Monsters Menace America review

Huge monsters, robotic defenders of earth, massive destruction and... wrestling moves? Monsterpocalypse takes a page from every giant monster movie ever made and hands you the power to control twelve beasts and their followers in a battle to save or destroy the planet! It also adds a dose of goofy fun by mixing headbutts, wrestling throws and more into the game. Here's the scoop with our Monsterpocalypse game preview.

The story of Monsterpocalypse is that six different groups, with two massive monsters per group, have risen up. Here they are.

• G.U.A.R.D. - The protectors of humanity pilot massive mechs in battle.
• Terrasaurs - These huge eco-friendly dinosaurs destroy factories and love hippies!
• Lords of Cthul - Summoned from the depths of ick by crazy cultists, these horrible creatures just want to destroy.
• Planet Eaters - Slamming into Earth from space, these flesh-and-metal monsters want to crush everything in sight!
• The Martian Menace - Mars is out of food so they're coming to Earth - to wipe us out and take it!
• Shadow Sun Syndicate - High-tech Japanese cyborg/ninja/power ranger warriors. They fight to save humanity, or do they?...
• Monsterpocalypse comes in a starter box that gets you the instructions, dice, maps, two monsters, their powered-up forms, four small minions and two buildings. You can get more monsters with booster packs - Monster Packs with a giant beast and it's powered-up form, or Unit Packs with four units. Each pack also gives you a building so you can make bigger cities to destroy! Not only can you get the Monsterpocalypse figures, there's a comic book series too. The premiere issue #0 is only available at game conventions, but you can get issues one to three from stores. And, if you get all three issues, you can mail in the receipts for a free Mega Sky Sentinel figure!

Once the city is ready and you have your monster and some minions ready to rock, it's time to destroy! Players take turns activating monsters, then units, then monsters again - back and forth. Minions respawn if they get stomped so you never run out, but Monsters get to use Power Dice! You earn Power Dice for smashin' stuff, or defending it, and your massive monsters can use those to power up attacks from basic slams to laser blasts and wicked throws, body slams, fierce rampages and more! Each hit damages the giant monsters and the first one to get KO'd loses. Tons of destruction, huge monsters, crazy wrestling moves and a side order of cheesy fun makes Monsterpocalypse look like a lot of fun. First-timers can play a simple mode that ignores all the weird powers, but when you're ready for a serious rumble you can add them in to give the game a heap of strategy as well as pure chaos. It's a lot of fun and the monsters look awesome - stay tuned for our full game review when Monsterpocalypse slams its way into stores this November!