Monster Madness tries to take an old school concept and bring it to 3D, but the result is something of a mixed bag.
Yes and no. I've never been a graphics-crazy person (I value substance above style) but this game certainly doesn't stretch the Unreal 3 engine's muscles; this makes me wonder exactly why the game runs so poorly compared to more recent (and much more visually compelling) games like Oblivion. Monster Madness tries to take an old school concept and bring it to 3D, but the result is something of a mixed bag.
Story: It's your standard kids vs. the forces of evil scenario; we've seen it in movies like Monster Squad and The Faculty, we've even played it in games like Zombies Ate My Neighbors -- a game Monster Madness borrows extremely liberally from, but not without admitting it. One of the main problems with the story is that they couldn't seem to focus on one concept and decided to throw every kind of monster ever conceived into one game and the result makes you feel like they were trying too hard. The four characters: Zack, Carrie, Andy, and Jennifer are extreme stereotypes of the nerd, the wacko goth chick, the cool skater dude and the preppy stuck up babe. Aside from their random quips, however, they all play alike.
Graphics: The graphics are suitable with a top-down approach to gameplay. You can opt for bloom and post-processing effects, though they only seem to make everything fuzzy whether there's sunlight or not.
Gameplay: The objective of each level is basically to make your way through it, collecting a multitude of parts for Larry Tools to make better weaponry and fighting weird bosses, like a group of pirate ships or a grandma with killer cats. Jumping is a real chore because you really can't jump high enough for it to feel useful and you instead spend time stacking up boxes and other items to get parts -- or else you just leave them there and move on. At any point (other than monster madness mode) you can press a key to switch the camera to fixed mode so you can rotate your character around to attack enemies coming from all sides. While this feature is nice at times it is also a pain since the game tends to slow down when large number of zombies are on screen and it affects your ability to rotate. Aiming is also a bit more difficult in this mode. The four characters play exactly the same, so don't expect Andy to be able to jump higher or Jennifer to run faster. Some variation here aside from their looks would have made sense. Later on you can drive vehicles, though for the most part they are only useful if you co-op play.
Sound: The music is campy and appropriate and the theme tune is catchy without being annoying. The character voices are appropriate and their comments are sometimes amusing depending on who you use.
Overall: Monster Madness borrows liberally from Zombies Ate My Neighbors as well as from horror culture, and its not without flaws. The graphics aren't quite up to current gaming standards (and I mention this for the simple fact that the performance is somewhat poor compared to much better looking games), the story is hackneyed and the characters are wholly unoriginal. There is an enjoyable game here, however, especially for die hard horror/comedy fans or fans of games like Zombies Ate My Neighbors as long as you don't expect too much.