Monster Bash HD
released on Oct 29, 2021
A remaster of Monster Bash
Apogee's bash'em and smash'em adventure plunges Johnny Dash into the evil Underworld of Count Chuck, when his dog Tex is kidnapped by Count Chuck along with hundreds of other dogs & cats! Guide Johnny through the Count's gruesome schemes, rescue all the pets, and end this nightmare once and for all!
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Saw the trailer for this and got so hyped for the epic remix of the main theme... then said music never appeared in the game. T_T
This HD update is pretty strong. I always felt the EGA colour palette was kind of gross so updating Monster Bash's graphics makes the visuals very definitive. The audio is left alone, which is good since the music and SFX were always pretty good.
This HD remake changes up how you approach the game's campaigns. Instead of going through each episode in a string, taking with you the amount of lives you have from one level to the next, you instead select the level from the menu and lives are infinite. I miss the lives system and the stakes of having to survive a whole episode. Plus, the removal of a lives system renders the Johnny pickups as more points to collect in a game with already a lot of collectibles. The switch up, though, was probably the right idea.
The inclusion of the level editor and Steam workshop support is pretty neat. It has a lot of features too although I haven't dabbled too deeply into it.
This HD remake changes up how you approach the game's campaigns. Instead of going through each episode in a string, taking with you the amount of lives you have from one level to the next, you instead select the level from the menu and lives are infinite. I miss the lives system and the stakes of having to survive a whole episode. Plus, the removal of a lives system renders the Johnny pickups as more points to collect in a game with already a lot of collectibles. The switch up, though, was probably the right idea.
The inclusion of the level editor and Steam workshop support is pretty neat. It has a lot of features too although I haven't dabbled too deeply into it.
Gotta say, I'm pretty impressed with this. I can't help but approach every one of these remasters (especially PC ones) with extreme trepidation, given how many of them have gone wrong, but there is a lot of genuine care and well-thought-through enhancements here that actually, no BS, make the original game better.
Even the graphical upgrade - which in a pixel-art game I'm especially touchy about - is quite tasteful. Basically, they touched up the color levels, added some great parallax scrolling backgrounds, and created some minor new effects that I had to double-check weren't in the original. Nothing stands out as out of place or too modern, and I am truly impressed by the restraint and consideration.
From a gameplay perspective, everything feels exactly the same as it did in '93, and that's definitely preferred. There are a bunch of new bells and whistles like achievements, level checklists, an extra difficulty level, etc., but it feels appropriately additive. They've also done away with limited lives and instead tied deaths in with your score and the extra-life collectibles in with level completion goals. Smart! (Take notes Nintendo/Mario!) And finally there's also a robust and user-friendly level editor that seems very high-effort in its implementation. Not usually my thing, but I feel like I should fiddle around with a bit just to respect the work they put in.
The game itself is still a slice of goofy fun. A solid meat-and-potatoes platformer with great art, a consistent goopy, gross-out (yet playful and charming) Halloween theme, and a novel combat mechanic. The movement and jumping recalls fellow Apogee-kid-hero series COMMANDER KEEN, with lots of momentum management and a bit of pre-planning to do on your jumps, but you get used to it, and the fun slingshot weapon with which you can freely multi-direction aim and ricochet shots and experiment with your unlimited ammo makes up for that, I think.
I was a big fan back in the day, and I still am, but playing all the way through it once again with a more critical eye reveals that it's a minor victim of that old Shareware problem where the first episode is by far the best. Unlike some contemporaries, the problem isn't that there's nothing new to see in the other chapters - there are actually tons of new assets and level design concepts - but rather that they aren't nearly as good. Level design specifically falls off a cliff more and more as you progress, and the late game has some instant-death frustration and irritating puzzle-y stuff that stops the momentum (and the fun) dead.
This is still a bit of a hidden gem for '90s platformer fans and this remaster is so well done I feel like it should be an example for other teams trying to do similar stuff. Bravo.
Even the graphical upgrade - which in a pixel-art game I'm especially touchy about - is quite tasteful. Basically, they touched up the color levels, added some great parallax scrolling backgrounds, and created some minor new effects that I had to double-check weren't in the original. Nothing stands out as out of place or too modern, and I am truly impressed by the restraint and consideration.
From a gameplay perspective, everything feels exactly the same as it did in '93, and that's definitely preferred. There are a bunch of new bells and whistles like achievements, level checklists, an extra difficulty level, etc., but it feels appropriately additive. They've also done away with limited lives and instead tied deaths in with your score and the extra-life collectibles in with level completion goals. Smart! (Take notes Nintendo/Mario!) And finally there's also a robust and user-friendly level editor that seems very high-effort in its implementation. Not usually my thing, but I feel like I should fiddle around with a bit just to respect the work they put in.
The game itself is still a slice of goofy fun. A solid meat-and-potatoes platformer with great art, a consistent goopy, gross-out (yet playful and charming) Halloween theme, and a novel combat mechanic. The movement and jumping recalls fellow Apogee-kid-hero series COMMANDER KEEN, with lots of momentum management and a bit of pre-planning to do on your jumps, but you get used to it, and the fun slingshot weapon with which you can freely multi-direction aim and ricochet shots and experiment with your unlimited ammo makes up for that, I think.
I was a big fan back in the day, and I still am, but playing all the way through it once again with a more critical eye reveals that it's a minor victim of that old Shareware problem where the first episode is by far the best. Unlike some contemporaries, the problem isn't that there's nothing new to see in the other chapters - there are actually tons of new assets and level design concepts - but rather that they aren't nearly as good. Level design specifically falls off a cliff more and more as you progress, and the late game has some instant-death frustration and irritating puzzle-y stuff that stops the momentum (and the fun) dead.
This is still a bit of a hidden gem for '90s platformer fans and this remaster is so well done I feel like it should be an example for other teams trying to do similar stuff. Bravo.