More On: E3 2008

On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to spend an hour with Eidos and take a look at two of their upcoming titles, the first of which was Monster Lab for the Wii. Monster Lab is a mixture of adventure and role-playing as you take on the role of an up and coming scientist. You are actually recruited by Professor Fuseless, a partially mad scientist who creates monsters from various parts. He is one of four primary characters that you will come across during your time playing Monster Lab. Of the other three that you will encounter along the way, two of them will be of help to you as you will learn their specialty in science. The third is the final boss, whom you must defeat. He is not easy, as he is a master of all three specialties and, therefore, is completely insane.

Battles are completely turn-based, just like your normal RPGs. What makes this unique from other turn-based battle games is that you not only have your life to worry about, but you only have a certain amount of power to pull off attacks. So, for example, I may have full energy on my monster, but I only have 15 battery power left, which leaves me no power to pull off an attack. At that point, I can choose to do two things. I can both fully recharge and leave myself open to attack, or I can choose to dodge, which gives me some battery power but protects me from attacks better. It’s an interesting twist on the battle system that I like. On top of that, you will find that Monster Lab is unique with battle as you target extremities in hopes of knocking them off of your opponent. The goal is to either knock all limbs off of your enemy or completely destroy his torso. This will come into play with the strategy of your battles very much.

On the flip side, the game seems to be very linear. While I thoroughly enjoyed the battle system, I was a little disappointed in the fact that the map that you travel along is basically on a waypoint system. So, instead of free roaming an area, you are running on a set path from one point to another and so on. With the style of the game, it makes sense to use this system, but nevertheless, I think it takes away from the overall experience.

To build your monsters, you will acquire parts as you traverse through the game, either by earning them from winning battles or participating in environmental side games. The more parts you acquire, the better the monsters are that you can build. Besides that, there is also a field repair mini-game that takes about twenty to thirty seconds that will allow you to repair your monster after battles.

Monster Lab is slated for a release right around Halloween.