video!