Video Game / King of the Monsters

A game series created by SNK in which you can duke it out with gigantic monsters, hence its title. You can also bash buildings and other obstacles for power ups and health. The game play has a 2½D style of controls in which players can stroll up and down the arena as well as the basic forward and backwards.

The series only consists of two games. The first one is available for the Neo Geo, Sega Genesis and SNES which has a wrestling game complete with energy "ropes", in which the goal is to pin down your opponent for a three count. Tanks, helicopters, and maser cannons also periodically attacked during the matches.

The second game was available for the Neo Geo, SNES and Genesis. The game play of the first two is a side scrolling, cooperative Beat 'em Up while the Genesis version featured a tournament like fighting game in which you must defeat every monster in the game one by one in order to reach the boss at the end, YOURSELF.

The first game features six characters:

• Geon: A giant dinosaur (no monster brawler is complete without a giant reptile of some sort)
• Woo: King Kong's cousin
• Poison Ghost: A monster covered in toxic waste
• Rocky: A giant golem
• Astro Guy: A giant humanoid superhero
• Beetle Mania: A large beetle-like creature, suggested to be an alien.

Woo and Poison Ghost aren't in the SNES and Genesis ports. Additionally, Poison Ghost, Rocky, and Beetle Mania are not in the sequel — the remaining three are now powered-up versions of themselves, joined by the new boss characters for a total of 10 playable monsters. The listed names are from the US/European version, with the names from the Japanese version in parentheses.

• Aqua Slug (Sack Eyes): A giant slug who is nigh-invulnerable while withdrawn into its shell.
• Eiffelyte (Horn du Out): A giant human with an orange blob attached to his head.
• Huge Frogger (Huge Keal): A giant space-helmet-wearing humanoid frog-like creature. Underneath its helmet is actually a fish's head.
• Claw Head (Yam a Mordon): A large green monster with two heads that has a big horn on each. It also has large mouth on its belly and uses its arms to walk.
• Lavicus (Eat Wow): A blue monster with a big severed mouth and a small serpentine body. it has bat like wings on the back of its head, an odd tube with sharp teeth on his forehead, three eyes and long skinny arms. It also has a large eyeball inside his severed mouth.
• Beetle Master (Kili Kili): A large scorpion monster with four legs, an eye on his belly and a sideways mouth between his legs. His brain also shows but it's protected by a helmet.
• Famardy (King Famardy): A gigantic green blob with four eyes, lots of teeth and an orange head sticking out of its mouth. It also has arms sticking out of its midsection. He is not playable in the Genesis version.

Returning Characters:

• Atomic Guy: A powered up version of Astro Guy
• Super Geon: A mutated spiky form of the previous Geon.
• Cyber Woo: Behold, a giant robot King Kong!

These three are the heroes of the series. In terms of crossover appearences, Cyber Woo would appear as a playable character in NeoGeo Battle Coliseum while Atomic Guy would become a transformation for Original Generation character Yuki in the same game.

Despite the name, this has no direct relation to Godzilla: King of the Monsters! or anything else in the Godzilla franchise (aside from a Not Zilla and a few other Expy characters). Also not to be confused with War of the Monsters, which shares similar themes.

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This series provides examples of:

• Acrofatic: King Famardy might be the most triumphant example in all of fiction: he weighs well over half a million TONS^note 655,035 tons, according to the ending credits, yet he can jump around just as easily as the player characters.
• Balloon Belly: Aqua Slug can turn its foes into parade balloons by blowing odd glops of goop at them. Strangely, the victim does not pop. They would just appear back to their normal size and fall down.
• Behemoth Battle: The game's basic premise
• Body Horror: Pretty much all of the characters.
• Boss Game: The sequel.
• Captain Ersatz: Nearly everyone. There's also an upside-down monster mook with two whips for tails, looking a lot like Twin Tail.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: The computer-controlled monsters have all the advantages. You get one free "power struggle" and then can forget about winning any more against that opponent.
• Continue Countdown: The second game has a countdown over a black backdrop framed with massive teeth at the top. When the timer hits 0, the camera pans up to reveal that the teeth belong to Famardy staring you down in a rather creepy fashion.
• Crossover: Cyber Woo made the cut for NeoGeo Battle Coliseum. Also, Atomic Guy can be summoned in one of Yuki's special attacks.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: The human who Eiffelyte uses gets blown into bloody pieces in the NeoGeo version after defeated, leaving only the head.
• Deadline News: The ending of the first game has a news presenter report on the player monster's rampage — before it attacks the radio station he's in.
  Reporter: The survivor is [Victorious Monster]. There is no way to stop this monster. What should we do? [Victorious Monster] is devastating all of Tokyo. It's only a matter of time before it attacks the radio station. Oh no! It's coming! Take cover immediatelyOHNO—!
• Destructive Saviour: The "good" ending of the sequel has the monsters successfully destroying the alien invaders, but in the process, they've wrecked so much of the world that it would take the surviving humans 800 years to rebuild.
• Divergent Character Evolution: The six monsters in the first game had the same movelist, with the only difference being what their projectile attack is and how they did certain moves. The three returning characters in the sequel have much more unique normals and specials, but reduced wrestling moves.
• Easy Levels, Hard Bosses: Applies to the second KOTM game. And how.
• Eldritch Abomination: Famardy, plus several of the weirder monsters such as Lavicus. Many of the disembodied heads and eyes that serve as minor mooks might also qualify.
  • Speaking of Famardy, if there's still any doubts about him, check out the Game Over screen of the second game◊. Yep, that's him. Good luck sleeping tonight.
• Excuse Plot: In the first game, a group of random giant monsters apparently just decided to beat each other up. In the second game it's a random alien invasion.
• Gory Discretion Shot: The first game's ending quickly cuts off just as the presenter is crushed by rubble from the ceiling.
• Kaiju: A Japanese game about giant monsters having wrestling matches in major cites. It definitely ticks all the boxes.
• King Kong Copy: Woo is a giant gorilla monster who fights other giant monsters.
• Large and in Charge: Even considering all the characters are kaiju, Famardy is still larger than them all, and is one of the largest characters to ever appear in a fighting game. In fact, he is so large that he can swallow the Player Character whole, which is a One-Hit Kill.
• Mirror Boss: How awesome is it to fight your clone?
• Nintendo Hard: Neither game is exactly easy, but the original Neo Geo version of the sequel is perhaps one of the most brutal, unrelenting and merciless quarter-munchers ever made. Gaming Hell sums it ups pretty well.
• Notzilla: Geon/Super Geon is the resident Godzilla Expy, being a big, fire-breathing mutant dinosaur.
• Player Versus Player: A possible mode in both games, and a highlight.
• SNK Boss: Well, the games were created by SNK.
• Reformulated Game: The Genesis version of KOTM 2 changed it to a more traditional 1-on-1 fighting game, removed all pre-boss fight scrolling sections, and all bosses besides Famardy are now playable.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Oh, yes, lots off it. Buildings are destroyed and explode as you fight in the cities.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: In the second game all of level 5 takes place underwater. Atomic Guy, Super Geon, and Cyber Woo can apparently swim underwater without any need for oxygen.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: Astro Guy's theme is very evocative of Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone".
• Ultraman Copy: Astro Guy is a human(oid) character with a red-and-blue costume, a helmet crest, and yellow goggles that evoke Ultraman's appearance. Fitting, as many of the other playable characters that he can fight are expies of famous Kaiju.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Astro Guy was a brilliant scientist until the experiment that transformed him. Now his intellect is fading, replaced by his now-monstrous instincts. As Atomic Guy, he has nothing left but an overpowering hunger for nuclear energy.
• Wrestler in All of Us:
  • In the first KOTM game, it's pretty much every character with piledrivers, suplexes, and dropkicks (especially with Astro Guy).
    • Also worth noting that you win matches in the first game by pinning your opponent for the 1-2-3.
  • In the second game, it's just Atomic Guy. Again, suplexes and dropkicks.

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