Approximate Release Date: October 1, 1992
Genre: Wrestling
Developer: SNK
Publisher: Takara

I hate wrestling games. King of the Monsters is basically a wrestling game.

As I said in my WWF Super WrestleMania article, stiff controls ruin these games for me. And every wrestling game has this exact problem, including King of the Monsters. When I order my Godzilla-ripoff dinosaur guy to swing his tail it should feel impressive and like there’s force to it. It needs to feel like a 100-foot monster is putting its full power behind the attack, not like a man in a rubber suit is doing a quick twirl and hoping movie magic makes up the difference. Guess which side King of the Monsters falls on?

Maybe the people-in-costumes effect isn’t all bad, because the game nails the monster-movie look. It’s fun to watch the city gradually get destroyed as the fight goes on. Knocking your opponent into a building and flattening it doesn’t get old. Neither does watching the human military send tiny, ineffectual helicopters to tickle the hulking monstrosities destroying the city. The four monsters even have neat designs, aping the “real” monsters everyone is familiar with.

But why do the monsters have to pin each other to win? I don’t remember that ever happening in the movies. That’s the moment King of the Monsters falls apart. Giant monsters have to be pinned to a three-count. What an awful decision. I assume SNK just skinned an already existing Japanese wrestling game to have destructible buildings and power-ups, with electri

…

I can’t keep writing about this game. Pinning?! Really, King of the Monsters!? Such a great idea squandered by turning it into a terrible wrestling game. Just stop making wrestling games, video game industry! Not one has ever been good! Not even those Nintendo 64 ones.

What a waste.

Later today: The Super Nintendo’s first real basketball game is here with NCAA Basketball!

Title screen

Main menu

Monster select

Stage 1

A Fauxzilla mirror match!

The ring, er, city, is lined by electric barriers that bounce you back into the action.

You spend a lot of time on the ground in King of the Monsters.

A headbutt

The military

Slamming an opponent reveals a power-up.

Ran out of time

Continue

Fauxzilla tosses Rockman

The Stag Beetle thing throws Fauxzilla

Ugh, pinning.

Every monster has a beam attack. This is Fauxltraman’s.